Ode to a Hive Tool

Faced with the task of assembling new honey frames and inserting wax foundation, I was saved from despair (the directions were written for those who had already done this many times and knew what the parts of the frame were called) by the lowly hive tool. The directions said to use a sharp knife or a hive tool to take apart part of the frame. This made no sense. Why would they send you something (a rather fragile wooden something) that you had to take apart before assembling it. After reading it over and over and being assured that was really what I should do, I took my hive tool and pried the piece off. I don't have a sharp knife and wouldn't be that comfortable using one. The hive tool resembles a paint scraper with a bent part on one end.

The principal use is to pry the supers apart after the bees have glued them shut with propolis or bee glue. The hooked part is useful in separating the frames which are also glued together with propolis before taking them out to examine them. It proved the be the perfect tool for this task to because it broke off the part of the frame and also worked as a plane to take off any pieces of wood still remaining.I was so elated at figuring this task out that I thought here should be more things like hive tools. They would come to your aid whenever you were stuck on a task or perplexing problem.It would fit nicely into the loop of a belt so you could take it anywhere and when things got murky, you could just whip it out and solve the problem. And not just physical problems like prying off the paint can lid, but other problems as well. This magical something would silently let a co-worker know when he is being obnoxious; it would let the technician know what the computer glitch was really so he/she could fix it.It would make clear to the conservatives that no one should really care who marries who if they care for one another.I could go on and on. None of this will really happen but there is still the very versatile and useful hive tool.