Hello Janet & All,

>I have 42 hives, so I guess that makes me almost a sideliner.

The numbers of hives a person runs has little to due with beekeeping
knowledge. However when you run larger numbers you find faster methods of
doing many things which do not seem time consuming for the hobby beekeeper.
See problems  perhaps a smaller beekeeper might not encounter.

 I belong to the Bonsai Society of Kansas City. I own one small bonsai tree.
The tree is around 12 years old. The tree is the only house plant I own. I
am the only family member which cares for the small tree. There are members
of the Bonsai
club which keep close to 200 bonsai. Some are priceless.

Mine is a common juniper.

My tree would most likely not bring the price of a years membership in the
Bonsai society.

However I spent three years in Japan and am well versed in Bonsai. I like my
Bonsai tree but feel sorry for it some times because I have to stunt its
growth so the tree will survive in the ridiculas small pot I keep it in. My
instructions to my family is to plant the tree outside on the hill on my
farm if I should pass before the tree does.

Bonsai tree require attention each day and can die easily. Owning a 100
would only be a huge amount of work. Trees dying each year no doubt.
 The beekeeper with only a hive or two I am sure feels the same way. I am
sure they feel they  can get the same enjoyment from a hive or two as they
can from caring for a 100 hives.

Janet said:
> Fume boards work best for me.

The use of a fume board needs to be done carefully and observations made.

Once you learn the amount of chemical to place on the fume board changes
with many things such as the temperature then you have greater success.
carefully place the chemical on the fume board!

When pulling supers only I put chemical on the fume board. Help is forbidden
too place chemical on fume boards. They are fee to voice the opinion the
boards need chemical.

If help thinks the boards are too slow I place a fume board on a hive and
time the time it takes to remove the bees.

A fume board soaked in chemical is not correct. Less chemical is correct.
Too much chemical has the effect of stupefying the bees and the bees do not
leave the supers!

Too much is not better with bee go nor bee quick!

Always place the fume board crossways and let the bees on top escape the
fumes. Then slide the board into position.

 Once you peek in and the bees have left the super then and only then remove
the super for the honey processing area.

My method is to pick up the super with the fume board still on and sit the
super on the pallet. many times the remaining bees if still in the super
will drop from the bottom to escape the fumes and fly out. Once on the
pallet I quickly remove the fume board and cover the stack with a cover.

I deal with young impatient help which do not want to wait until the bees
exit the super. The problem late in the day is not so much the fume boards
are not doing there job but rather the help is not waiting long enough.

A common problem with bee quick is putting too much product on the fume
board. I did quite a bit of experimenting with bee quick and two never
released versions of the product named turbo & nitro. Both those products my
help liked better than bee go or honey robber.

Tip:
If bee go or honey robber is making your eyes burn most likely you are
putting
too much product on the fume board.

If you can still smell bee go or honey robber in the hot room the next day
in my opinion you used too much product on the fume board.

Bee Quick is the product I feel is safest. Jim Fischer says you could drink
the product without ill effects. I guess I will have to take his word on
that one!

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison


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