> Is there a preferred method of removing the bees from the super?
 
>       ... 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.
 
This varies with the circumstances, however as a general rule, for each
500 to 1000 standard boxes we extract, we have at most one or two
basketball sized clusters of bees that arrive in the hot room and go to
the windows.  We probably lose as many again on the way from the yards.
 
Since we remove honey only in good foraging weather where possible, the
bees start leaving the boxes voluntarily from the moment they are removed
from the hives, and continue while they are being stacked on the truck.
 
If you are able to pull the honey during a good honeyflow, simply removing
the super(s) and standing them on end on the ground will result in
virtually no bees remaining after a timespan of somewhere from several
minutes to a day depending on circumstances.  A bee blower is a handy
device to have if things do not work out as planned and we always carry
one (when we remember), however we seldom use it, since it is noisy,
smelly, and time-consuming.
 
The method described above is called 'tipping' or 'abandonment' and is
widely used in Western Canada.  There have been exhaustive discussions on
this method of removing honey previously here on BEE-L and Gordon has
preserved them at http://www.apis.demon.co.uk/December-96.html
 
If you don't have web access -- or just prefer an email copy,  just reply
to me [log in to unmask] -- not to this list, please -- with a message
that has the words "send abandon" in the subject line and you will
receive the text of that discussion as an email message.
 
 Allen