Clearing bees the Canadian way...

[Vanterrier]

About 2.45 mins in, look how these guys clear bees from their boxes!!! Looks a bit brutal to me...

Probably a bit quicker than Dani's remote stack method though.
K

 

[rolande]

Hivemaker would have said that the blower is a very gentle way of clearing bees.

 

[fian]

Frankly, I find it regrettable that this individual can be called a beekeeper.

 

[Vanterrier]

Hivemaker would have said that the blower is a very gentle way of clearing bees.

A gentle blower might be but have you seen the way they are blasted out against another box! Into the grass looks harsh enough but blasted onto another box cannot be good for the poor bees?
K

 

[Sutty]

I looks a bit weird blowing the bees out and then leaving the boxes available to be re-occupied and robbed.

 

[Sutty]

I use the blower from a paint sprayer to blow out the few stragglers, it doesn't harm them at all.

 

[Swarm]

I looks a bit weird blowing the bees out and then leaving the boxes available to be re-occupied and robbed.

That was just a small yard, when you have hundreds of supers to remove and stack on a big truck and the flow has ended, the robbing gets quite extreme.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

by the chaotic and messy look of the yard, with bits of kit strewn everywhere - I think you managed to stumble upon a bunch of Canadian cowboys!

 

[Dodge]

by the chaotic and messy look of the yard, with bits of kit strewn everywhere - I think you managed to stumble upon a bunch of Canadian cowboys!

Looks more like daylight robbery, literally.

 

[Ely]

I think I'll stick to clearer boards

 

[Erichalfbee]

This?

 

[Chris Hancock]

So, they end up with just a few frames of bees! I wonder why..... It all looks very brutal and uncaring. I will stick to slower, gentler ways.

 

[rolande]

So, they end up with just a few frames of bees!

Who does?

 

[Chris Hancock]

Sorry, I was referring to those Americans in the video, earlier in this thread.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

but how do they end up with 'just a few frames of bees?'

 

[Chris Hancock]

As stated in the second video, he was talking about the number of frames in the boxes, which seemed quite low for colonies at that time, after seeing them hoovered out of their supers and boxes.

 

[rolande]

As stated in the second video, he was talking about the number of frames in the boxes, which seemed quite low for colonies at that time, after seeing them hoovered out of their supers and box

In the second video the bees are in nuc boxes, three nucs side by side, built to a width to allow two standard ten frame excluders (and stacks of supers) to fit neatly on top. How many frames would you expect in a nuc box?

____________________________

It's best not to judge people who, working in a totally different environment with different local methods than most of us, have built successful 1000+ colony bee businesses from scratch in what, 20 years? Go and read some of his old posts on beesource, it'll give a fairer idea of his thoughtful approach to beekeeping than a couple of videos ever will.

 

[Chris Hancock]

Probably a fair point. I am biased by seeing the transporting of vast numbers of colonies and hoovering that bee-farmers do there, and find that very different from my tiny number of colonies and what I do.

 

[rolande]

Probably a fair point. I am biased by seeing the transporting of vast numbers of colonies and hoovering that bee-farmers do there, and find that very different from my tiny number of colonies and what I do.

I really can understand your point of view but that's why I suggested reading some of his beesource posts, maybe even watch a few more of his videos, from a distance he really does come across as one of the good guys but you need more context than this thread can offer.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Blowing bees out of supers is fairly standard for bee farmers in the UK and Europe as well. Don't blame the Canadians. ?

In the above videos he's clearing partial supers to be robbed out, once, at the end of the season. From other videos I've seen Mr Steppler uses clearer boards in his production sites when he can be taking off 3-4 massive boxes of honey. Visiting apiary twice, first time lift supers with crane/picker insert empty supers and clearer board, second time lift off cleared supers.

Would be more profitable to visit once and blow the bees out of the supers but he doesn't. Some UK bee farmers do.

If you make your living from honey production being 'nice' to your livestock by taking more time may put you out of business.

#edit Keeping 1000 to 1500 colonies in a shed over winter for 5-6 months is extraordinary