Is there any detriment to using dish soap to clean them? Will any residue be harmful to the bees? I need to figure out how to get my hands in there to get a good cleaning action.
I usually just run jars through the dishwasher, but there is no problem using soap. Just rinse them good.
The hive tool is homemade from a picture that 15thmember had posted and I'm giving it a try. My mentor has the larger tool as you described and I see one advantage for the smaller one so far. I can keep it in my hand the whole time and not have to put it down, then have to figure out where I left it. I wasn't really struggling with it too bad just yet but they haven't really applied the glue yet either. But then, I haven't finessed the using of the tool yet and my handling of it will improve. I do, however, like that step on the back to use as leverage and will probably make one on this tool.
I do also have a standard 8 in. tool (without a J hook), and I use that for cracking boxes, moving all the frames back and forth as a single unit, and for cleaning boxes. I use the small tool for all individual frame manipulations.
You might get some frowney faces for switching frames around, but be reasonable about it. I do it all the time. Moving foundation to make comb is fine. Putting a pollen or honey frame in the middle of the brood box wouldn?t serve any purpose.
Moving frames around is completely allowed, it's one of the benefits to the moveable frame hive. Just always be sure you know why you are moving a frame, and that you are doing it at a time when the bees are strong enough to adjust to the change. Moving things around in the brood nest is far more stressful on them than just moving frames of stores around though, since the care of the babies is more critical and time-sensitive than the care of the honey or pollen. If someone took the food out of your pantry and put it somewhere else in your house, it would be annoying, but you'd manage alright. If someone put your baby somewhere else without telling you, you'd be a lot more stressed out.