A frame grabber is a piece of beekeeping equipment that uses metal tongs to grab and hold onto a frame from within a beehive. It can be very handy at times. I find it to be most useful as a way of preserving my sore fingers and hands during a long day of hive inspections. It’s also helpful if you’re wearing thick bee gloves.
To use a frame grabber, hold it in one hand by its handles. The tongs are open by default. Squeezing the handles together closes the tongs.
You want to grab the frame at or near its center. Once you’ve squeezed the handles and the tongs are solidly grabbing onto the frame’s top bar, gently pull the frame straight upwards.
You want to pull frames slowly and carefully, trying not to crush any of the bees hanging onto the sides of the frame you’re pulling or any adjacent frames. This can be challenging, because frames are almost always cemented down by the bees onto the hive’s frame rests. So when you pull up at first, you’ll notice it’s stuck.
Avoid the temptation to really seriously thrust upwards to pull it loose. Instead, use your hive tool to gently pry it loose. Alternatively, you can also use the frame grabber to pull from side to side to unstick the frame.
Either way, you want to minimize the effects of your movements on the bees themselves. Ideally, you don’t want the bees to pay attention to you and to your movement of frames in and out of the hive. Remember the game Operation? That’s the idea.