While the term bee brush may make you think of combing a cat or dog we promise we’re not suggesting that you clean off your bees with a tiny brush. Frankly they’re likely covered in pollen and would prefer to keep it that way and besides, you have better things to do than brushing thousands of bees!
But what we are talking about is a helpful tool that can make harvesting and sometimes even doing inspections a bit easier.
If you’ve ever done a hive inspection you know that there are times when you’d like to see something but the bees are covering the area. Sometimes a little breath of air will move them away and sometimes you can use smoke but another option can be the bee brush.
This tool is simply used to brush bees off of equipment (or you!) without causing them harm.
During times of harvest the tool can be extremely useful for getting the last few bees off of a frame of honey. And of course if you’re using a drone frame to deal with varroa mites you can use the bee brush to get the bees off the frame before you take it inside to freeze it.
While bee brushes aren’t an ideal tool for moving large sums of bees quickly and efficiently, they can be a great tool for moving a few bees when they simply don’t want to budge.
Do you use a bee brush for something other than what we’ve mentioned here?
Photo by Jessica Dally
