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We have partnered with one of the best welders in Colorado, Betsy Bower of Betsy Inferno to bring you this hand-crafted extra durable hive tool.
An upgrade from our original design, this heavy duty hive tool can handle the pressure of beekeeping without bending over time.
Made with steel and finished with our own beeswax, this hive tool will last you many lifetimes.
See the difference
Above-our original hive tool-beautiful but malleable
Below-our updated, handmade hive tool-beautiful and sturdy
The traditional hive tool forces the beekeeper to put their hands (gloved or not) into the hive, and as you reuse gloves or go from hive to hive, you are bringing the scent from one hive into another. The extra length of the Artisan Hive Tool helps to keep your hands out of the hive, making sure you don't interrupt the flow of information that for bees, happens with pheromones.
Additionally, the delicate design allows you to do precision work inside the hive, cutting off pieces of comb, micro-herding, and minimizing the amount of destruction as you break apart wax and propolis out of necessity.
With the Artisan Hive Tool, you won't need multiple tools to pry open bars, break adhesions and sample pieces of comb.
My introduction to beekeeping began with the traditional handing down of what was considered to be the symbol of beekeepers-a smoker. I brought that smoker into my first hive, and I listened to what the bees had to say. With that first puff of smoke, I heard a hive-wide communal hissing. The bees were telling me very clearly that they were not happy about having smoke in their hives, and I knew that using a smoker was not going to be for me. I have since discovered that smoke completely masks the pheromones that bees use to communicate, halting their ability to share information for up to a week.
Even though I had given up on the idea of using a smoker in my hive, I still wanted to be able to carry on the tradition of passing something down, beekeeper to beekeeper.
A hive tool is something that a beekeeper will always need, and I wanted to create something that wasn't just useful, but beautiful. With this in mind I created the original BackYardHive tool, but after years of working with the product I knew it needed some reinforcement to last many lifetimes. Finally, with the help of Betsy's exceptional skills, we've been able to bring this product to life and to your family for generations to come.
Betsy Bower grew up in Casper, Wyoming around metal work and it was clear from a young age that she was a natural talent. You can find Betsy's work all over Wyoming, but lucky for us she has brought her skills out to Colorado. Possessing an amazing artistry and flair for seeing the natural world as inspiration, we knew Betsy would be the perfect fit to partner with BackyardHive and bring our improved hive tools to life.
Find out more at www.betsyinferno.com
This Artisan Hive Tool is versatile and the best choice for working your bee hive whether it is a top bar hive, Cathedral™, Langstroth, or Warre. An all-in-one sturdy hive tool makes it easy to remove combs and pry apart top bars when working with your hive. A beautiful art piece and the handiest asset to your hive tool kit, the sharpened end allows you to easily scrape off comb attachments for easy harvesting of combs. The artfully designed 'bee wing' handle is functional for prying frames and top bars loose from propolis seals the bees have created.
