Are you familiar with escape boards? Lots of info here:
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/clearerboards.html
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/clearerboards.html
Are you using them just for fall flows? Warm days and cool nights don't happen here in June.The trick is to have warm days and cool nights.
Most people don't know everything when they first start. It takes years to approach that goal.How it is possible to be a beekeeper with Internet access and not know about bee escape methods and the types available eludes me.
I read most of the escape board designs at the link above. One of the vortex write-ups had a tip that recommended taking the honey supers off the hive and setting them on a platform a few feet behind the hive with the bee escape on the honey. It said within 48hrs almost all of the bees will be off of the honey and foraging back at the original hive location.Are you familiar with escape boards? Lots of info here:
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/clearerboards.html
Here is the problem, (same as not using an escape board) the bees in the super are not all foragers. The foragers bring the nectar to young bees that then put the honey in the cells. So two things happen. The young bees don't leave and when they do they orient to the supers instead of the original hive location.One of the vortex write-ups had a tip that recommended taking the honey supers off the hive and setting them on a platform a few feet behind the hive with the bee escape on the honey.
:scratch: :sThe young bees don't leave and when they do they orient to the supers instead of the original hive location.
I don't have lots of hives, but they are all on my property, so two trips (or just waiting) is no issue for me.The technique is simple... A quantity of escape boards (at least one per colony) is taken to the apiary and they are positioned under the supers to be removed. Start at one end of the apiary and proceed to the other fitting boards as you go. When you have reached the last one... Return to the starting point and remove the supers (a blower or brush is useful here) The supers will not be entirely empty, but the majority of bees will have left.
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/clearerboards.html
They will probably leave before two weeks to poop but they don't leave every day like the foragers do. At any rate removing supers from a hive should not be done during a dearth because it makes them targets for robbing. I would also recommend if you have more than one hive to do it one hive at a time.But putting on an escape board after almost all honey is capped and waiting another 2 weeks feels too drawn out of a process.