Bee blower

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not very scientific but still interesting

and still managing to perpetuate that rubbish about laying workers not being able to fly!!

 

[Ely]

I did wonder about that

 

[citrus]

interesting reading about how to do a "blow job" ... just got an electric blower and says it does up to 120mph ! .. boy some of these bees cling on and remain stuck.

tried to use it yday and my lunchtime was ...

1. took a few full supers off and blasted most of the bees towards their home
2. carried them away 30m and gave another blast
3. then down to the garage 150m away where they had another blast ...
4. the patio still had lots of disorientated bees several hours later ... and when i came back a few wasps were munching thru the poor things ... so dust pan and brush and into a nuc to get put back in the hive

Now I did have had a bad experience with clearer boards - i made some and quite probably screwed them up ...or just me not really understanding it ........anyone got a 2nd hand one they want to sell on ?

 

[Hachi]

The "secret" to a good clearer board is to have an inch or inch and a half lip/eke attached to it and.......... if there's a big hive with loads of bee's then a super under that to give the bee's room to move into when they've vacated the supers above the CB.

Oh and I've more often than not had a few stragglers and they're no bother I just open the kitchen window and let those babies fly. Then close the window again obviously.

 

[Sutty]

I've had no problems with clearer boards, even when using crown boards with the (much derided) "porter" bee escapes. I think the modern porter escapes are better as they have plastic 'springs' which seem to work better than the old metal ones.

 

[blackcloud]

nope - just clearer boards, I hardly end up with more than a dozen or two bees still in the supers when I unload them at home - they usually find their way to the home apiary just behind the main garden

Ditto
I have the odd one or two per super then gain another three carrying the boxes back to the van.
An hour in the supers dryer and they're no longer any inconveniece

 

[SixFooter]

I don't normally have any problems with clearer boards, but this year I did. The bees in 2 hives did not descend as they are supposed to do and the supers were full of bees after the clearer boards had been on for 24 hrs and still after 48 hrs. There's no brood in the supers btw. A couple of the hives where the clearer boards worked had 30-40 dead bees on top of the clearer board when I lifted the supers. I don't remember this happening in previous years.
I guess the cold overnight temperatures might explain the dead bees over the clearer, but should have helped persuade the bees to move down In the hives where the clearers didn't work.