Informal bee brush survey :)

Equipment
1

Hey Beekeepers,

I realise not everyone uses bee brushes, but for those of you who do, do you prefer to use a brush made with natural hair or synthetic? Why?

P.S. This question is really for people who DO use brushes, not so much for opinions on whether you use them or not - just to keep the thread tidy :slight_smile:

Thanks all! :honeybee:

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I used a horse hair brush which did the bees no harm as they flew straight back onto the frame. So now I use an Ozito battery powered blower and can quickly clear the frame long enough to get the frame into a bee proof box to take it for extraction.
Cheers

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Thanks for the quick response Peter - good to know your thoughts :slight_smile:

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4

I have a horse hair brush but do not use it. I shake frames to remove bees.

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5

I often use leafy branches from nearby trees, usually just to clear the top of the box before I put a super back on. I like my bee brush too, but don’t have it with me all the time. It has natural hair.
Trick is to just brush with the very tips of the hairs.
Like Peter, to properly clear my comb rounds frames of all bees, I use a blower. It blows the SHB out of all nooks and crannies as well. :+1:
For removing full honey frames, a few good shakes are sufficient.
I wash my brush after use in an apiary and wouldn’t use it in anybody else’s apiary.

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I also use a horse hair brush but only required very infrequently. A sharp shake of the frames couple of times removes the bees. The few bees left don’t cause me any problems.

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Sounds like you’ll all pretty much on the same page so far!
Thanks for your input @Peter48 @SouthEastScarp @Webclan @felmo