Bee Escapes - what is the best way to use them?

I’m not sure if this is appropriate for this forum (Admin feel free to delete this is inappropriate)

I’m looking at the best way to move bees away from supers that are ready to harvest with the minimum amount of disturbance to bees.

I have been using the “shake / brush the bees off the frames” and put them in an empty super with a cover, however, this puts a lot of bees in the air and it’s not ideal as I live in the suburbs and I’m conscious of my neighbors.

so I’m wondering if anyone has used the Bee Escapes and what sort of success you’ve had with them.

I’m thinking of using the method suggested by Michale Bush whereby he puts the Bee Escapes on the bottom board (with the escape down) and stack supers up and then put another Bee Escape board on top (with the escape up) and come back and collect the supers 24-48 hrs later.

has anyone tried this method? or do you have a better way of evacuating bees from the supers?

look forward to your reply

Welcome to the forum Ed. I haven’t used these myself so will leave it to others to respond, but you should find plenty of beekeepers here who are able to share their experiences :slight_smile:

Hi @edmondo , what you are describing is a “clearer board/clearing board”:

A clearer board is used to clear the super of bees as you have described. Sorry, I don’t have experience with using them. But google and youtube can be your friend:

Cheers,
Fred

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I haven’t used them either but I know our local organisation is recommending the use of clearer boards in urban environment to reduce the amount of bees in the air. I look forward to hearing others experience with them.

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@fffffred thanks for the video. i will try this method and see how i go.

If I want to remove a super that is on top then I fit a bee escape under it then go back after 48 hours and remove the super, a better option when neighbors are nearby but at my major apiary I use a battery powered blower and once a bee is blown off they don’t come back on the frame like they do when you brush them off.
What Michael is describing it to get a super from a stacked hive when the super you want is not the top one and his advise in that circumstance is spot on.
When you want to fit the escape board make that the sole job and taking the super off doesn’t get any attention from the hive and more than extracting Flow Frames.
Cheers

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just a side note, while i have a flow hive, my question was relating to extracting a non-flowhive.

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My advice applied to a Langstroth box of honey Ed. Use that way to remove the box and extract the frames away from the hive, I do mine in my kitchen after bring them home from my apiary 3 Klm’s away so there is no bees in the super and no bees attracted when I’m doing the extracting but they hang about on the fly screens. I don’t use a clearing board when I want to extract a Flow Frame as the bees don’t react at all.
Cheers

Hi Ed, I don’t use a clearer board. I shake the bees but hear me out. I take the frames out, then lean them up against the back of the hive with bees attached. Then I close the hive up. You can wait about 30 minutes, during that time a lot of bees will have returned to the hive. All you do then is shake the rest of the bees in front of the entrance, one frame at a time. The bees go straight into the hive. Because the roof is back on, no bees are going to come back up at ya. I started doing this 30 years ago & it works every time.

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