Clearing Bees from Supers

[Newbeeneil]

At least nobody here is using a blower!

Oh, I have a battery powered blower in case there are a few lie-a- beds still in there

 

[The Poot]

Yes... you may be right about that..last year I had to leave the clearer on one hive for a week and it was clear from the bees in the supers that they had worked out how to get back in. It was a clearer with a big central hole (one I picked up at auction). They are clever little beggars .. give them a bit of time and it's surprising what they can do.
I made the mistake a few years ago of putting the clearer boatd on upside down .... similar result ! Why do you think yours didn't clear ?

I finally got to remove the super today and it still had a contingent of bees in it! I shook most out and took the super away.
I went through the frames and found a small patch of capped brood on one side of one frame.
I then realised that this was the super a newly mated queen got into, through a qx in July.
I had removed the queen and split them, leaving one queen cell on June 14th and then left them alone for a month. In that time, they filled two brood boxes and two supers with honey and returning from mating, she had to squeeze through the qx to find space to lay in another super I had just added.
The bees in the super today were the most dedicated nurses waiting for the last to emerge.

Edit - I didn’t get the queen into a third brood box until mid August.

 

[mbc]

Oh, I have a battery powered blower in case there are a few lie-a- beds still in there

Me too

 

[Antipodes]

I finally got to remove the super today and it still had a contingent of bees in it! I shook most out and took the super away.
I went through the frames and found a small patch of capped brood on one side of one frame.
I then realised that this was the super a newly mated queen got into, through a qx in July.
I had removed the queen and split them, leaving one queen cell on June 14th and then left them alone for a month. In that time, they filled two brood boxes and two supers with honey and returning from mating, she had to squeeze through the qx to find space to lay in another super I had just added.
The bees in the super today were the most dedicated nurses waiting for the last to emerge.

Edit - I didn’t get the queen into a third brood box until mid August.

Is there a fault in the queen excluder?

 

[The Poot]

Is there a fault in the queen excluder?

No, it looked good - no gaps or bent wires.

 

[Antipodes]

No, it looked good - no gaps or bent wires.

Is it a welded one?

 

[The Poot]

Is it a welded one?

Yes. Wooden frame with wire mesh. I’ll have to give it a more thorough check to see if there is an issue.
Once I’d got the queen below the excluder and gave here space to lay, she stayed there. I concluded that she was small coming back from mating and got though the qx before plumping up.

 

[Antipodes]

Yes. Wooden frame with wire mesh. I’ll have to give it a more thorough check to see if there is an issue.
Once I’d got the queen below the excluder and gave here space to lay, she stayed there. I concluded that she was small coming back from mating and got though the qx before plumping up.

Yes. I got a (rude) surprise recently when I measured the gaps on all of mine more thoroughly with digital calipers. Some of the welded ones weren't too good. That wider gap is over 5mm - and that's at the solid weld. Another thing I wasn't fully aware of, until looking at research recently, is the extent of the variation in the width of the thoraxes of queens. Some are relatively narrow.

 

[Vanterrier]

At least nobody here is using a blower!

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/clearing-bees-the-canadian-way.57463/

K

 

[Erichalfbee]

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/clearing-bees-the-canadian-way.57463/

K

I said here.
….. sigh

 

[Paul_Ward1]

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.

I put an inverted CB on the top of the stack as well. Roof with an entrance on top. This was based on advice on this forum (I am sorry, can’t remember who). They cleared well apart from 1 super in the middle (ish)

 

[Erichalfbee]

This was based on advice on this forum (I am sorry, can’t remember who).

It’s in the first line of your quoted post

 

[Midget Gem]

I put a clearer board at the bottom on top of a hive stand about 20m from my hives. Then 5 supers from different hives, then another clearer board on top. It was about 4pm by the finish and a good sunny day. Next morning there was a cluster of bees on the top which I shook off near the hives. I then moved the stack nearer to the house, about 300m from the hives, using my trusty wheelbarrow. There were still a few clumps of bees inside. I restacked them on the hive stand and left them til the next day. All cleared. I will definitely use this method in the future.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

At least nobody here is using a blower!

I do , but only to clear any stragglers.
Last year I bought a job lot of Canadian clearing boards from someone local that retired due to illness.
These work really quickly, about four hours per colonie,we soon found that left anything more than overnight and the bees have worked them out.

 

[judy12]

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.

Yes, I've used this method for the last 20 years and it's very much easier than struggling with a clearer on every hive, and seems to cause less fuss among the bees.

 

[Macbear]

I put an inverted CB on the top of the stack as well. Roof with an entrance on top. This was based on advice on this forum (I am sorry, can’t remember who). They cleared well apart from 1 super in the middle (ish)

I put a clearer board at the bottom on top of a hive stand about 20m from my hives. Then 5 supers from different hives, then another clearer board on top. It was about 4pm by the finish and a good sunny day. Next morning there was a cluster of bees on the top which I shook off near the hives. I then moved the stack nearer to the house, about 300m from the hives, using my trusty wheelbarrow. There were still a few clumps of bees inside. I restacked them on the hive stand and left them til the next day. All cleared. I will definitely use this method in the future.

I like this idea, thankyou to all who have added their own ideas.