Best Way to get Bees out of a honey super?

bwallace23350 · March 04, 2017, 06:52:24 PM

Thanks for all th help guys. I am going to use the fume board and smelling stuff plus shake if necessary

Acebird · March 04, 2017, 09:36:30 PM

If you are shaking, brushing, blowing no matter what all the flying bees are going to be in the air. You are reeking havoc on the hive which is their home. I have never done a fume board but at least it evacuates the super of bees so when you take it away it is not a big upset. What I object to about a fume board is that if the smell is so repugnant to the bees should that chemical be in the hive, even for a short time?

SlickMick · March 04, 2017, 10:25:34 PM

The process of robbing the hive is always going to be disruptive to the colony, I agree. My thoughts are that using a fume board is at least as disruptive as anything else, even an escape board as it still requires lifting a super and a second visit to the hive. I never found them to be all that successful. I also agree that there will be lots of bees in the air. Perhaps taking a couple of frames from the top super at a time is the least disruptive, more so than taking full supers.

I find that I do lose some bees onto the ground but by placing the super (Half depth) so the air flow is directed over the open hive most are blown onto the the top of the frames in the box below. My 2 hives are placed back to back so I am working on top of either one hive or the other. Smoking before blowing pushes them to the other end of the super where it doesn't take much air to dislodge them but you still end up with a few bees still on the frames.

I can't say that they are always happy about the process but their reaction doesn't seem to be much different from opening up the brood box and pulling frames. I use a QE above the brood box so I am pulling honey and not interfering with the brood other than lifting the super.

Mick

Acebird · March 04, 2017, 10:45:14 PM

It is not an option everywhere but for me I can harvest in the fall. That guarantees cool / cold nights. With the escape board the bees go down to the brood nest at night to cluster. They can't get back up to the supers the next morning because of the escape board. I have pulled supers off with no bees at all in the super above. They have no idea I am taking the supers away and there are very little if any bees flying. I made a hive box jack to slip the escape board in between supers. This also happens with very few bees flying. The only negative is it requires and overnight to make it happen. I can live with that.

Jim134 · March 05, 2017, 12:26:37 AM

Quote from: Acebird on March 04, 2017, 10:45:14 PM
It is not an option everywhere but for me I can harvest in the fall. That guarantees cool / cold nights. With the escape board the bees go down to the brood nest at night to cluster. They can't get back up to the supers the next morning because of the escape board. I have pulled supers off with no bees at all in the super above. They have no idea I am taking the supers away and there are very little if any bees flying. I made a hive box jack to slip the escape board in between supers. This also happens with very few bees flying. The only negative is it requires and overnight to make it happen. I can live with that.

Not very good advice if you have a lot of SHB around. If you want you can paint the top of the fume board black. Something to remember most all beekeeping advice. Is very local depending on the location location location....

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

gww · March 05, 2017, 12:37:15 AM

I built an excape board this winter. My hive bodies have new entrances opening in them all the time due to pore workmanship and I bet when I use the excape board, I make it easy for the robbers. I did build one though. I will probly try it and have a little tape handy for the seams and holes.

I have a blower if that doesn't work. I am not sure where to extract and keep the bees out and also not get the prosses too dirty. My garage is a mess always and I have a little green house kinda set up on the back of my house and a car garage attached to the house and there is always the kitchen. Not trying to take this thread off too far but I would be interested in where you guys do your extraction also.

If not in the kitchen, are a couple of wet rags and a bucket of water enough to get the job done?
Thanks
gww

Acebird · March 05, 2017, 08:38:48 AM

Quote from: gww on March 05, 2017, 12:37:15 AM
My hive bodies have new entrances opening in them all the time due to pore workmanship and I bet when I use the excape board, I make it easy for the robbers.
gww

gww if you deliberately put a upper and lower entrance in your hives that the bees can defend they will patch up your poor workmanship way before it comes time to harvest. In order to use an escape board you have to close off any other entry point to the box or it doesn't work. There will never be a small hive beetle problem during harvest unless there was one to start with.

divemaster1963 · March 05, 2017, 10:13:44 AM

thats why I use almond extract with teatree oil. all natural. it may take 10min to move them down but thats time to place fume boards on the other hives the go back and remove the super. just don't appliy to much. light mist on the felt in several places is all it takes. plus it smells great . when doing this it does not upset the hive. but don't use alot because that will push most of the bees out the entrrance and can push them offf brood. doing it whenit's cool can chill the brood. (that's what I like about the fume boards because it wont move the bees off the brood.).

john

sc-bee · March 05, 2017, 10:18:23 AM

Quote from: divemaster1963 on March 03, 2017, 08:48:02 PM
I use straight almond extract with a little tea tree oil in a spray bottle on a fume borad.

john

What is a little? Drops? Let's use a 8 oz bottle as a reference....

sc-bee · March 05, 2017, 10:21:44 AM

Quote from: Acebird on March 04, 2017, 09:36:30 PM
What I object to about a fume board is that if the smell is so repugnant to the bees should that chemical be in the hive, even for a short time?

repugnant.... I think you missed something here ....Ace. Ummm, I guess when you use a smoker it is repugnant and the bees may leave

Guess we can over think anything... right

divemaster1963 · March 05, 2017, 11:57:32 AM

Quote from: sc-bee on March 05, 2017, 10:18:23 AM
Quote from: divemaster1963 on March 03, 2017, 08:48:02 PM
I use straight almond extract with a little tea tree oil in a spray bottle on a fume borad.

john

What is a little? Drops? Let's use a 8 oz bottle as a reference....

