Robusta® Hive tool with Wooden Handle

01 · THE TWO ENDS

One lifts, the other scrapes

The curved end is the one that goes between frame and box wall to break it free and lift it without forcing the timber or cracking the propolis all at once.

The flat end is for everything else: scraping wax and propolis off top bars, the floor and the box rims. They are two different movements, which is why the tool has two ends and not one.

02 · THE WOODEN HANDLE

Better grip with gloves on

Ten centimetres of wood give a grip that bare metal does not, above all with gloves on and hands sticky with honey.

And a summer detail: an all-metal tool left in the sun burns when you pick it up. Wood does not.

03 · WHERE IT LIVES

In the pocket, not on the roof

At 20 cm it fits the hive-tool pocket of the suit, which is exactly where it belongs. The habit of leaving it on the hive roof always ends the same way: it turns up three colonies further along, or it does not turn up.

At the end of the day scrape it and put it away dry; hardened propolis costs twice the effort the next morning.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

A short hive tool, the pocket kind: