okay so with the polar vortex closing in around us here and we're in the single
digits all the Bees are buttoned up and what do I like to do this time of year I
like to review products and this week I came across this frame gripper called
the mule grip and it's really interesting because if you notice it has
these levers down at the bottom that compound your grip strength and has this
locking slide there are several versions of this available this is the largest
one and the one with this locking slide so that once you clamp it onto a frame
you can lock it and leave it there so and it's also a nice big handle there
this is something that you can wash down it is all stainless steel non-magnetic
so I'm thinking 300 series stainless here the grip handles are exactly five
inches long they're nicely ribbed you can hang on to them even if your hands get
sticky they're with honey and whatever and look at how this compounds your grip
for those who have problems gripping especially as they get into retirement
they're older and maybe they've got smarts right it's in their hands this is
going to be the frame grip that works the best
and it has a little notch there for the plastic frames and it's a deep set for
the wood frames and I'm going to go over some frame designs and styles later on
in this video here it is in a locked position and just takes a load off your
hands look at that loosen it up there's a spring that pulls it back open and
you're back in the open position so you can grab more frames I like this thing a
lot now I'm going to show you how it works we'll go over some dimensions of
course first is six inches tall as I've already said the handle is exactly five
inches long now we have different frame styles here all the way to the left it's
a black acorn frame and it has honeycomb on it
the second frame is that large oversized Flow frame that this clamp will not work
on so you're just going to go back to your hive tool there wooden frame
foundationless white plastic acorn frame black plastic and then the green which is
the drone frame we'll go over that too now these are frames that I carry around
with me because I teach about bees and I give presentations to preschoolers and
bee groups and things like that so this stuff has been in
the comb for a long time what we're looking at here all the way to the left
capped honey then we've got some granulated honey and
open cells and we've also got that amber colored stuff which is of course pollen
stored and you can see the granules here again this thing has been through lots
of freezing and thawing spells and it's been chewed away here by a mouse to top
it all off and lots of open cells but anyway I like the black frames because I
can do photography if it's a brood section I'll be able to see the eggs better you
will too so it's just a matter of color and I like acorn over Pierco now because
it doesn't flex or twist or bow and it comes heavy waxed now this of course
flow frame frame this is not what this videos about but I thought since it's here I'd
just show you a size comparison with the other frames flow frames are thicker
than any other bee frames on the end they have that clear plastic they have
those large cells that are designed to open and close to drain the honey but
this frame gripper is not going to work on this you're back to your hive tool
and I just wanted to show you what the comparison was now this is a wooden
frame this is foundationless there's no wires
going through it or anything else what I do is I just run a strip of wax along
the top bar and then let the bees draw it out themselves so I'll put an empty
frame in between two full frames and that way the bees will draw it out
easier we're looking at the unfinished bottom edge there and then you can see
on the sides here where they connect it with wax right to that wooden frame and
that stabilizes it as they go down ultimately if I hadn't pulled this one
out they would have just finished it off and
it would have connected all the way around with some breathing and passage
holes through it top right here nice and sealed concave that is capped honey you
can also again see remnants of pollen and you can also see how dark it is that
they have used this for brood and it's worker brood you don't see any the large
cells that are associated with drones on this so that's a wooden frame and this
gripper also works on that which I'll show in a minute now we're back to the
Acorn heavy waxed frames which my bees
really draw out fast and it's just white no difference between that and the
black one other than the color itself some people just like the look of
white frame and their hive they work and they're great and I love the Acorn
company because they offered three levels of waxing on the frames and more
wax it's on it the quicker the bees use it so again that would be for food or
brood now we have the green frame this is also by acorn it's also heavy waxed
why would we have a brood frame by itself
its distinctive it's green the cells are large and this is just for growing
drones drone cells are larger than regular brood and it'll be green so
it'll stand out you know which ones they are some people use this to pull out the
drones once they're capped and they're using that as a method of control for
varroa destructor because once the varroa are in the cells developing pupae then that
they stay in there and that's the time to get rid of them
i uncap them and i pull them out to look for varroa themselves now we're back to
a black acorn frame nothing but honey on this and most of its capped again a mouse
chewed the bottom there and this is a close-up look of how it's sealed up and
you can even see little beads of honey on the surface there again these frames
have been sitting around like this for years now and I just use them as
teaching tools but I thought it would be a great time to introduce them while I'm
testing out this frame puller you can see a little narrow opening there that's
for the plastic so all you do is line it up get that top back bar and one thing I
like about this look how the tips cut into the wax if you've ever been pulling
honey frames before sometimes you use your hive tool of course get in there
and when you cut into it with your hive tool your grip your fingers in there
inevitably the honey is going to drip out and leak all over the way this is it's
minimally interrupting the wax caps there and this is a honey frame so if
you're pulling that stuff I like this as a method now the other thing is there's
lots of frame pullers out there but this one actually compounds your grip
strength so I like it for that and I like it for the fact that it's not
leaking honey everywhere when it grips the frame and it's designed specifically
for the thickness of these plastic backs of these plastic frames and of course
there's again a locking nut there righty-tighty
lefty-loosey twist it to the right to Snug it and hold its position twist it
to the left to release it and open it again so you can do a lot of movement
here and once it's closed you can leave it on the frame and hang it somewhere
while you're doing your inspections or you can of course release it use it on
several other frames but this tool is very versatile
they come in several different designs I personally like this one the most
because it has the groove for plastic it also has the deep shoulders there for
the wooden frames so if you're organizing a hive pulling bees whatever
you're doing look how this thing fits right between the frames this is super
handy so I like it now let's go ahead I'm gonna show you now here's the wooden
frame and that wooden back now look at this because this
compound grip strength instead of running it all the way down to the edge
to interrupt the comb I can just grip right into the wood this thing holds
tight and see how the little ends there have stuck on and then I can tighten it
up with that and it's not gonna fall so I don't have to go down on a wood frame
and interrupt the capped wax on honeycomb of course you can and I think
that's the design of it I'm pretty sure the manufacturer didn't want me to cut
it into the frame like that but you have that option go all the way down grip it
at full height or just dig into it there and you get the wood now here's the
other thing I'm a photographer so sometimes I pull a frame and I want to
get pictures of stuff I can flip this thing over and use the handle as an
exhibition stand so I can actually as a teaching tool sit that on a table and
then everybody gets to look at it and you can get your hands off it and it'll
hold up and hopefully it's not windy it would certainly blow over but you can
prop up a frame like this and photograph or video bees hatching out anything you
need to do macro close-ups of the eggs from the Queen and everything now look
even with all the frames pushed together the jaws of this gripper actually go
right down in between you're still gonna have to use your hive tool to
pry these up on the end so what you normally do but this thing gets in there
nice I have to say if I'm giving it a start rating out of 4 stars it's 4 out
of 4 or 5 out of five whatever the maximum rating
is this is a big down in the video description for where to get one
thanks for watching