Rhombus Escape Times

[Beefriendly]

For what it's worth my rhombus clearing is not as efficient as usual. I presume due to this warm weather making them less inclined to move down into the warmth below the rhombus. Just cleared 18 supers on a 20 hours rhombus "escape" time. They worked, but there were far far more bees remaining than normal. Usually you end with a dozen or so, sometimes non...this time we are taking nearer a 100, more in one or two cases. A lot of extra shaking and brushing was required.
If it stays warm like this I will give them 48 hours clearing time and scrape the new comb off the rhombus later.

 

[madasafish]

Fair point madasafish - I was thinking - but didn't make it clear - about clearing overnight.

Jenkins - a well thought out, polite post backed up with a sound rationale as always, thank you.

If I had to choose between a well argued post and Jenkins, I would choose Jenkins. He's far more knowledgeable than most (and certainly me!) - and experienced as well.. I can live with brevity - when it's the correct answer

 

[Swift Nick]

Just for info, I did what I said & put the rhombus clearer’s on, last Friday at about 3pm, Saturday at 11am the supers were cleared (almost), about 6 or 8 bees left in each one.
Ended up with 45lb of my first honey, a nice straw colour, 17% water content, very pleased.

 

[Beefriendly]

Ended up with 45lb of my first honey, a nice straw colour, 17% water content, very pleased.

It will be the best tasting honey in the world. Well done.

 

[Swift Nick]

It will be the best tasting honey in the world. Well done.

Thanks, yes it was (to us), had a lot of good advice from my association and this forum, it’s a steep learning curve, but well worth it, much more to learn.

 

[Millet]

I made three rhombus boards a while back and i am yet to use them, all i do is shake the bees of the frame and brush the stragglers it takes very little time to do one super, even less time when the full frames are capped.

 

[Eyeman]

Yup...that is what I find (or should say found after a week)...you often find the waxers hanging in threads from the Rhombus the next morning.


Not had this problem with the plastic sprung jobs which did the job okay...seen figure of 8 clearer's where they figure out how to get back, but never in significant numbers.

Had rhombus clearer's fail to clear overnight but that only seem to happen in very congested colonies and in warm weather. My suspicion is they leave because they are seeking heat below. All my current clearing is resulting in higher than usual bees remaining in the supers in this heat wave...
My garden sun trap where I often sit with a G&T on warm evening recorded 45.5C this afternoon.

Here are a couple of rhombus escapes mounted on reversible crown boards left in for a week. Plenty of natural comb and honey!