Blowing bees from supers

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpRAj..._order&list=UL
My first youtube video....yes its not the best but I though some would enjoy.
mike

[Barry]

Wow, you're tough on those bees! Blowing 'em onto concrete. Perhaps into grass would be a bit less traumatic?

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

I went and checked and they were all alive. Its not bad I promise.
mike

[Barry]

I'm still alive, but my ankle and shoulder hurt and impair me from working to my fullest.

[honeyman46408]

Perhaps into grass would be a bit less traumatic?

Well I set the super on another super and blow the bees out over grass, I like to watch them turn and fly back to the hive

[lakebilly]

we put them on top of hive & blow them back in front of hive. 5 of us,100 hives 9-10 hrs. Hard to watch them blow onto concrete.

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

Ok ok I should have blown them on the grass. This slab is surrounded by either iron ore or brambles so I did not have a lot of choice. I always get flack...lol
mike

[beeware10]

works best to blow from the bottom of the super. we usually set the super on a stand or stack them up and turn the top one on its end. this gives the bees a chance to fly plus no bending over.

[alpha6]

. 5 of us,100 hives 9-10 hrs..

Any of you guys heard of bee go? Two guys and I can pull supers from a 40 hive yard in less than an hour. Plus all the bees are driven into the hive and we can super right on top of that. I watched the vid twice and laughed both times...you guys are crazy.

[hpm08161947]

Yea.. we have been the leaf blower route too. Only took one season with BeeGo for us to be convinced. No more leaf blower... just too much work.

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

Well the blower is the way to go with us...we already have 2...I hate the chemical that mann lake makes...it smells soooooo bad...not to mention bee go. And it ticks the bees. A blower is natural to me as I run one a lot each week at work. I got stung 2 times yesterday during extracting- once pulling honey and once when I was walking bare-foot grabbing boxes of honey. It stones the bees so bad that they cannot fight back lol. Do it your own way but this works for me.
The other thing with doing it this way is that the supers are almost totally void of bees...try that with bee go.
mike

[odfrank]

Build yourself a lazy susan table on top of an old revolving drafting stool so that you can elevate the box and turn it around to both sides. Also buy a shop vac hose with a crevice nozzle to attach to the blower. And don't blow the bees where you will step on them.

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

This was only one hive at the breeder yard (concrete) that had honey..the rest was on dirt or grass...then I just sat the boxes upright on the hives and blew.
mike

[Brian Suchan]

It may take you about 5 yrs to realize this(did for me) but the fume pads are 3x as fast plus half the work. You will especially notice this in a year of a bumper honey crop when you handle those boxes twice as much and they are full. We got 3 of the bg hand held blowers they only get used in the tail end of honey pulling when it gets late in the year or on cut comb they work good & don't stink it up.

[Dave360]

Mike

good video never have tried blowing
you say not many dead or injured bees ?

Thanks for sharing

Dave

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

Nope...none at all were dead or injured...i looked today.
mike

[sqkcrk]

5 of us,100 hives 9-10 hrs. Hard to watch them blow onto concrete.

2 of us 120 hives 8 to 10 hrs. No blower. No beego. Just during a nectar flow.

The only time I ever worked around someone w/ a blower they blew them into the front of the hive and into the grass in front of the hive.

Mike, have you had any handson advice or experience? I thought it was kinda strange to see what looked like blowing thje bees from one super right at another super. Carry many bees back to the honey house?

Do you wear headphone ear protection blowin' bees or leaves? I think I would have a headache.

[JRing]

That is not so bad, you blew them into the air, before that hit the ground.

[rrussell6870]

I am from the "old school"... we stood them up in the yards, smoked like a mad man, then loaded them on the truck and away we went... our honey house was always filled with bees, but we set a ten frame empty with a few brood frames by the window every few days just gave us another 50 hives or so each year. Lol.

Btw, that was three men (two popping and standing up supers, then one would smoke while the other hand supers to the one in the truck that was stacking them)... we would pull about 400 supers in a day, then work through the night and next day slinging... then put them back on that next evening...

Three men, 2,000-3,000 drums per year... hive tools, smokers, and back aches... that was "real beekeeping in the pre-mite days". Lol.

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

2 of us 120 hives 8 to 10 hrs. No blower. No beego. Just during a nectar flow.

The only time I ever worked around someone w/ a blower they blew them into the front of the hive and into the grass in front of the hive.

Mike, have you had any handson advice or experience? I thought it was kinda strange to see what looked like blowing thje bees from one super right at another super. Carry many bees back to the honey house?

Do you wear headphone ear protection blowin' bees or leaves? I think I would have a headache.

I was working from one super to another...that is just where they went.
What do you mean about handson? Hands on? If the latter than yes...one of the oldtimers showed it to me...folks said he knew his stuff so I go with it and it works.
Nope. No ear protection. One of my guys (lawn) does use ear buds with music but thats it.
OK think about this. KA already owns a blower. I did not have to order or pay (during a super slim year) anything other than some gas...which is cheaper than bee go. I have used the mann lake stuff before and it was not effective.

#1 Rule in beekeeping-Do what works for you despite what others say.
Mike