Clearing Bees from Supers

[North End Bees]

And it’s to be assumed they found their way back to their colony and didn’t expire in the cold and rain….
I think Dani is right to suggest doing it when the weather is set fair, it seems a little tough on the bees otherwise.

If it were too cold and wet to fly they'd probably congregate underneath the clearer until it passed?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Dani, how does that rhombus board work with the wee round hole in the centre?

it doesn't - it has four wee holes in the corners instead.
or this one, which has two

 

[Moobee]

Credit to @Swarm who has provided most of the experience.

There's been a rather fragmented discussion in the "What did you do in the Apiary?" thread about clearing supers so at a member's request here is a brief synopsis which will go in the STICKIES
Clearing supers away from the hive, rather than over one colony, is a quick way to clear a number of them with just one or two clearer boards.
You need a warm day when the bees are flying. Put a clearer on a hive stand, add supers and top with a crown board and roof. The bees will exit and return to their hive leaving the pile of supers ready to take away the next day.
I've done it and it works very well, leaving just a few bees on the frames.
You can even mix supers from different colonies. They do not fight.
If you have quite a stack you can flip another clearer upside down and put it on top. Obviously you don't put a roof on that.
Perhaps folk can add their experience.

One quick question if I may - how far away is ‘away from the hive’ please?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

it doesn't matter

 

[Erichalfbee]

Dani, how does that rhombus board work with the wee round hole in the centre?

That’s covered. The wee holes are in the corners. It’s made of two rhombi? cut in half

 

[Ringlander]

That’s covered. The wee holes are in the corners. It’s made of two rhombi? cut in half

That's funny seeing the two alternative solutions to getting two holes from one rhombus. I bet the first with the Rhombii all pointing nicely to the centre was made by an inexperienced Engineer (including the majority of non-Engineers and ALL CAD designers) while the second was made by someone who has seen too much stuff designed by the first lot and couldn't see the need for two cuts when one would do!

 

[Ringlander]

That's funny seeing the two alternative solutions to getting two holes from one rhombus. I bet the first with the Rhombii all pointing nicely to the centre was made by an inexperienced Engineer (including the majority of non-Engineers and ALL CAD designers) while the second was made by someone who has seen too much stuff designed by the first lot and couldn't see the need for two cuts when one would do!

Or, to put in in Military terms, the guys who designed the Tiger Tank vs the guys who designed the T34

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Yes, this is the first season that I've used similar: benzaldehyde - much cheaper than Bee Quick and also very rapid.
https://apcpure.com/product/benzaldehyde-99-5-acs-letterbox-friendly/
Also for the first time I've used Dani's 'away from tuuickhe hive' method with success.

The stimulus for my change of practice is my inability to take heavy supers off a stack, place a clearer board, and lift the boxes back.

I came across a recipe to make up your own BeeQuick. It includes only a small amount of benzaldehyde, and seeing how the bees can't move fast enough to get away from regular BeeQuick, I shudder at the thought of using benzaldehyde neat on a towel over the super.

 

[Erichalfbee]

made by an inexperienced Engineer

Thats’s my fault. I was the designer and Stan the machinist.
Somebody once told me that bees tend to move to the outside edges of the super so the exit holes are better pointing the other way, ie into the corners. I couldn’t imagine a way to do that otherwise the board would have been even more over engineered.

 

[Macbear]

I'd probably take some simple precautions against a change in weather i.e. position under a canopy or use some kind of rain deflector if there's a rapid change.
In general terms of clearance and speed I've recently tried Bee Quick on a cloth with very rapid results (minutes)

Benzaldehyde has been tested and is widely used in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, perfume and soap products. Almond essence in cooking can be a synthetic version of benzaldehyde. Scare stories about toxicity and it being banned in Canada don't seem to be entirely credible.
I was impressed with a demonstration at my Beekeepers' Association where a cloth stretched on a frame about 1 metre square was given 3 well-spaced drops of Bee Quick and placed atop supers which were well-populated by bees. Within 10 minutes all frames were impressively free of bees. We didn't see the effect on the brood box, though. [I should have asked].
Would I use Bee Quick/Benzaldehyde? Unlikely. With only a couple of hives and the clearing boards working very well this year I can afford to wait for the required 24 hours. Even a tiny risk of tainting extracted honey with almond smell is also a disincentive - if it lingered in Amari's beemobile....