I get the 8 ouch bottle of pure almond extract from wally world then add 10 drops tea tree oil to the bottle and add a sprayer pump on to the bottle. spray two sprays two the four corners of the fume board and two in the middle. that is enough to use. you just want to have a misted areaa not wet fume board.

john

Oh and shake the bottle up before and during use. the tea tree oil does not always mix well and will speratein the bottle. keep it in cool when not using. it will go bad and lose streaght.

sc-bee · March 05, 2017, 01:52:55 PM

Thanks dm...

Jim134 · March 05, 2017, 08:53:27 PM

Quote from: Acebird on March 05, 2017, 08:38:48 AM
gww if you deliberately put a upper and lower entrance in your hives that the bees can defend they will patch up your poor workmanship way before it comes time to harvest. In order to use an escape board you have to close off any other entry point to the box or it doesn't work. There will never be a small hive beetle problem during harvest unless there was one to start with.

Over the last couple years. There are places in New England that are getting intrenched with SHB.. Just be very aware what's going on in your area.

BEE HAPPY Jim 134

.

Oldbeavo · March 07, 2017, 06:11:33 AM

If you are going to use a leaf blower then you need to be using a queen excluder.
I there is brood in the super there will be young nurse bees that may not have been out of the hive and not orientated on the hive. So they may be lost to the original hive.
We use bee escapes and for the persistent ones they get the leaf blower. For some dumb reason it doesn't seem to upset the bees, walked past a super on its end as my partner hit it with the leaf blower, shower of bees but no stings.
The secret of bee escapes is cold nights to get the bees to move down and then go to pick up the supers at day break while it is still cool. Some smoke down the escape holes allows you to get the bee escape off and lid on without too much fuss.
Biggest day with bee escapes and leaf blower, 120 supers and on the road home by 1:00 pm.
PS. 6:00 am start.

bwallace23350 · March 07, 2017, 09:34:07 AM

Quote from: Oldbeavo on March 07, 2017, 06:11:33 AM
If you are going to use a leaf blower then you need to be using a queen excluder.
I there is brood in the super there will be young nurse bees that may not have been out of the hive and not orientated on the hive. So they may be lost to the original hive.
We use bee escapes and for the persistent ones they get the leaf blower. For some dumb reason it doesn't seem to upset the bees, walked past a super on its end as my partner hit it with the leaf blower, shower of bees but no stings.
The secret of bee escapes is cold nights to get the bees to move down and then go to pick up the supers at day break while it is still cool. Some smoke down the escape holes allows you to get the bee escape off and lid on without too much fuss.
Biggest day with bee escapes and leaf blower, 120 supers and on the road home by 1:00 pm.
PS. 6:00 am start.

How cool of a day are we talking about? I am leaning towards the bee escape.

BeeMaster2 · March 07, 2017, 12:16:56 PM

Quote from: bwallace23350 on March 07, 2017, 09:34:07 AM

How cool of a day are we talking about? I am leaning towards the bee escape.

Probably too cold for you to bee able to use a bee escape, I built 2 but cannot use them here. They leave the combs unprotected from the SHB's.

bwallace23350 · March 07, 2017, 02:04:00 PM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on March 07, 2017, 12:16:56 PM
Quote from: bwallace23350 on March 07, 2017, 09:34:07 AM

How cool of a day are we talking about? I am leaning towards the bee escape.
Probably too cold for you to bee able to use a bee escape, I built 2 but cannot use them here. They leave the combs unprotected from the SHB's.

So what do you use?

Acebird · March 07, 2017, 02:04:08 PM

Quote from: bwallace23350 on March 07, 2017, 09:34:07 AM
How cool of a day are we talking about? I am leaning towards the bee escape.

It is guaranteed if your overnight gets down to 47 because they have to cluster but it also may work up in the 52ish range. With brood in the brood box they have to keep it at 92 so most will go down. I did not have good luck when I first tried my escape in the late spring. I think the bees stay in the supers at night during heavy flows to dry down the honey. But for a fall harvest they work wonders.

bwallace23350 · March 07, 2017, 04:51:28 PM

Yeah that wont work here. I will probably do the brush off and just pull a few frames at a time or the smell bad stuff.

SlickMick · March 07, 2017, 05:05:26 PM

That would be why I've never had any success with escapes. In over 40 years we've never had a frost, and the lowest we seem to get to is around 45f. No need for the girls to cluster or for me to take honey. Our overnight last night was in the mid 60's.

Mick