3 of 4 'Bee Quick' and clearer boards

[Mothman]

This weekend I managed only to get my clearer boards (porter bee escapes) on, but not the supers off the next day. I find it very difficult to find time to do an inspection two days running to get clearer boards on and then supers off the next day.
When I get back to the bees next week - if I am lucky I will have two supers with no bees but more likely the bees will have defeated the escapes and carried on, if I put a dose of Bee Quick on top of the supers will this drive the bees out through the defunct escapes or do I need to take the clearer boards off and start again?
(3rd option is that the bees will have robbed out the supers which I hope won't have happened)
Will smelling of 'Bee Quick' keep the bees away from me?

 

[VEG]

They are not designed to be left on for a week. 2/3 days at the most. You have to bare in mind you are also reducing the amount of room in the hive.

 

[Mothman]

They are not designed to be left on for a week. 2/3 days at the most. You have to bare in mind you are also reducing the amount of room in the hive.

Understood, this was not my ideal outcome but I had had enough stings for the weekend and little time. thus the query regarding pushing them back out with Bee Quick.

The remaining two supers were not covered in bees and only partially filled, hopefully they may get them filled this week? And shouldn't I be slowly reducing the space available now as winter is on its way? (see my plans for the next few weeks at the bottom of 4 of 4)

 

[NickB]

Our experience of Bee Quick (admittedly using it to clear a swarm from a hollow log) was that it made them more grumpy.
In the context of your other posts,I'd say be careful about using it if the bees are already in a bad mood.

 

[oliver90owner]

Do not expect to drive an occupied super worth of bees through a couple of Porter bee escapes.

THINK! Beequick is used to clear a super in a couple minutes or so!

 

[Outlander]

So my little bee escapes are going to be useless in clearing the four supers of bees then. Oh well back to the drawing board. Unfortunately one of the hazards of keeping bees is that you will get stung which with me is a regular occurrence.

Being stung thems the and that a

 

[itma]

Porter escapes are pretty useless.

Rhombus works, and in a matter of hours. And nothing to adjust, no moving parts.
Simple. Good.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Porter escapes are pretty useless.

Rhombus works, and in a matter of hours. And nothing to adjust, no moving parts.
Simple. Good.

I disagree, porter bee escapes when adjusted correctly, can work and do.
I have used them this year with no real problems, once I adjusted them!

On the other hand I had a couple rombus escapes, that I bought years ago, and finally made boards for them and they worked brilliantly!

 

[MuswellMetro]

Porter escapes are pretty useless.

Rhombus works, and in a matter of hours. And nothing to adjust, no moving parts.
Simple. Good.

Yes agree, either rhombus or Canadian clearers work in less than 5 hours , I put them on early morning and take off after lunch

Or if only a few, take an empty super,tea towel, blank crown board or gravel tray and a goose feather........ place empty super by hive on crown board ( i use a gravel tray), take a frame out brush off bees with feather, place in super, cover with tea towel...repeat until all frame cleared, then place it 50ft away and do the same again this time back into the old super....by that time only one or two bees will be left

 

[VEG]

I use porter bee escapes and a petrol leaf blower to clear out any stragglers. Though will be trying a rhombus that I was given

 

[YorkshireBees]

I use porter bee escapes and a petrol leaf blower to clear out any stragglers. Though will be trying a rhombus that I was given

I've thought about the leaf blower option but haven't found one at a decent price yet!

 

[kevinsmith]

i use the porter bee esacapes but give them a helping had using bee brush just before putting on the esacapes

 

[stephenpug]

This weekend I managed only to get my clearer boards (porter bee escapes) on, but not the supers off the next day. I find it very difficult to find time to do an inspection two days running to get clearer boards on and then supers off the next day.
When I get back to the bees next week - if I am lucky I will have two supers with no bees but more likely the bees will have defeated the escapes and carried on, if I put a dose of Bee Quick on top of the supers will this drive the bees out through the defunct escapes or do I need to take the clearer boards off and start again?
(3rd option is that the bees will have robbed out the supers which I hope won't have happened)
Will smelling of 'Bee Quick' keep the bees away from me?

I think what you should be asking is if you should be keeping live creatures they take a lot of time money and care anything less than total commitment is IMHO cruel

 

[Walrus]

I use the rhombus clearer board but if I'm in a rush I just brush the bees off the frame and then put the honey frames in a plastic storage box. My daughter helps by opening & closing the box at the right time so I get no bees in the box...well maybe one or two.

 

[mbc]

This weekend I managed only to get my clearer boards (porter bee escapes) on, but not the supers off the next day. I find it very difficult to find time to do an inspection two days running to get clearer boards on and then supers off the next day.
When I get back to the bees next week - if I am lucky I will have two supers with no bees but more likely the bees will have defeated the escapes and carried on, if I put a dose of Bee Quick on top of the supers will this drive the bees out through the defunct escapes or do I need to take the clearer boards off and start again?
(3rd option is that the bees will have robbed out the supers which I hope won't have happened)
Will smelling of 'Bee Quick' keep the bees away from me?

Properly functioning porter bee escapes are a one way bee valve which work really well if given some time.
I would hazard a guess that given a whole week they will either have worked and your supers will be completely clear or one of the springs may have jammed open in which case the bees will have completely robbed out the supers by the time you get back.

 

[BeeJayBee]

The quickest I've seen supers cleared has been when they've been taken off the hive and propped at an angle against atree trunk in the shade. Done at the beginning of an inspection all the frames were clear by the time the hive was being put back together. No fancy sprays, no bee blowers, no bee escapes - nothing other than lack of sunshine.

Leaving a bee escape in place for more than a day or so is self-defeating because the bees will either propolise it shut or will learn the new route into, and from, the super.

 

[OldMech]

I think what you should be asking is if you should be keeping live creatures they take a lot of time money and care anything less than total commitment is IMHO cruel

Well.. that was helpful.....

 

[Mothman]

Just as a follow up - for completeness - I finally got back to the hives a fortnight after setting the clearer boards on. Whilst the bees had covered the porter escapes in propolis the numbers of bees on the frames was greatly reduced which made life a lot easier.

 

[whoosling]

I disagree, porter bee escapes when adjusted correctly, can work and do.
I have used them this year with no real problems, once I adjusted them!

On the other hand I had a couple rombus escapes, that I bought years ago, and finally made boards for them and they worked brilliantly!

Do you have to have special boards for rombus bees escapes?

 

[Chris58]

Our bees don't like/use the porter escape - they just can't pass through them! We have 2 supers on and have discovered top supers rarely have many bees on - so we move lower frames to higher super and collect the following week - just lightly brushing off remaining bees. Seems to work.