> I also used a blower for a few years...a 'super' blower such as that made by Dadant, that
I got used.  It did a great job but really had to be used with a 'chute' for the super.

I have used a blower from Dadant for more years than I care to remember.  It certainly does a great job, although I had to replace the hose with something a bit less prone to splitting.

The blower is fixed to the bed of my trailer and in most apiaries I can use it without having to lift it off.  I have found that putting it close to hives upsets them, presumably from the vibration and especially the field from the sparking plug ( I have had so many bees trying to sting the rubber cap on the sparking plug that they shorted it out and stopped the engine!).

I have never used a chute as I do not think it a good idea to blow the bees down on to the ground at high speed.  I always try to blow them up into clear air so that they are not injured.

Two methods of working:
If you can work from behind the hives then you can simply stand the super on end on the top of the lower supers and blow the bees out with the hive open.
My preferred method is to place the hive roofs about four feet in front of the hives, and stack all the supers on them slightly staggered.  Then I can just tilt the top super up and blow the bees out.  I blow from the top of the super first, then tip it the other way and blow from the bottom (if you blow from the bottom first you often wedge lots of bees near the top where the combs are usually a bit closer together.

In apiaries where I cannot get the trailer in far enough I simply stack the supers on roofs outside the apiary and by the trailer; then blow the bees out there - super bees will have flown before, so will be back in the hives in minutes.

Supers then go on the trailer and are covered with a tarpaulin.  As there will always be bees trying to get on to the supers, I then drive a few hundred yards and draw back the tarpaulin for a couple of minutes to let them fly home.  Repeat as necessary until there are no bees left.

Best wishes

Peter 
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W

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