In my year 25 experience, removing (Robbing) honey has always been a chore.
 
In the past I have tried everything from brushing the individual frames to
using my scuba tank's pressurized air to blow the bees out of the supers.
 
This season, I tried one of the Escape boards from Brushy Mountain.  I was
amazed at how quickly the bees moved out of the 4 supers.  In 12 hours, I
was able to pop the cover, find not a single bee in each of the 4 supers,
and quickly remove them without disturbing the brood chambers.
 
After extracting the honey (averaged 65 pounds this year per hive), I put
the supers back on over a queen excluder for clean up.
 
Two days passed, put the Escape board back on.  Next day removed the
cleaned supers to store for winter.
 
I have tried Fume boards with mixed success.  S. Calif. sun gets really
hot.  Putting a fume board on hive with 4 supers and a queen excluder can
really send a hive into a frenzy and drive the bees right out of the front
entrance.
 
Plus the idea of using another chemical in my hives flies against my
approach to drug free beekeeping and untainted honey.
 
Granted the Fume board may be useful for larger apiaries, but for most
hobby beekeepers less than 10 hives, I recommend an Escape Board.
 
Paul Cronshaw DC
Cyberchiro
Hobby Beekeeper
Santa Barbara,  CA
 
 
 
   Date:    Tue, 3 Sep 1996 13:21:14 -0400
From:    Ted Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: End of Honey Season Even
 
  REGARDING           RE>End of Honey Season Events
 
Doug Henry wrote:
"Normally when I remove full supers I tip them on their side and wait for
bees to leave and then I take the full supers to area where i do my
exr\tracting. Generally this is uneventful. This weekend however it was
not so easy. The removed supers were quickly set upon by hordes of bees
from other colonies. I had to put them under shelter before all the honey
was stolen. I took advantage of this by putting out a super of old honey I
had from last year that didn't get extracted for some reason. When I
checked it tonight it was completely empty. I noticed a lot of wax powder
and dead bees around the super.
 
I assume the wax debris is from removed cappings. I'm puzzeled by the
dead bees. Could this be a result of inter-colony fighting? "
 
I think that your method of removing bees can often lend itself to the sort of
experiences you just reported.  Perhaps in the middle of a good honey flow you
could get away with this, but I feel it is a poor management practice in
general.  Try instead using fume boards.
 
For many years I resisted the use of fume boards, but now have become a real
convert.  If the weather is at all warm, fume boards will clear out 90-100% of
the bees in about 3 minutes.  The rest can easily be blown out with a bee
blower, if necessary.  I can remove honey supers and stack them on my truck as
fast as I am able, without getting the bees upset in the least, or stimulating
robbing.  Even though the supers are temporarily open on the truck, the bees
never even notice them, because with fume boards there is no great disruption
and flying about.  There is no robbing, no fighting among the bees, no
stinging of the beekeeper.  One caution, however: the weather must be warm.
In cool weather, the bees will not move, even with the boards.
 
Ted Fischer