[ducky]

I stopped by a comercial operation last fall while they were pulling off there honey supers. To my surprise they were using a leaf blower to remove the bee,s from the supers. My question is what are the pros & cons of using a leaf blower to remove bee,s from honey supers. Thanks Ducky

 

[Barry Digman]

I use one. Be careful. I pull a couple of frames out and make sure the rest are well spaced before I start. I back way off and then move forward until the bees are pushed off the comb by the air. I set the box on it's side and blow from the bottom side. I also try to set up so that I'm blowing them back toward the hive entrance but not blowing air directly toward the entrance. It seems pretty efficient.
Course you could tell Fischer to send ya some of his stuff too.

 

[Michael Bush]

Do a search and you'll find many discussions on blowers of various kinds. Jim has a definite opinion on the subject.

I've never tried it and have no opinion on the subject.

 

[MountainCamp]

I have used them and they beat smoking, brushing and shaking.

 

[Joel]

We use a blower for anything that gets pulled after fume boards are not longer quick and easy-end of sept./beginning of Nov. They tend to make the bees a mite on the teste side, it's difficult to blow bees out from between fat frames and it really takes 2 people unless you want to move a super, blow, set down the blower, move the super, get the next super blow (you get the idea. It is no where near as fast or effective as 1 man, 3 fume boards and a warm sunny day.

 

[ducky]

Thanks for all the information. I did a search, and this was also helpful. Thanks DUCKY

 

[Alex Cantacuzene]

We use a leaf blower that sits on a wooden stand about 18" above the ground with about 15' of hose. We put a Quebec bee escape on the hives about two days before hand and then we have very few bees still in the frames. It works great.
Take care and have fun.

 

[Beemaninsa]

I prefer bee quick, but have used a leaf blower. One problem we had was bees getting sucked up in the leaf blower causing it to fail. Never a problem with our kelly bee blower.

 

[LanduytG]

IMHO you need to look out for what blower you use. Some have the exhaust go out through the air flow of the blower.

Greg

 

[odfrank]

IMHO you need to look out for what blower you use. Some have the exhaust go out through the air flow of the blower.Greg

Some handhelds have the exhaust facing front.

 

[waynesgarden]

ANCIENT THREAD ALERT.

Don't hold your breath waiting for his reply. Ducky hasn't posted here for over 6 years. (This thread is 9 years old.)

But it was good to see Mountaincamp's name in this thread and was glad to think of him posting again until I realized this was an ancient thread.

Wayne