Heavy supers and squashing bees. . .

[David Stokely]

When I got into my brood chambers last weekend, I really had a difficult time putting the hive back together without killing a bunch of bees.  With a partially filled super, I align one edge of the box and put it down and then gradually. . .very slowly lower the box allowing the bees time to get out of the way.  I mean squishing an occasional bee, to me is unavoidable, but with the very very heavy, probably close to 100 lbs, brood deep I just couldn't hold it up for very long at all and now my hive has a little skirt of squished bee heads sticking out between the two bottom supers.  I really very much hate that.

How do you avoid that.  Without having a second person or some kind of mechanical lifting device. . .How do you reassemble full supers in a way as not to kill a bunch of bees?

Thank you,

:?  :?  :?  :? :?

[RayMarler]

I smoke the bees away from the edges of both boxes. Then when I'm placing the one on top of the other, I get it close and tilt is slightly to one side and use that side like a scraper to slide it into place, pushing bees out of the way as it comes in towards center, then I over shoot it and lower the other side down so that it is all level and flat between the two boxes then slide it back so all is square and centered.

short version: I slide the top box back and forth sideways as I set it down, sliding the bees off out of the way as the box lowers.

[Koala John]

Smoke them.
If it's a strong hive, I use a lot of smoke over the brood chamber to push them back down for a few seconds. Then I smoke the bottom of the super as well to keep them out of the danger zone. I then don't have to worry about tilting, sliding etc, which rarely worked for me with a strong hive anyway, because of the sheer volume of bees that were always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I've found that using too much smoke isn't really a problem because you are putting everything back together and walking away. This alone has changed things from where I was squashing dozens and dozens and dozens every time I went into a hive, to (I suspect/hope) close to none now, even if it is a very strong hive.

[David Stokely]

That is a great thought about smoke.  I wasn't using smoke.  I was thinking of smoke only as a way to reduce stinging behavior.  These are quite gentle bees and I hadn't had a problem with them stinging.  I hadn't thought about using it as a method of pushing bees away from where you didn't want them.  That is a great idea.

Thanks,

:)

[Kathyp]

i don't use smoke a lot of the time either, but that's the one time i will for sure.  it will drive them down long enough to let you get the boxes back on.

[Robo]

Set the box on at a 45 degree angle, and slowly twist into place.  This kind of pushes the bees out of the way as the box twists.  Of course it doesn't work so well with hives with only top entrances as the bees continue to pour in and out the opening.