At 02:26 PM 7/15/96 +0000, you wrote:
>At 09:48 AM 7/15/96 -0500, you wrote:
>
>  As of right now, unless I learn of a way to
>>     make them more effective, I will go back to Bee Escape screens.
>>     It may have caused another trip to the apiary but in the past
>>     with them I didn't have to spend the day killing my charges.
>>
>        Hi Mark:
>
>        I'm certainly not as experienced or as knowledgable as many others
>        on the list; and I'm sure you'll get many other suggestions but
>        here's my method..for what its worth.
>
>        After experiencing mostly frustration with bee escapes and being
>        unwilling to mess with fume boards, I happened on an article in
>        Bee culture magazine last year that described shaking and brushing
>        as a means of removing bees from supers.
>
>        I bring an empty super with me when I am going to pull off honey
>        supers. Frist I remove all the supers on a given hive. Then I pull
>        each super frame, give it a sharp shake (do not knock) over the
>        hive to dislodge most of the bees, then quickly brush off the
>        stragglers. The frame then goes into the empty super. I place a
>        piece of plywood on a hand truck, put the super on the plywood and
>        cover with a spare outer cover. The process is repeated with each frame
>        to be extracted. When transporting I strap the plywood, supers and
cover
>        together with my Kevlock straps, maintaining a bee tight package.
>
>        Now for the qualifications.
>
>        * This process is done most efficiently  with two people
>        * I was only working three hives w/3 supers/ea...this method may be
>          too labor intensive for more than, say, 10 hives.
>
>        Hope this is of some help.
>
>
>Tim Peters, Kirby VT
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>KirBee Apiary, Bear Bait Honey
>I rather be flying!
>
I tried the brush and shake method a few years ago and just about got
carried off in the robbing frenzy that followed.  I've since used a fume
board and no smoke.  I just put it on top of the hive and in about 5 min the
bees are out and they don't try to take super away from me while loading.
The key to using a fume board is to paint it flat black and use it in hot
sunshine.
 
Frank Humphrey
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