Home-made clearing board

[savoyard]

I discovered that if you put extracted (wet) supers back on the hive over a Canadian-type clearer board, the bees find the way up and clean out the supers like there is no tomorrow!

I use the round plastic 8-way escapes, but I have a couple of the plastic "lozenge" escapes, too.

savoyard

 

[psafloyd]

The answer is, they do- if you give them long enough to work it out. These boards work quickly, but they have to. If you're going to leave it on for longer, use porter escapes.

Why is it so quick? How does it work better? Not arguing, just ignorant.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Why is it so quick? How does it work better? Not arguing, just ignorant.

Lot bigger opening for the bee's to exit,and usually two or more of them,so a lot more bee's can exit at the same time,as opposed to the obstruction of a spring in the way,also causing single file traffic, and the tiny opening in the top of the porters. Plus they are normally meshed,so the bee's above,are drawn to the bee's below faster.
But a blower is even faster...lol.

 

[psafloyd]

Lot bigger opening for the bee's to exit,and usually two or more of them,so a lot more bee's can exit at the same time,as opposed to the obstruction of a spring in the way,also causing single file traffic, and the tiny opening in the top of the porters. Plus they are normally meshed,so the bee's above,are drawn to the bee's below faster.
But a blower is even faster...lol.

Gotcha. THanks for that, HM. Quite obvious, really.

 

[oliver90owner]

savoyard,

Wet super frames and clearer board would not be in the same sentence, where my beekeeping is concerned. Why would anyone want a clearer board in this situation?

Coverboard with feeder hole(s) open, an empty super (maybe) and the one to be cleaned up. Job finished by the bees.

Works most times without a hitch. Why make it a 'maze' for the bees to access these wet frames?

RAB

 

[victor meldrew]

savoyard,

Wet super frames and clearer board would not be in the same sentence, where my beekeeping is concerned. Why would anyone want a clearer board in this situation?

Coverboard with feeder hole(s) open, an empty super (maybe) and the one to be cleaned up. Job finished by the bees.

Works most times without a hitch. Why make it a 'maze' for the bees to access these wet frames?

RAB

John W

 

[chalkie]

savoyard,


Coverboard with feeder hole(s) open, an empty super (maybe) and the one to be cleaned up. Job finished by the bees.

Works most times without a hitch.

RAB

Put mine back on like this to be cleaned up last season, the buggers part filled them back up and built wild comb in the empty super so had to leave them on over winter.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Put mine back on like this to be cleaned up last season, the buggers part filled them back up and built wild comb in the empty super so had to leave them on over winter.

Best not to put them back on during a honey flow.

 

[victor meldrew]

And there was a massive late flow where chalkie is! oh! I here also

John Wilkinson

 

[oliver90owner]

Best not to put them back on during a honey flow.

Even so, I had one colony do that to me this last season. Adjacent colony cleaned the one(s) I put on them and then cleaned up the ones from the other colony. The 'good' cleaners did well out the job.

That's why I said "Works most times without a hitch." As others said 'bees do what bees do' and 'Bees do nothing invariably.'

Regards, RAB

 

[Hivemaker.]

Fair enough,stick them back on during a major honey flow then,see if that improves the situation,rather than putting them back on when all honey flows have ceased.lol
Once extracted i store them wet,so don't get this problem.

 

[savoyard]

savoyard,

Wet super frames and clearer board would not be in the same sentence, where my beekeeping is concerned. Why would anyone want a clearer board in this situation?

RAB

In this area (inner-city Bristol) we have a fair bit of autumn forage (ivy, balsam, knot-weed), often even into November.

I have a problem preventing the bees re-occupying returned supers (they will do that through a crown board), and significant difficulty in getting them to lick the supers clean for winter storage.

I tried a lot of things in desperation; when I tried the (round plastic) clearer board, "licking-clean time" dropped from three weeks to 2 days. That included frames rejected from the extraction process.

I can only guess that the isolation fostered by the clearer board provoked some sort of robbing process. I looked carefully but there was no sign of robbing between hives.

I take your point sir, but I am thankful for small mercies.

Savoyard

 

[tonybloke]

an empty super between the crown board and the wet super usually speeds up drying

 

[drstitson]

"an empty super between the crown board and the wet super usually speeds up drying"

thats what WAS suggested BUT bees being bees they may either still regard the upper super as a valid place for stores OR just build wild comb in the lower super to link everything together so to speak.

 

[Skyhook]

Put mine back on like this to be cleaned up last season, the buggers part filled them back up and built wild comb in the empty super so had to leave them on over winter.

Same here (apart from the wild comb). I ended up re-extracting, then feeding them back the unfinished honey. Having since learnt that supers store wet as least as well as dry, I wont bother next year.