[FarmerDave]

I was thinking of putting an empty super box (no frames) below my bee escape to allow more room for bees exiting the honey supers and perhaps making it harder for them to find their way back up into the honey supers. (I think I may have read this being done before???). Is this a good or bad idea? Also while on the topic how long do you find you need to leave excluder on. Instructions say between 24 to 48 hours. Last year I tried 24 and found it was not enough. 48 hours worked better for me.

Edit: Sorry, perhaps bee escapes are not as popular as I thought. You install the escape below your honey supers just above the brood chamber for 24 to 48 hours before you remove your supers to harvest. The bee's move down to the brood box over the next couple nights and have trouble returning to the supers due to the maze like configuration so that when you remove your supers they are near empty of bees. Usually just 10 or 20 bees in a super last year after 48 hours. This is instead of brushing, blowing or spraying to remove them.


Thanks,
Dave

 

[Roland]

Do you mean "innercover"???

Crazy Roland

 

[Tim KS]

Not sure I understand the question, but putting an empty super (without frames) on a hive may get you wonky comb. Why do you want to make it harder for them to get to the honey super?

 

[Fivej]

I am unclear what you are asking, but I will take a guess that what you heard about placing an empty super under a honey super is after you extract it. You place the empty super on top on the inner cover and place your extracted, wet frames in a super above. This usually encourages the bees to clean up the remaining honey from the combs. There is no need for an empty super below your bee escape. You are asking for problems if you do. J

 

[FarmerDave]

Sorry, perhaps bee escapes are not as popular as I thought. You install the escape below your honey supers just above the brood chamber for 24 to 48 hours before you remove your supers to harvest. The bee's move down to the brood box over the next couple nights and have trouble returning to the supers due to the maze like configuration so that when you remove your supers they are near empty of bees. Usually just 10 or 20 bees in a super last year after 48 hours. This is instead of brushing, blowing or spraying to remove them.

 

[beemandan]

Do you mean bee escape boards?

 

[FarmerDave]

Do you mean bee escape boards?

Yes the bee escape is generally mounted to a board with a hole in the middle forming a bee escape board.

 

[JConnolly]

I think you are confusing readers by calling the bee escape an excluder. Most of us think of a queen excluder when you talk about an excluder.

I have those triangular escape boards. They take about 48 hours to clear a box. Even then there will always be a few that find their way back up, but its easier to shake of a dozen than a whole box full.

Today I put a triangular escape on to use in a different way than I've every used them before. The super on one hive is about 80% full. This super is going to go to another hive soon to boost its winter stores. But I wanted the bees to finish filling up their #2 deep before they work on the super, so I filled a super wall to wall with frame feeders and placed it just above the #2 deep, then put on the triangular escape board, then put on the super above it. Hopefully they'll take most of the feed down instead of up that way.

 

[Michael Bush]

It sounds like you are describing a "porter bee escape". I don't know of anyone who still uses them. They are not very effective. Now the triangular bee escape boards work fairly well.

 

[dekster]

I was thinking of putting an empty super box (no frames) below my bee escape to allow more room for bees exiting the honey supers and perhaps making it harder for them to find their way back up into the honey supers. (I think I may have read this being done before???). Is this a good or bad idea?

From my recent (2 days ago) experience -yes and no. The empty super will give them space to go down (otherwise they may not be physically able to go down if hive is very strong), the downside is that they immediately build comb there. I kept my escape board + empty super for 48 hours and it was 30% full of comb (attached to escape board) by the time i removed it. Mind you I was taking deep super and reducing the strong hives to a single deep each. Right now they are all hanging outside as they have no place to go...

 

[TJC1]

I have always found the triangular bee escape board to work great. I only ever leave it for 24+ hours for fear of beetles having free access to all that unprotected honey/comb. I never have more than 20 or so bees in there after that. I simply take out 1 frame at a time, blow the remaining bees off and load them into an empty (covered) box till they are all done. I just did this with a very populous hive and they had no trouble moving down into the next box - no need for any empty box between.

 

[Riverderwent]

Triangular bee escape board’s work well in my location. The cooler it is, the more effective the escapes are. But they work well even in the heat of a southern summer. I put them on in the afternoon and pull the supers the next morning. I use a leaf blower to remove any stragglers. I would be hesitant to leave them on much longer than I do in my location. I would no longer want to pull honey without using escape boards. I would not leave a box without frames on a hive.

 

[sweetas]

I do think it is a good idea to put framed super underneath. teh bees need space to go down. I have found by putting a super with frames even at the beginning of robbing them a lot of bees go down.

 

[drummerboy]

It sounds like you are describing a "porter bee escape". I don't know of anyone who still uses them. They are not very effective. Now the triangular bee escape boards work fairly well.

I do...and have for many years, still got a large jar full of them.

However, The maze type boards 'do' work better/quicker (I like those with at least 4 escape holes) and are easier to place, but with simple adjustments (leaving just enough room for a bee to pass with a bit of effort) to the little metal springs, the Porter Escapes are cheap and still work just fine imo