Top bar hive seduction!

[Mellifera Crofter]

Where I think perhaps the calmer bit comes from is the top bars are flush so you're only exposing at most two frames of bees at any one time.

Inspection cloths on a standard hive should achieve similar I'd have thought. I've not used the so far but will be giving them a go this year.

... and potentially carry disease from one colony to another?

Perhaps I'm just being neurotic. Most people don't change or disinfect their gloves between hives.

[Neils]

Unless I've got cause to suspect there's something wrong I tend not to within Apiaries to be perfectly honest unless I've got myself covered in propolis in which case the hive tool goes in the soda and a new pair of gloves go on. I do try to remember to change or at least scrub the hive tool between inspections but I'd be a liar if I said I always remembered. No kit that comes in contact with a hive goes between apiaries without going through a soda solution bucket though.

I think there's taking reasonable precautions to prevent the spread of disease and then there's taking it to extremes. Techncally I should remove swarms and quarantine them somewhere, but in the end I settle for dosing them with OA and keeping a close eye on them for a few months. From a practical point of view there is nowhere I could take them around this part of the world that would place them in effective quarantine.