 

[Midget Gem]

it doesn't - it has four wee holes in the corners instead.
or this one, which has two
View attachment 41122View attachment 41123

Does the frame need to be so deep if I'm taking them from the hive and making a stack with a clearer board top and bottom?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Does the frame need to be so deep if I'm taking them from the hive and making a stack with a clearer board top and bottom?

No. But it pays to make it deep so that the board has a dual use. You can then clear bees if you are expecting a week of rain. Not unusual these days.

 

[drdrday]

And it’s to be assumed they found their way back to their colony and didn’t expire in the cold and rain….

No bees were clustered under the clearer boards, nor piles of wet, cold bees in the grass underneath them. Most of the stacks had an empty super below the clearer board just to make sure that there was space between the clearer boards and the stands so this would have been a dry spot for bees to gather, but again, none there. Stacks were also positioned right next to their original hives so the bees wouldn't have had far to go. I'm not saying dry weather isn't better, just that it wasn't necessary like I'd originally thought.
Biggest bonus for me is that it's so much less work just lifting the full supers off and onto a stack rather than having to put them back on the hive again once a clearer board is in place, just to take them off again the next day.

 

[The Poot]

No bees were clustered under the clearer boards, nor piles of wet, cold bees in the grass underneath them. Most of the stacks had an empty super below the clearer board just to make sure that there was space between the clearer boards and the stands so this would have been a dry spot for bees to gather, but again, none there. Stacks were also positioned right next to their original hives so the bees wouldn't have had far to go. I'm not saying dry weather isn't better, just that it wasn't necessary like I'd originally thought.
Biggest bonus for me is that it's so much less work just lifting the full supers off and onto a stack rather than having to put them back on the hive again once a clearer board is in place, just to take them off again the next day.

That’s reassuring and for my final super removal session, I will give it try

 

[drdrday]

Does the frame need to be so deep if I'm taking them from the hive and making a stack with a clearer board top and bottom?

My clearer boards don't have a rim at all. I have separate ekes that I use with them. Storage is an issue for me, so flat clearer boards take up less space than those with a rim.

 

[Erichalfbee]

And it’s to be assumed they found their way back to their colony and didn’t expire in the cold and rain….
I think Dani is right to suggest doing it when the weather is set fair, it seems a little tough on the bees otherwise.

I ended up on the ground lying down looking up at the board. The bees emerged from the rhombus hole, walked around for a few seconds then flew off.

 

[Sutty]

I ended up on the ground lying down looking up at the board. The bees emerged from the rhombus hole, walked around for a few seconds then flew off.

No wonder beekeepers are often regarded as eccentric!

 

[Swarm]

If it were too cold and wet to fly they'd probably congregate underneath the clearer until it passed?

If it were that bad we would probably wait for a better time to remove supers.
I don't know about others but I generally look for a nice spell to do my honey pull, been caught out a couple of times over the years but not that often.

 

[North End Bees]

If it were that bad we would probably wait for a better time to remove supers.
I don't know about others but I generally look for a nice spell to do my honey pull, been caught out a couple of times over the years but not that often.

You're right. But sometimes you only have one day free and despite best intentions the weather can turn half way through..

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I ended up on the ground lying down looking up at the board. The bees emerged from the rhombus hole, walked around for a few seconds then flew off.

Due to arthritis even kneeling down nowadays requires something to haul myself up with (such as a handy 5 bar field gate or similar) so I'd not be able to join in with such gymnastics.