Removing Bees From Honey Supers

An explanation on how to use bee escape boards and fume boards to remove bees from honey supers.

[marklove]

Been using fume boards with Bee-Go and blower from a shop vac for stragglers for 34 years. On a good weather day one man can only keep up with about three boards. After watching you and other YouTube beekeepers using the rechargeable leaf blowers, I think I'll try that so I don't have to haul a generator from yard to yard. Love all your videos Bob and have been using your queen rearing method with good success. Appreciate you and God bless you and your crew and family!

[CentralKyBees]

Bob, I always use fishers bee quick on my fume boards. It actually smells really good to me but it pushes the bees out pretty quickly. It works great!

[michaelremsen]

Hey Bob, I love all your insights into beekeeping!! After a hundred years of using fume boards, I finally said goodbye to the stink. I've been using the cone type of bee escape for several years and just Love it. They handle more bees than the triangular type of escape. Keep on Beekeeping!!

[goldenbee]

Hey, greetings from Germany.

I use a escape board and the last few bees are blowed out with a leave blower.

Works great with my 50 hives. Only had round about 20 bees in my honey house!

Greetings, I wish you and your crew a good week!!

[Beekeeper_Carmine]

Hi Bob, you and the Blue Ridge Honey crew are a Sunday morning staple to watch. Your insight, well thought out content and calm demeanor is addicting and your channel should be a must watch for all beekeepers young and old. I personally only use brushes to remove the supers from my three hives. They work well for me.
Thank you and I hope that you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

[tonymarshharveytron]

Hello Bob, I have had bees now for over 60 years. When I used fume boads, I used Benzaldehyde, and that worked no matter what the temporature was. However, I only used it for a couple of seasons as I did not like the idea of using chemicals.

The only escapes I have ever used are ' Porter ' Bee escapes, and set right, they work very well clearing two Dadant supers overnight. Kind regards,

Tony Marsh. UK.

[tomkingsley]

I have used all 4 methods you discussed. Bee brush worked great when I h
ad only a couple hives. Escape board is my preferred
sometimes, use leaf blower when taking boxes off the escape boards to clear out straglers. I like to put an empty super below the escape board on big hives, allowing them a place to congregate.

[jfelty]

Great Video as always Bob! Method selection may vary somewhat depending upon how one harvests and process honey; and when they harvest relative to available nectar flow. Most don't have the equipment nor facilities in place to dry uncapped honey properly. I process only sealed honey primarily for extraction and normally harvest during the dearth in July to give the honey ample time to dry. I inspect and rearrange the supers several days before to identify and mark/move the supers for harvest near the top of the stack. This eliminates 99% of the burr comb mess you discuss; without leaving the supers unguarded to both robbers; and to hive beetles and their developing larvae. Now I wait for that sunny day and clear supers with Honey Robber (used sparingly) and the stragglers with a leaf blower. Also helps clear out the offensive smell you mentioned. Honey Robber is Butyric Anhydride based (yes, concentrated and synthetically manufactured), however it reacts with any available moisture (thus corrosive to your eyes and skin) including humidity in the air to form Butyric Acid. Sunny days provide heating for evaporation and increases the reaction rate. Butyric Acid is a naturally occurring compound, albeit at lower concentrations, in several foods we eat and gives our vomit that distinctive smell. I suspect why the odor may be so offensive to our noses as our brain associates it with an event that none of us enjoy. So I consider using Honey Robber as a near an organic treatment process as Oxalic Acid and Thymol; both of which I use but are concentrated for treating bees well above any naturally occurring levels.

[OutdoorsandCountryLiving]

I agree with you on trying to stay away from the chemicals. I do sometimes use some when pulling honey on an old shirt I place on top of stacks of supers I pulled to help keep some robbing down if things get too wild.

Have a blessed weekend and thanks for sharing. - Tom

[aileensmith]

Always something interesting in our Sunday Mornings, Thank You! Our hives at home are not far at all from our kitchen where we process our honey. Other hives about two miles away. So far the simple bee brush has been our solution for ridding the bees from our medium supers. Now if we ever get rain we may also get honey!

[jamescarter]

I found a bottle of bee go that I bought at least 30 years ago. It stunk as bad as the day I bought it. I guess that stuff doesn't go bad. Enjoyed the video.

[bob-neobakashwer]

One word of caution with the escape boards. Since it takes a few days to be effective, the supers have had diminished protection against beetles and moths during that time. Normally, supers can be held around 3 days before extracting without having beetle larvae show up. I'd be concerned about letting the supers sit more than a single day if they were cleared with escape boards.
Here in Oklahoma, we have trouble with high moisture levels due to humidity and often want to let the supers sit in an enclosed space with a dehumidifier and fan to help reduce the moisture level. So, the passing of time is a greater concern when escape boards are used.

[lachlanrasmussen]

Good morning Bob, here in Australia those fume boards were banned many years ago due to contamination issues in the honey. It was a different chemical that was used to what your selling tho. We use escape boards all the time but the escapes are in each corner and bees will still come back up. I have seen on a big honey flow that they've tried to fill that box above the escape board some more. This was after a 2 week period of leaving it on. Overall they work great and everything you said about robbing is certainly true.

All the best Bob, love watching your videos. Keep up the good work.

[steliandone]

The fact that I have to lift every single super to place the triangle… that is extra work and extra stuff to take care of and….. I am a carpenter and I can do it all but NO. What I do like to make is duble screen boards. For now I use the smoker to make bees go away and works fine ( I shake every frame of course). My european way of harvesting the honey is simple and efficient and easy. Thank you Bob.

[AmericansBee]

Bob, I see a future bright beek there. She asked amazing questions and has a learning attitude. I love it.

[keithspillman]

I used escape boards for the first time this year and was happy with the results. I didn't give it enough time so still had to blow a few bees, but not many. I also use fume boards on the hives away from my local yard as always. I don't use the really stinky stuff, but the almond/cherry stuff that works well. I think the escape boards are more up front, but much less work and quicker the day you pull the supers. Thanks as always for a great channel Bob!!!

[dcsblessedbees]

I have used the Agitator(bee brush) almost every year, but I don't take much honey. Last year was the first season that I used a fume board, it seemed to work well. I'd like to get me some of the triangle escapes but that mean buy or build them.😂I was told do not buy the "vomit" smelling kind, I was told to get the cherry smell kind I forget what it's called. Thanks Bob, Blessed Days...

[cochechohoneybees]

I'm a hobbiest bee keeper. I use the triangle bee escapes. I think it was Fred Dunn who suggested that drilling some 1" holes around the perimeter of the escape board and closing off with #8 hardware cloth will keep a large portion of the bees from trying to get back into the supers through the triangle. I'm going to try it this year.

[johac]

Having had +- 200 hives I used escape boards, harvested about 5 colonies a day, with one helper.
They work great, except when brood got into honey supers, then I left them and we worked later, pulled the escape and left them for a few days.
Then when they got to extraction room they went on a grid to bottom heat, also had a grate that I'd put the full boxes on and blew them out, they were a cloud, it was about a 10 box size, it wasn't used much, but that is what I did for out of town yards.

[dadu]

Good morning Bob and Blue Ridge Honey crew. Hope yall have a good holiday weekend. Hope to see yall soon! God Bless you all!