Hive Tool

[Sundance]

This will sound crazy but............. If you have a self
cleaning oven...... Put your tools in there the next time
you clean the oven. They are like new and completely
sterilized.

[Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary]

Hey! Never thought of that. I'll have to try that sometime!

-Nathanael

[SL Tx]

I just jab my hive tool in the soil to clean off the crud.

[beegee]

You mean you're not supposed to lick it clean?

I keep an ammo can full of hive tools(8-10...I find the best way to find a lost hive tool is to buy a new one...then the old one turns up), so I can either scrape the dirty one or exchange it for a clean one.

[Michael Bush]

>just scrape it with another hive tool and keep working.

That's what I was going to say.

[iddee]

A few jabs in the sand or dirt and it's clean again

[nutso]

I just stick mine in the dishwasher when dirty. Gets spic and span every time. Sanitary too.

If there's a buildup of propolis on it, I scrape it off with another tool or on a brick before washing.

Works great.

[HVH]

I also use the smoker but the BBQ and hot air gun work as well. Some of my Buckfast bees made a lot of propolis so I had a tendency to wipe a little vasaline on my gloves and hive tool which reduced the amount of propolis that messed things up to a minimum. I've also used the dish washer as well as the solar wax melter. Xylene aslo works great for wax removal as does hot oil.

[Barry Digman]

I use a propane torch to light my smoker and I just run the tool through the flame enough to warm the wax and propolis and then wipe it off on newspaper.

[Damonh]

it is a good idea to wipe your hive tools off with 70% isopropyl alcohol in between hives so that if a hive has a microbial problem it does not cross contaminate to other hives. This also keeps your tools clean.