Porter Escapes

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I purchased some Porter Escapes to fit to a crown board I am going to make & I noticed the two thin sheet steel springs have a big varaiation in gaps between them in the quantity I bought. One is about 7mm, one 12mm, I thought they would need to be consistent to work in one direction. I am tempted to bin them & make a rhombus a separate rhombus clearer board. Can anybody tell me if this variation in gap is OK & also an opinion on the rhombus board would be good. Thanks Nick
 
No, it is not acceptable. If you intend to use them, then you must set the gap to 4mm I think. Mind you, not used them for a long time, as I use rhombus escapes. Easier to cut the holes if making your own boards, and much more efficient than Porters.
 
Hi Nick

Some people are ok with porter bee escapes, but they do have drawbacks.
Bees can get stuck in them, they get propolised, and as you have found they have to be adjusted just so, and generally on here the received wisdom is to use rhombus escapes. Easier to use, easier to clean and as Drex says, making the hole is much easier. Some use them cut in half, half in each corner (with a suitable hole!) to clear the bees more quickly.

David
 
They slide apart. Just squeeze or part the metal till there is a small gap. They will need cleaning after each use as the bees propolis them up. If you are making your own holes in your crown board they need to be longer than the oblong bit of the escape for the bees to get out but no bigger than the oval bit!!
E
 
I am tempted to bin them & make a separate rhombus clearer board

:yeahthat:

Porter escapes are too much of a faff to be bothering with, constantly bunged up by and with bees
A rhombus board (other variations are available) is a no-brainer imo
 
I purchased some Porter Escapes to fit to a crown board I am going to make & I noticed the two thin sheet steel springs have a big varaiation in gaps between them in the quantity I bought. One is about 7mm, one 12mm, I thought they would need to be consistent to work in one direction. I am tempted to bin them & make a rhombus a separate rhombus clearer board. Can anybody tell me if this variation in gap is OK & also an opinion on the rhombus board would be good. Thanks Nick

Throw the porter escapes in the rubbish immediately (or the recycling if you want to save the planet :D) and make yourself a rhombus escape.
 

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Well that looks pretty unanimous, I had already purchased some rhombus escapes & I have some ply so I will forget the porter escapes & make a couple of rhombus boards. The springs do look a bit delicate & if they get covered in propolis, it would seem a lot of fiddling around, cleaning and resetting.
Thanks for all the replies.
Nick
 
while at the construction I would suggest making some solid Crown Boards so you are not tempted to feed through the porter holes and thus feed dribs and dribbles rather than a damn good feed via a rapid feeder.

If the temptation aint there.....

PHJ
 
I wouldn't recommend Porter Escapes to anyone, they are crap.

Rhombus or the round escapes are better.
I made my own crownboards and have built an eke into them, life is much easier when feeding or using apiguard now. I don't have loads of fragile eke's in storage.
 
while at the construction I would suggest making some solid Crown Boards so you are not tempted to feed through the porter holes and thus feed dribs and dribbles rather than a damn good feed via a rapid feeder.

If the temptation aint there.....

PHJ
That's a good shout to make some crown boards for feeding, I bought a couple of 8' x 4' sheets of ply, so I have the material. So, I would put a large hole in for my feeder & then make a cover for the feeder hole when not in use. Would you then add a vent to the crown board, say a piece of mesh in the crown board or doesn't that achieve a lot?
 
Would you then add a vent to the crown board, say a piece of mesh in the crown board or doesn't that achieve a lot?

If you were to put mesh over a hole in the crown board, in all likelihood the girls will promptly propolise the mesh until it was airtight.

That's what happened to feeder mesh I experimented with in:
http://heretics-guide.site90.com/beek02.htm
(8th photograph down) after accidently leaving that mesh open.
LJ
 
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It not only fails to achieve anything it is detrimental. Try putting some insulation over your CB instead the bees will appreciate that a great deal more.

PH
 
For what it's worth the last Porter Bee escapes I ever bought had plastic springs and worked fine with no bees getting stuck. A big improvement on the old metal springs.
Although I prefer Rhombus and 8 way escapes for their speed of clearing. Sometimes needs must and if I find I'm short of clearer's on they go.
 
If you were to put mesh over a hole in the crown board, in all likelihood the girls will promptly propolise the mesh until it was airtight.

That's what happened to feeder mesh I experimented with in:
http://heretics-guide.site90.com/beek02.htm
(8th photograph down) after accidently leaving that mesh open.
LJ

That's exactly what I have found - which, to me, is the best indicator of what bees think about a hole in the cover board!!
 
Back in the day I bought a colony which had had a travelling screen left on it.

A very clear message was there to be read.

It said: We do not like nor will we tolerate a draughty attic.

The whole thing was solid with propolis.

Learn from the bees. They mostly know best.

PH
 
For what it's worth the last Porter Bee escapes I ever bought had plastic springs and worked fine with no bees getting stuck. A big improvement on the old metal springs.
Although I prefer Rhombus and 8 way escapes for their speed of clearing. Sometimes needs must and if I find I'm short of clearer's on they go.

Has anyone tried using an old cotton pillowcase with almond oil sprinkled on it?

I was at a bee convention last weekend and one of the members of The Bee Farmers Association said it works very very quick in clearing a super and no need for bee escapes of any sort.
Lift off the crown board from the super place over the top of the frames and pop the lid back on for 5 minutes. The bees hate the smell of the almond oil and retreat down into the brood box. Works very quickly as they need to remove supers and move onto the next colony.

Worth a try?
 

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