03 August 2007

Arsy-Versy

To start the honey collection process, I have chosen to try to remove the bees from the supers using Porter bee escapes. Not tried these before, and they are mysteriously marked TOP on one side... Inserted a board above and below the topmost super, with the Porter bee escapes in them to allow bees out, not in...

Well, that's the theory, anyway. Apparently it is more usual to put a board with an escape in underneath the super, and put a solid board on the top. Because I don't have any solid boards (note to self: make one!) I had to use a crown board with a bee escape in upside-down.


Unless, of course, I've put them in arsy-versy, in which case all the bees will be trapped.


The boards were put in on Wednesday evening, so Plan A says I collect the super, minus the bees, on Saturday...
Pic stolen from the excellent http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/port.html, David Cushman, who clearly has as many computers as bees.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You don't really need a solid crown board, y'know. Use a normal one with gaffer tape to block the holes. The first time I tried this, I was worried that the bees would get stuck to the tape, but that never seems to happen.