<<<<Is there a preferred method of removing the bees from the super?
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       I use benzaldehyde (banana oil) on a fume board.  I have to remember
to smoke the bees in the top super a little to get them started down.
       Some colonies leave each super in a matter of minutes; others are
slower.  If any brood is in the extracting super, the bees may not leave no
matter what the beekeeper does.
       I would like to know when a professional beekeeper would consider a
super empty of bees.  The supers I take off often still have a good many
bees
in them.>>>>>
Benzaldehyde is a noxious chemical and is considered, I believe,
carcinogenic so should be handled carefully.
For the small beekeeper I can think of nothing better that the Porter
escaoe, which has been in use for over one hundred years.  They will empty
supers to the last bee, cost little and do not wear out.  I am still using
escapes bought forty years ago.  Then they were all metal but today they
appear in plastic.  Two or three fitted to the escape board will clear a
number of supers in 24 to 36 hours.
Some argue that one must visit the hives twice.  True, but on the first
visit you lift off the supers, place the board, replace the supers.  Not
much of a problem there.  On the second visit  you lift off beeless supers
with no interference to the colony and remove the board.
It is used again when the wet combs put back for drying out have to be
removed for storage.            Sid P.