extraction question / help

[jgarzasr]

I went out to the hives on my other property - which I have not been able to get to in about a month.  I checked on my Lang hive there which was a new package installed hive this spring - and to my delight was a full medium super waiting for me to harvest.  So I went ahead and did the "quick snap, a quick flick with the brush" and removed all frames from the super.  however; this hive is a lot nicer then the one back home but I can see that using the brush is better when the bees are flicked off instead of rolled off.

I checked on my other two hives which are TBH's.... and that is another posting.

[Michael Bush]

>the way you do it sounds pretty easy. do you have any problem with leaving the boxes out like that overnight. i'm afraid i'd have field mice and slugs in there by the 100's if i did that.

With the "abandonment" method, you just leave them from dusk to dark.  NOT overnight.

[Kathyp]

With the "abandonment" method, you just leave them from dusk to dark. NOT overnight.

ah...i should have read more carefully  

thanks!

[BEE C]

This might sound cruel to some, but I work for a commercial apiary doing pollination contracts, and we use a blower to get the bees out.  I was horrified the first time I did it myself, but it seems to work.  The honey super is laid on end and the frames are blown out in front of the hive.  They don't seem to get mad at this? for some reason.  Either they have brain damage or they think theres no point in stinging wind...I honestly didn't notice any dead bees from this and it worked nicely.  Some hives were bloody hot and it seemed to calm them down?  On the other hand some hives that we used fume boards with BEE Gone still had a scent to them weeks later.  In fact we are extracting those frames now and even though its a light scent its still detectable and being in a hot room with hundreds of BEE gone supers is quite disgusting.  Apparently the correct method was used but the odor is still there.  I don't think I would ever use it on my own hives.

[Brian D. Bray]

I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your bees away.  That or bee escapes are my preferred methods.

[jgarzasr]

Alright, I went ahead and tried the "abandonment" method - and it might because I don't know what I am doing - but it didn't work for me.  after dark -  All the bees were still on the supers, and did not leave.   So I went to look at how many bees would have to be removed, and they swarmed me.  So I waited for early morning - before robbing would start, and frame by frame brushed the bees off of the 5 supers.  I don't think I will try that method again.

Either I will labor through brushing off the bees.  Or try the fume pad, and bee gone.......

[Michael Bush]

It has to be done during that time that the bees are all returning home.  They won't fly after dark.  From sundown, or just before sundown, until dark they will.

[tillie]

I only was removing 2 shallows when I took honey off the other day.  I took an empty deep out to the bees and set it on a single bed sheet.  I flipped the sheet over so it covered the empty super.  Then I went to the hives and removed one frame at a time; held the frame over or in front of the hive and shook it hard a couple of times; then used my bee brush to flick away the remaining bees; then put the now bee-free frame into the empty super and quickly covered the whole thing with the sheet.  

When the "empty" super was now full of 10 frames I picked it up by the handholds through the sheet and carried it indoors.  I did this twice at 2 PM in Hotlanta and only 2 bees ended up in the house with me.

I did apparently bring in about 12 or so small hive beetles which I either smashed or drowned - small advantage to get rid of a few of them....

Linda T

[mat]

Michael, I like your way of stacking the supers on a bottom board between escapes. Few concers: if the supers are from different hives, do they ever fight? The other one: has it ever happend that you took the queen in a super? Ten days ago I put queen excluder on top of two deeps to separate the third one which had some brood ready to hatch and some ampty spaces, and almost full shallow on top. I didn't want her to lay in that deep. She is laying where ever she founds the space. I checked the deep before, but I couldn't find her so I shook the bees off, put the excluder the deep, and than the shallow super almost full of honey. . I came from vacation, and checked on them. And gues what. All third deep was beautifuly full of brood, instead of honey. She must have been in the shallow super which I didn't check.

[Michael Bush]

>if the supers are from different hives, do they ever fight?

Ever?  I don't know.  I've never noticed a problem.  The bees in the supers during the day are mostly house bees and they don't seem to care.

>has it ever happend that you took the queen in a super?

Sure.  But not often enough to consider it a big problem. :)

> Ten days ago I put queen excluder on top of two deeps to separate the third one which had some brood ready to hatch and some ampty spaces, and almost full shallow on top. I didn't want her to lay in that deep. She is laying where ever she founds the space. I checked the deep before, but I couldn't find her so I shook the bees off, put the excluder the deep, and than the shallow super almost full of honey. . I came from vacation, and checked on them. And gues what. All third deep was beautifuly full of brood, instead of honey. She must have been in the shallow super which I didn't check.

They are sometimes in the most unexpected places.  I've found a three year old laying queen on the outside of the hive before.  That was before I even opened the hive.  I have also found them on the inner cover and most anywhere else you would imagine.  But not very often.

_________________

[mat]

Thank you Michael. I am planning to harvest in two weeks and I think I will use the methode.

[Zoot]

Just a re-affirmation on MB's admonishment not to leave your hive boxes sitting out over night. I did it recently and they did accumulate a distressing amount of vermin. I'll definitely retrieve them after dark (not the next morning) next time.