Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The only problem is that there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of bees in the honey
supers on the combs and so, first of all, you have to get rid of them. There are various
ways of doing this and the main ways are shown below but before you do anything
else, check each hive for signs of American foul brood (AFB) and European foul brood
(EFB). After you have removed the honey, the empty frames may be placed in other
hives, and this will spread the disease.
The various ways of removing bees from the supers are, however, as follows.
Bee escape boards
Many hobbyist beekeepers place a bee escape board between the brood boxes and the
supers. The bees go down to the brood box at night through this escape board, and it
prevents them passing up again. These boards are simple affairs, with a hole or holes
in them. Over these holes, various devices can be fitted that allow the bees a one-way
passage downwards.
There is one escape board beloved of the hobbyist: the Porter bee escape, which I
found to clog up with drone bees within minutes, so becoming useless. The little wire
valves in these things are also propolized by bees and so, again, they become useless and
difficult to clean properly. The idea is that you place the board overnight in between the
supers and the brood box and return to the hive the next day to remove the now empty
supers.
Whichever type of bee valve you use, make sure it has multiple escapes so that, if one
becomes clogged up, the bees can use others. Even with a bee escape board, you may
experience problems because many bees will remain on the honeycombs overnight,
especially when it is warm. The other disadvantage - especially for commercial
beekeepers - is that you have to visit the apiary twice: once to place the boards on the
hives and then the next day to remove the honey.
Fume Boards
Fume boards are frames the same size as a hive lid covered with tin. In these boards is
an absorbent fabric that soaks up a liquid bee repellent. The tin is usually black so that
the boards warm up in the sun and thus help the liquid to evaporate more easily. The
