Greetings! My wife has recently taken up beekeeping in our small yard near the Chesapeake. She's doing the manual labor and I'll be playing the part of her research team as problems arise
Our first question is: when replacing upper parts of the hive - such as the excluder and the super - how do you keep from crushing the bees? My wife has tried the smoker, but says that hasn't done any good. Her preferred method right now seems to be brushing them off with a leaf and yelling at them, but that seems to take longer than it should and I'm concerned that it might lead to a morale issue among the bees
Could anyone help us to understand this basic part of the process?
Or, if you have access to big feathers, glue a handle to one of those. Titebond II or III works well with feathers.
Be aware that reports are that bees don't really like the CO[SUB]2[/SUB] that humans exhale. Blowing on bees upsets them. So yelling may be counterproductive!
I use a turkey feather, or my finger, or nudge them with the board or whatever I'm trying to put back on top. Every now and then one gets pinched, unfortunately.
Place the super on the box at slight angle so that there are only four places where the boxes touch. Then rotate to get them lined up. When you rotate you will either push them in or out of the hive, but most will live.
smoking the bees will usually put the majority of them between the frames the few that are left cam be brushed away with any of the suggested methods. by gently placing the excluder on the hive body in a slow deliberate manner most bees will move. but an unfortunate side effect of keeping bees is that sometimes a few get crushed between hive bodies, supers, and yes even covers. No matter how hard you try, it cannot be avoided. but try not to let it upset you too badly. They make them every day!
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