[JimD]

What have you found to be the best way to gently get bees out of a honey super?

I have just used smoke but I have some frames that are coming apart with the weight or the nails I used so I have to be easy to keep the frames together. I cannot bump or shake them at all.

I pulled some frames a couple of weeks ago to get 4 gallons since I was out and found the problems with the frames coming apart. Thanks goodness for plastic and it is still a mess to put back together.

I looked yesterday and in both hive's the boxes are completely full.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Fivej]

I place a triangle board under the supers 2-3 days before I want to remove them. Sometimes most have exited within 24 hrs, but I find it usually takes 48 hrs. If there are a few left, I blow them off or brush them off with a feather. It sounds like maybe you did not glue the frames? J

 

[ericweller]

This may sound tedious, but I remove a frame at a time, shake off all the bees and put the frame into empty box that I can cover. I used to use a blower to get the bees off but I always had stragglers remain on the frames which required me to remove them by blowing or by brush. I move the now-filled box 50 feet or so from the hives and lift the lid to let any remaining bees out. It works well for me on my 40+ hives.

 

[Groundhwg]

What have you found to be the best way to gently get bees out of a honey super?

I have just used smoke but I have some frames that are coming apart with the weight or the nails I used so I have to be easy to keep the frames together. I cannot bump or shake them at all.

I pulled some frames a couple of weeks ago to get 4 gallons since I was out and found the problems with the frames coming apart. Thanks goodness for plastic and it is still a mess to put back together.

I looked yesterday and in both hive's the boxes are completely full.

Thanks,

Jim

Bee Quick on a fume board, quick and easy. No need to buy a fume board as a piece of carpet works just fine also an old towel glued or stapled to an inner cover or board large enough to lay over the super. Wait about 5 minutes and all or most of the bees will be out of the super.

 

[Apis Natural]

For our op, triangle boards are the easiest. Last season I made 120 @$2.25 each not counting my time.
it takes 2-3 days for the bees to leave the box's. I leave them on for about 5 days, then harvest.
We just pull and stack them 5 high on my trailer. Last season it took my son and myself 2 days to harvest.
Right now there's 2-3 mediums per hive. We're on the edge of several square miles of blackberry hedges.

 

[Groundhwg]

For our op, triangle boards are the easiest. Last season I made 120 @$2.25 each not counting my time.
it takes 2-3 days for the bees to leave the box's. I leave them on for about 5 days, then harvest.
We just pull and stack them 5 high on my trailer. Last season it took my son and myself 2 days to harvest.
Right now there's 2-3 mediums per hive. We're on the edge of several square miles of blackberry hedges.

Yes Sir, bee escapes will work and sound like what you enjoy. For us old folks, 67 and my buddy 71, having 73 hives (this year) with two or three supers each just to much lifting and shifting to move them twice. Moving all the supers to place the bee escape on and then removing a few days later is just to much work for us. Would rather just move the bees down with the Bee Quick and then "pull" the supers all at one time. Much easier on our backs and legs.

 

[Scottsbee]

How far will the Bee quick push the bees?
Will it push them out of 4 mediums above brood nest? How many deeps?
Is there a minimum amount of supers? don’t want the bees to be pushed out the door!

Thank you

 

[Ravenseye]

I typically use Bee Quick. Put a fume board on a super. Come back a while later and brush the few bee stragglers off...move to the next. I've moved supers off the hives the night before and turned them on their sides and that worked too. Just grab them very early in the morning.

 

[Groundhwg]

How far will the Bee quick push the bees?
Will it push them out of 4 mediums above brood nest? How many deeps?
Is there a minimum amount of supers? don’t want the bees to be pushed out the door!

Thank you

Our hives are around the shop and farm in groups of two or three to up to ten in different locations. On the the 2 or 3 days when we are going to remove supers and start extraction we use up to 6 fume boards. Said there are 6 hives in a location we will spray each fume board and place one on each hive super, wait about 5 minutes and remove the board and super. Likely only a dozen or less bees on the super, carry the super to the truck and put the board on the next super on the hive and in a couple of minutes the next super will be clear of bees. I guess you could use to much Bee Quick, or other product, but you would really have to spray a lot on the fume board, but we have never seen that happen. One reason, and you will see this, is that even with Bee Quick bees will not want leave brood. If you have a super with frames of both brood and honey be prepared to brush, blow, or shake bees off those frames/supers. The Bee Quick works the same on shallow, deep, or medium boxes. There are other brands then Bee Quick that work just as good. We just like it because of the smell, cost, and it is very effective, safe, easy, and quick to use with no lasting affects on our bees.

