This is my first year for extracting. What is the best method for removing bees from supers? Triangle escape board? Fume boards? Bee blowers (would a leaf blower be ok?)
I use a simple bee escape in the early fall .......... http://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=480&osCsid=6eac0faa256a4cfad17c8105318edc79
I do not know how well they work in the summer. I heard alot of bees will stay up there overnight.
I like the triangular bee escape. No matter what you do you'll have to brush the stragglers.
Pulling the supers off and setting them behind the hives at dusk and picking them up before light works pretty well, but there wills till be stragglers.
I would use a combination of both. Put the triangle escape below the supper you want the bees out of and get a fume board and set it on top. This way they cant come back into the supper when you lift it off and follow you to where you take them. :D
Depends on how much time you have, temperatures, ect. The first couple of super I took off at the beginning of summer I used a homemade escape board. Really just 2 Porter escapes fitted into a screen cut to the right size and fitted over a frame of wood. Worked fine, but it does take an overnight period to get the majority of bees out. Tried some almond extract with 'ok' results, then I bought some of the Fischer's Bee Quick. This is no ad, and I don't know the man or have any personal interest in his company, but that stuff works and works fast. In the heat we're having now, wouldn't want to use the escape board. I'll stick with the Bee Quick.
sherry
we used bee quick but once off and we picked up the supper the bees would follow us, the escape would stop them. :)
I use the triangle escape board. I like it best. Just make sure that you close up any other holes above the escape. I use screen to close off any small holes in supers, cracks in suppers, upper entrances, etc. If you
don't do that - the escape is useless.
You have to have bee tight covers on the supers at all times when you're robbing. The bees will be back on the combs like.... well like bees on honey comb... :)