First time honey removal

[Timothy]

I am planning on using the triangle bee escape , i have 2 supers on now one is packed so would like to take it off if i rotate the supers put the full one on top and put escape board underneath, do i need to close up all the ventilation above,so that bees don`t get back in? It is really hot this weekend so a little concerned about that,is there a good way of venting and keeping the bees from getting back in.

[Joel]

Tim, if you are not positive the equipment is 100% bee proof (which it seldom is) I would do one of 2 things.

1) Put the escape on late in the afternoon and harvest it the next morning 1st thing.

or

2) seal the seams between the escape and the super with duct tape (as reccommended by the American Duck Tape Council!) If you are using an inner cover and have had it proped open for ventilation make ceratin to remove the shim and have the top cover sitting tight on the inner cover.

Although we don't use bee escapes any more our experiance in the past has been that any opening above the escape will be found by robbers and a super left on for a day will have the cappings pierced and much of the honey robbed as well as a few thousand unwelcome robbers to get rid of at harvest.

Once you have your honey off it is a good idea to extract it ASAP as this time of year the humidity will quickly raise the moisture content of honey, even that that is completely capped.
Good Luck!

[size="1"][ July 28, 2006, 07:49 AM: Message edited by: Joel ][/size]