Getting the bees off the supers
Updated
On this page8
Getting them off, without hurting them and without starting a fight, is the real skill of harvest day. Extracting is easy by comparison.
Why the bees are up there in the first place
A honey super is not a place bees defend the way they defend brood. The bees on those frames are house bees doing routine work: ripening nectar, capping cells, holding the comb at temperature. The queen and the brood are below, usually kept there by a queen excluder.
That matters, because it means the bees in the super have no strong reason to be there rather than anywhere else. Give them a reason to leave, or a door that only goes one way, and they will go down to the brood nest of their own accord. Every method below is an application of that one fact, which is why they look different and behave the same.
Shake and brush
The simplest approach and the one most first-year beekeepers use. Smoke the hive lightly, lift a frame, and shake it firmly once or twice just above the entrance so the bees drop onto the landing board and walk home. University of Tennessee Extension describes exactly this: hold the frame by the ends of the top bar in front of the colony, a short distance above the entrance, and one or two short strong shakes will dislodge nearly all the bees (Skinner et al., 2004). A soft bee brush handles the stragglers.
The cleared frame goes straight into an empty box with a lid, or a covered tote. Never leave a frame standing open in the yard. An open frame of honey is an advertisement to every forager within flying distance, and a robbing frenzy turns a calm apiary into chaos in minutes.
Verdict. Fine for one or two supers. Past that it gets slow, the bees get irritated, and you start pricing the alternatives.
The escape board
A one-way door. It slides between the brood boxes and the honey super, the bees walk down through it to join the cluster, and they cannot find their way back up. Tennessee Extension notes escapes usually need at least two days to clear all or most of the bees, and that they work best on cool nights when bees are inclined to move down and cluster (Skinner et al., 2004).
The classic Porter escape drops into the hole of an inner cover. It is cheap and it clogs. Triangle and multi-exit boards give the bees several exits and clear a super far more reliably, often overnight. Three rules decide whether you come back to an empty super or a wasted trip.
- Seal every gap above the board. Any crack becomes a robber entrance, and there are no bees left inside to defend it.
- No brood in the super. Bees will not abandon developing young, so a super with brood in it never clears.
- Do not leave it on beyond about 48 hours. Bees learn the maze, and an undefended super attracts wax moths and small hive beetles.
Verdict. The gentlest method and the least likely to leave you with a defensive colony. It costs patience and a second trip to the apiary.
The fume board
A shallow lid with an absorbent pad underneath. You apply a small amount of repellent to the pad, set the board on the open super, and the smell drives the bees downward within minutes (Skinner et al., 2004). Warmth speeds it, which is why beekeepers leave the board in the sun first and why it works best on a bright afternoon.
Two families of repellent are in common use. The older products, sold as Bee-Go and Honey Robber, are based on butyric anhydride and smell like something that has gone badly wrong in a gym bag. They are extremely effective. Newer almond-oil products such as Fischer's Bee-Quick are pleasant to be around and work almost as well.
Use either sparingly. Too much repellent pushes bees out of the brood boxes entirely and leaves them clustered on the front of the hive, and the smell can find its way into the honey.
Verdict. For a first harvest of a couple of supers, the fastest option that does not need a second trip.
The blower
Stand the super on end and blow the bees out from between the frames. Commercial operations do this, and so do hobbyists with a leaf blower and no fear. Tennessee Extension warns that the noise and smell of a blower can irritate bees and make them more defensive, and that bees deep in cells are hard to dislodge (Skinner et al., 2004).
Verdict. Fast, effective, and for a backyard operation usually more trouble than it is worth.
Timing the day
Whatever you choose, a few habits decide how the afternoon goes. Work on a warm sunny day when most foragers are out, so there are fewer bees in the super and fewer at home to object. Keep cleared supers covered at all times. Move deliberately and get the honey indoors or into a closed vehicle as soon as it is off the hive.
Late summer, when most first harvests happen, is exactly when nectar is scarce and robbing pressure is at its highest. Do not give the neighbors' bees an opening.
What comes off the hive next
Cleared supers do not keep indefinitely at room temperature. Get them to uncapping promptly, or read holding it before bottling for what to do if extraction is a few days away.