Multipurpose J Hive tool

01 · EACH PART DOES ONE THING

It comes with no instructions, so here they are

The tool has three working areas and it is not obvious out of the bag. The flat edge is the one you will use most: it scrapes wax and propolis off supers, floors, crown boards and top bars, and slides between two supers glued with propolis to part them without damaging comb. The curved side tip is what hooks the frame by its lug where the hive tool finds no purchase. And the serrated edge is for working off stuck residue and cutting adhering wax where a smooth edge slips. At the end of the season the same piece cleans uncapping trays and the workshop bench.

02 · THE LENGTH

25 cm reaches the bottom and still fits a pocket

The length is not arbitrary: 25 cm reach the bottom of a loaded super without putting your hand in, and still go in a bee-suit pocket or the apiary box. Shorter falls short in deep boxes; longer gets in the way and levers where it should not. It weighs 147 g, just enough for a wrist to take a day of scraping.

03 · CLEANING

Dry it before storing and keep it away from steel tools

Stainless steel takes washing with water, detergent and caustic soda when you disinfect equipment between seasons, without passing any taste to the honey. But stainless does not mean immune: stored damp, or in the same box as carbon-steel tools, it can pick up surface rust spotting — that is iron particles stuck to it, not the piece corroding, and it comes off with a non-metallic scourer. Dry it when you finish and keep it away from the file and the nails.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It does not grip a frame with the force of a hooked hive tool, and it does not try to: for a heavily propolised frame you still need that other tool. It suits any hive format, because what it works on is wax and propolis, not a frame size.