For several years now, I've been trying to find an easy way of clearing Bees from my honey supers. I've tried the 'Bee-Go' and hand brushing them, but nothing seem to work very well.
I saw how many Bee equipment makers offer these 'Bee Escapes' and I was a bit skeptical. However, I decided to build some following their design as close as possible, and gave it a try last year. You know what? They worked PERFECTLY. I was amazed that coming back the next day - all of the Bees moved down to the lower supers, leaving the ones above the super - absolutely clear!
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| Simple plywood Bee Escapes with 3/4" entrance hole |
The theory behind this is that the bees move down during the day and evening to be close to the queen. When they go down through this little hole - they have no trouble doing so.
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| Here is the 'unpassable' maze! |
However, when the bees try to get back up they are confronted by a 'maze' of sorts that confuses them. They can't figure it out for some reason! They get 'stuck' underneath this barrier and are excluded from the honey super above.
This year, I left quite a bit of honey supers on and didn't harvest it. I wanted to makes sure I had plenty 'banked up' for this coming spring when I raise our Nucs. Nothing feeds a colony start better than a simple frame of honey - right next to the brood chamber! They really 'explode' on this. It is exciting to see for sure so this practice of saving a bit back for the following spring is a great way of managing new colonies.
Giving them syrup in the spring up here is problematic and besides... Honey is the best food for them anyway!
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| The top green honey super will be 'cleared' in 24 hours |
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