Difficulty clearing supers

[Finman]

.
Very simple task to take honey frames off from the hive.

If you have couple of hives, you have time to shake and brush the frames. If you have several hives and over one year experience, you surely know what to do.

What I learned some years ago....If you shake bees into hive over other bees, they become angry. But if you shake them in front of the hive, it goes well. Evening is not correct time to shake.

The same clearing board works sometimes well and sometimes not so well.

 

[psafloyd]

I put clearing boards with rhombus escapes on both my colonies yesterday morning with a shallow home made eke underneath each clearing board, to allow the clearing bees space to disperse. Both colonies have 2 supers which need to come off. Last year I did this and 24 hours later the supers were almost clear of bees. I was expecting the same today, but today the supers were still full of bees and it looked like hardly any had exited. I was somewhat bemused by this and also pushed for time because i had been hoping to get the supers off and dropped off at home before I went to work, so I didn't have much time to decide what to do. In the end I took the clearing boards off and decided I would try again in a few days.

Any ideas why would they not have gone down? Should I have waited a bit longer before checking? They are both quite large colonies on double brood but I thought 24 hours would be ample. I live 10 miles from where my bees are so it's not very convenient for me to just pop down to check if the supers have cleared or not.

(before anyone asks I had not put the clearing boards on upside down)

They're a pain, aren't they. I took three off one hive and they had no more than a few bees in, but the other was a whole other story.

And the wasps! Didn't see a wasp until September last year. They're all over the place now.

 

[mbc]

Some good advice on the thread already, a note of caution though, 15 mins in the open when theres no flow on here may initiate robbing.
If I wish to harvest in one visit I make a few stacks of supers with clearer boards or travelling screens top and bottom, and the "ripe berries" trick holds good by the time I've finished the apiary and got back to the first stack.

 

[Finman]

Some good advice on the thread already, a note of caution though, 15 mins in the open when theres no flow on here may initiate robbing.
.

That is true. Last clearings before autumn feeding are difficult because robbers are alarmed at once. Dead bodies stuck clearing boards too.

But I am speaking about taking honey away now. You have there still July.

Like I said, to take honey frames off from hive is not difficult. ...Unless if you do not want it to be.

 

[Ely]

How many supers can you realistically expect to clear at once using a rhombus board? Also, what is the maximum time you can get away with leaving it there to clear as much bees as possible? The reason I ask is this is the first season I've tried to clear 4 supers at once and also the first year using the rhombus escape. Left over night and still a lot of bees in there. Also a very angry colony, I couldn't see for bees pinging. Shouldn't complain at my first decent harvest as it is the second d extractio this summer after a decent spring harvest also but I must havedone something wrong with the rhombus technique. Sorry to hijack but I don't think it warrants a new thread. Cheers

 

[itma]

You need to provide space to clear the bees into.
You might, for example, add a new super on the QX, then 2 of your supers, clearer board and two supers to be cleared.

I'd then extract those top two supers, and return them (between new super and rhombus, with the other two supers moved above.

After extracting the other two, I'd probably put one back on the hive and remove that new super. So never reducing the hive space to less than 3 supers (having had 4 on the hive to begin with.
And the other wet super could be the "new super" for the next hive.

I'd collect any 'too much uncapped' frames that I'd decided not to extract yet, and put them in the top box. Its barely August yet, and the bees still have large colonies and plenty work to get on with!


Nothing special regarding the rhombus - you should be thinking in this sort of way whatever clearer board you might be using.

 

[Ely]

Thanks. Not much of a flow at the moment here so I took it as an opportunity to harvest before I go back to uni at the end of August. Not ideal really

 

[Swarm]

I've done three with Poly Hive's modified rhombus, I wouldn't attempt more in one go. Itma is on the money, two at a time and a bit of space is probably the best. Those three supers were probably the best result, with no bees left at all. I usually get some stragglers but only a few.
Poly Hive left one of these boards on for five days and the supers were still clear.