Porter bee escape board when to insert it ?

[Michael Palmer]

Throw the porters in the bin and make a decent clearer board.

Amen. Put the Porters in your museum and use a triangle escape board. Installed whenever.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Whatever they manage to put in the new, undrawn super will be theirs for the winter when I will put it underneath as I did last year. I shall also begin Apiguard.

This is my plan for good or ill as it is time I started thinking for myself now and create my own husbandry methods.

Good God man! think a little more - the summer crop hasn't even begun yet!!!
Your 'plan' has definitely got a lot more ill in it than good.
August onwards is the time to think of last extraction and late August at the earliest for apiguard. You knock back the varroa now and smugly sit back until spring and you will find that by late September/October, when the bees are busily rearing the winter the colony will once again be riddled with mites and the bees hopelessly compromised.
Are you involved in the Brexit negotiations by any chance

 

[ShinySideUp]

Good God man! think a little more - the summer crop hasn't even begun yet!!!
Your 'plan' has definitely got a lot more ill in it than good.
August onwards is the time to think of last extraction and late August at the earliest for apiguard. You knock back the varroa now and smugly sit back until spring and you will find that by late September/October, when the bees are busily rearing the winter the colony will once again be riddled with mites and the bees hopelessly compromised.
Are you involved in the Brexit negotiations by any chance

I didn't include my whole plan in my post. I take honey relatively early in the season as I'm not particularly bothered about making large amounts as I have no intention of selling it commercially and I can only get rid of so much to family, friends and my wife's work colleagues. My main intention is to get my bees through the winter as I take satisfaction for a job well done and what better thing to feed them in winter than their own produce? I did it last year and both colonies came through strong with only 2kg of sugar used in the entire year (and I probably didn't need that either). The mid-year Apiguard treatment is not my sole attempt at varroa control, I am also going to put a half-frame in and use drone cell management and then for the bees' Christmas present I trickle oxalic acid down the seams.


And in answer to your last question, no. I voted and now it's not my problem anymore and I take no further interest as there is absolutely nothing I can do. We'll see what happens next March.

 

[SDM]

Throw the porters in the bin and make a decent clearer board.

It had to happen eventually

 

[ShinySideUp]

What is it that people find so awful about Porter bee escapes? I used them last year and the bees went out through them and couldn't get back in which surely is all one wants. I just checked they weren't propolised and the openings were the right size and they worked fine. I can't see what the big deal is.

 

[Curly green fingers]

What is it that people find so awful about Porter bee escapes? I used them last year and the bees went out through them and couldn't get back in which surely is all one wants. I just checked they weren't propolised and the openings were the right size and they worked fine. I can't see what the big deal is.

as they say shiny each to there own!

 

[Beefriendly]

You can boil it down to porters having moving parts (the springs)....these can go wrong. Rhombus/triangles/figure of 8 etc have non so can't go wrong....unless you have a hive totally rammed full of bees and then these don;'t work either.
I've always found at least 24 hours works best with these...those who say it works in a few hours have never used my bees.