Rhombus bee escapes?

[Levitt53]

I've just ordered one for use next year and I cannot see how it would keep bees out. It came with two porter bee escapes which I assume we're just freebies. Like everything these days it came with no instructions. I know I screw it over one hole in the crown board and block the other up but the entrance looks big enough for a bee to get back in. Can someone enlighten me?

 

[mbc]

Its just a puzzle, they can stream out but take a good few hours to work out their way back in. I like to put boards on in the evening and collect supers in the morning. Its not a precise art and depending on conditions not all of the bees will have cleared or some will have worked their way back up but I still think they're so much better than porter escapes.
About 48 hrs is their limit in my experience, have them on any longer and the bees will have figured it out pretty much.

 

[Curley]

And remember to have it on the underside of the clearer board. And have an eke underneath to leave room for all the bees you are displacing. As MBC says a few hours is enough to clear. This year I cleared four hives using these. Three cleared beautifully overnight leaving a very few bees and the fourth didn't and was still full of bees and had to be shaken off,frame by frame.

 

[Fatbee]

And remember to put the board the right way up when putting between supers - so the rhombus board on the bottom underneath. You feel a twerp when you don't (in speaking from experience ). They're brilliant though, you'll never go back to porter escapes

 

[REDWOOD]

I've just ordered one for use next year and I cannot see how it would keep bees out. It came with two porter bee escapes which I assume we're just freebies. Like everything these days it came with no instructions. I know I screw it over one hole in the crown board and block the other up but the entrance looks big enough for a bee to get back in. Can someone enlighten me?

You would be better off making a dedicated clearing board with a 33 mm hole in the centre and placing that on top of a 25mm eke. Drawing or map pins are strong enough to hold it in place.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes you need that eke or an empty super under the one you are taking off. I have made my own with a hole in each corner and half an escape over that. If you have made your own clearer board and you have the underside quite deep it's amazing how many bees are in it when you take it off. They are all young bees and excellent material for making a nuc up by the way

 

[Levitt53]

Thanks all. I'll trust it will work and hopefully remember to put it the right way. (Probably something i'm prone to doing).

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Pretty simple how it works really - bees go through the hole to get to the box underneath but mesh is in the way - they walk along the escape until they get out through the exit and go about their business. Bees wanting to get back up into the super see the hole and try to get into it but can't as the mesh is in the way - when they come across the exit gap they don't associate it with the hole to get into the super so ignore it.
I've left a rhombus clearer on for over two days before now (no choice) and not one bee has found its way back

You would be better off making a dedicated clearing board with a 33 mm hole in the centre and placing that on top of a 25mm eke. Drawing or map pins are strong enough to hold it in place.

It's important that you don't make the hole too big - the smaller the better really.
25mm space is ample, I have some boards 19 and 21mm depth. I make clearer boards just for that purpose with a permanently fixed 25mm (ish) rim.
With most of mine I've cut the rhombus in two and cut two holes at opposite corners near the edge, but to be perfectly honest they clear the supers no quicker or better than a single rhombus (which has two exits) over a single small 30mm or so hole in the middle.

 

[enrico]

I found I could fit two to one clearer board if you drill your own holes. Works like a dream.
E

 

[Poly Hive]

Ok. Loads of thoughts here but.

Cut said clearer in half. That is in the middle cut it.

Buy some ply and the 10mm rectangular profile strips from good old DIY.

Nail the strip round the board to make a rough and ready bee space. On the other side nail on what ever is handy in the wood dept. As it will only be on for 10 0r 12 hours.

Drill two 1" holes in opposite corners and put the two half clearers over them and secure by nailing or gluing or both.

Thats is. KISS Works a treat.

PH

 

[Teebeeaitch]

Sorry Polyhive, but that's over egging it and it's not KISS. Do as Redwood and JBM have suggested. It works and that is a KISS principle.

 

[Poly Hive]

I introduce the the KISS principle here and what I have described has worked for over 50 years that I know of. Two holes are better than one and I believe work faster too.

Or if one were to be a real tight wad you could make two boards from the one escape, or to take it yet another stage further why pay for the escape they are very simple to make. KISS again.


PH

 

[bontbee]

I find rhombus clearers work really well - in all respects. They clear quickly - max 24 hours, (as long as there is sufficient space in the boxes below the clearer board for all the bees). And, unless it's just that my bees are as thick as me, they don't seem to find their way back in a hurry: I put a rhombus on two hives intending to return the next day but, in the end, didn't get back for three weeks. I anticipated that the lower boxes would be stuffed with honey retrieved from the cleared (ie now empty!) supers, but no, the crop was still there. The ventilation holes of the rhombus were partially blocked with wax/propolis, but the exit holes were unaltered.

 

[maddydog]

Thats is. KISS Works a treat.

PH

Use a leaf blower.

Rhombus escapes seem to work for lots of folk, but not me.

 

[Vortex]

I've been using these for 3 years now.. would never go back to porters.
As bontbee said will clear a super, well actually up to 3, in 24 hours.
I have dedicated double sided clearer boards for them, as they are slightly thicker than 8mm bee space, and Langstroths are top space.
Clean them in washing soda solution.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I made a board by cutting the rhombus in half over two holes, and tried it alongside a board with just the one hole/escape. I found the single hole/escape worked more quickly so, even though it could just have been the peculiarity of that particular colony, have never bothered with that board again and it's lurking somewhere in the shed.

I think that somewhere on Dave Cushman's site there's a paragraph or two about how a maximum of 30mm works better than a larger hole in the board.

If you haven't got an eke or the wherewithal to make a rim for a clearer board then just put it above an empty super.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

And remember to have it on the underside of the clearer board. And have an eke underneath to leave room for all the bees you are displacing. As MBC says a few hours is enough to clear. This year I cleared four hives using these. Three cleared beautifully overnight leaving a very few bees and the fourth didn't and was still full of bees and had to be shaken off,frame by frame.

Was it Q-? That's when that happens to me.

 

[Poly Hive]

Obviously makers vary but whilst clearing out the cellar yesterday ready to pack it in a van next week I can across a half rhombus which easily could be cut in two again. So one bit of plastic could be cut to fit two boards.

Then again with two bits of lath and some mesh no plastic is needed really.

PH

 

[Millet]

I made one of these, i have not used it yet so i do not know how effective they are but i am sure i will find out one day.

http://www.beeculture.com/make-a-triangle-bee-escape-heck-make-one-for-every-hive/

 

[REDWOOD]

I wonder if hivemaker still has the photos from the thread below so users can see
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11959