How to clean up.

[Buzzbe]

My first hive.

This may seem stupid, but, how do you, or what do you use to clean equipment, clothing, and hands of propolis? Honey of course comes off fine, it's the other that I am having fits with trying to get it off my hands, bar and etc. Soapy hot water is not cutting it very well.

Checking the hive and then go to gardening is being a real mess. Also.

Will bees draw large drone cells in between the hive bodies? Frame bottoms to tops. In with say a swarm cell. I have seen no pictures or anything to explain this or compare it to. And should I have scraped it all off flat again? All else seems fine and no signs of anything negative so far. Plenty of room, honey, brood at all stages and etc. However I could not find my painted queen.

Thanks for any info or thoughts. I am asking this elsewhere but not getting any answers. Is it that stupid of a question?

[loggermike]

Waterless,mechanics hand cleaner will take it off.
Drone brood is common between boxes.When you break the hive apart and find this drone brood broken open its a good idea to look closely for varroa.Also this is a common area for queen cells to be built.In fact thats what we do in spring-break them apart and look for queen cells between boxes.If they are getting ready to swarm at least some queen cells will be found there.I dont bother scraping this comb off-unless I see a lot of mites!

[Michael Bush]

I don't scrape it off either.

[YBCute]

Crisco helps with the proplis on the hands.

[Jon McFadden]

This is something I really haven't paid attention to. I guess over the years, I have gotten in the habit of relagating propolis to my hive tool. That's the one area I am having trouble with my son. He lays his hive tool down all the time. One of the first lessons I was taught was to always keep my hive tool in one hand. Set down the smoker, but never the hive tool.
I do scrape the burr comb off the top bars. Checking the drone brood as loggermike says makes good sense. I'll remember that one, thanks.