Bee Brush

What Is a Bee Brush?

A bee brush is a simple tool. It most often features a wooden handle and soft nylon bristles (you may find one with natural bristles too). These soft bristles are used to coax (or bump) bees off frames of comb, or hive parts in a gentle manner.

The idea is to direct the bees away from your work surfaces. You need to be able to see into the wax cells in order to efficiently manage your hives.

How to Use It

The best way to use a bee brush is to gently sweep the bristles across the surface with a slight flicking action. The honey bees are dislodged from the comb and can be directed back into the hive.

Slow smooth motions are important to avoid agitating the colony. It takes time to learn a good technique for brushing bees. And from personal experience, I will say that my honey bees tend to not like the brush.

This is why I try to avoid using a bee brush on frames of comb containing numerous bees during frame inspections. I use a gentle shake or a little smoke first.

However, once the majority of bees are removed from a surface (comb or hive box) – the brush is very handy to flick off the remaining stragglers.

If your bees become too irritable during brush use, it is time to use your bee smoker – smoke helps calm honey bees and redirect their attention.

Why Some Beekeepers Use Beekeeping Brushes

The goal of this tool is to remove bees without causing them harm. Once you perfect your technique – this is an achievable goal.

Beekeeping brushes can be used in many situations but one of the most popular applications is when you are harvesting honey.

It is a quick, easy way to achieve a bee-less frame or hive box without the use of smoke or chemicals.

Arguments Against Them

Not everyone is a big fan of beekeeping brushes. Some beekeepers argue that using brushes just irritates bees and causes them to be defensive.

I cannot argue with this idea. It is not unusual to see bees attempting to sting the bristles. That is not the sign of a happy honey bee.

Perhaps, you are interested in natural beekeeping and being more in harmony with nature. You might choose a more natural alternative.

Feathers or even leaves from a tree branch can be used to gently direct the bees. It is believed that the softer textures are more appealing or at least less disruptive to the colony.

In some cases, beekeepers simply wait for bees to move naturally. While this may be a good approach when inspecting brood frames, it could lead to having the hive open longer than is wise.

My Perspective on Bee Brushes

I have and use bee brushes when I need to – mostly when taking frames of honey from the hive. After using other methods to remove most of the bees from the honey super, I remove each frame separately and gently brush any remaining bees off.

In some cases, I find a brush to be very useful when encouraging a honey bee swarm to move on into a swarm trap or hive.

This can be very advantageous when a thunderstorm is coming over the mountain or it is getting dark. No harm in gently easing things along.

These tools are not expensive and will last for years (or until you lose them). For the majority of new beekeepers, I recommend having one. There is a reason they are included in almost every beekeeping starter kit you see for sale.