 

[aran]

i tried the smelly stuff in the past with the fume board without much success. This year i made triangular escape boards so we will see how well they work!

 

[Michael Bush]

“Abandonment” is taking the supers off (in a flow) just before dark and set the on their end and wait for all the bees to fly home.

 

[RTBBEE]

It depends on How many hives you are doing as well as the time of years and conditions. One or two hives we do what Eric said Shake and brush, sometimes we use a leaf blower. At the onset or during a dearth we use fisher bee quick and escape boards We like to place them on during the day. The bee quick seems to work better if used when the hive is warm.

 

[JConnolly]

Triangle escape boards are very easy to make. Since they are in use only a short time use 1/2" plywood cut to the exterior dimensions of your hive boxes and let it be the structure. Apply 3/4 x 3/4" boards directly to the plywood sheet. Nothing fancy. No frame. No rabbet joints. I don't paint and I don't worry about the exposed plywood edges in my climate since they are outside for just one week of summer. If you are in a really wet climate you can paint the exposed plywood edges and they should last for years.

 

[odfrank]

I have always used blowers for my several ton annual harvest. I use a shop vac hose with a tapered nozzle on any appropriate blower and a spinning table which we stand the super on end. We get out all the bees and small hive beetles also. We set the blown boxes on and cover them with super size pallets to keep out robbers.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C3iJwh3lAI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72-wgA3BA-Q

 

[Groundhwg]

i tried the smelly stuff in the past with the fume board without much success. This year i made triangular escape boards so we will see how well they work!

Some of the products are just nasty! Bee Quick is not, has a nice smell and smell does not last very long. Helped a fellow in Columbus one year and had to throw my clothes away after using what he had, forgot the name but was not Fisher's Bee Quick. Stuff he used would make you sick, it was vile.

 

[elmer_fud]

I had good luck with a triangle escape board. All but a handful of bees (less than 50) left the supers when I did this.

 

[JimD]

You are right. No glue. .
l had used my small nail gun. And had one hit the ground a little hard and it broke a few frames apart. Thought I had renailed them all but. ...

Sounds like bee quick is the product to use. How does it affect the two double deeps with two med supers?

Will it clear two med supers at the time?


I had a couple extra hives and gave them to Texbelchuers. Since he is expanding and I want just two.

Thanks. Jim

 

[JConnolly]

Jim, I made up a batch of frames three years ago without glue and dated and marked them NG. I also did a batch that I glued and dated for comparison. I used 1-1/2" staples, two staples in the top, one in the bottom. I did this to see for myself, since the glue vs no glue debate is right up there with screened bottom boards. The unglued frames have all held up fine but I really wont know until the frames get a lot older.

If you do want to go glue-less then I think you need to use long staples, not small nails. I was trying to remember how my grandfather did it and I'm not sure I remember right. What I am certain of is that he did not have a 21st century glue like Tightbond III. Weak or broken frames were never a problem. To be fair, back then side bars were an honest 3/8".

PSA, all, please bee careful with your nail guns and wear safety glasses. 115 of us will go to the ER every day (42,000 a year) because we shot ourselves in the hand, or a worse place. Many more will be able to just pull it out and and put a band-aid on it.

 

[JimD]

Used nails not staples is the problem. Had the heads pull thru.
Went bk and put short nails thru side but need to get some staples.

 

[JWPalmer]

As a hobbyist, I still glue and hand nail all my frames. Gets a bit tedious, but that is what winter evenings are for. I did not like the puny little nails they sell so I used 1-1/8" coated sinker nails to attach the top bar to the end bars along with a healthy amount of Titebond III. I also cross nail the end bars using the skinny frame nails. My bees are carni/caucasian mutts and are heavy propolizers. I have yet to pull a frame apart while prying it out.

I own several escape boards but have not used them yet. So far just shake the frame and brush off the stragglers. May need to rethink that process for next year.