>> "But note that Allen says that a good honey flow is necessary for
>> this method to work.  Many of us wait to extract until honey flows
>> are long gone. Tipping supers might excite our bees to robbing of
>> historic dimensions!"
 
>There is another method that's been used here with good result.
>Instead of using an escape board on the hive, we have an escape bottom
>that stands on the ground beside the hive. A bottom board with only
>one small hole that's facing the entrance of the hive.
<etc.>
 
A bee escape board can also be used on a floor on the ground, not
necessarily facing -- or near -- the hive.
 
The advantage is the lifting is reduced. The disadvantage is that if
the weather and bee activity levels are not right, the bees can and
will not be attracted by a hive below thru the screen, as they are
in the more conventional use, and will remain a long time -- perhaps
indefinitely.  However robbers cannot enter if all other holes are
taped.
 
This is an abandonment method, and relies on a good level of bee
flight and will not work reliably if the bees are clustered.
 
These methods require an ability to observe and understand bee
activity.  This activity varies very considerably from one time of
year to another.  This is particularly true of how the bees relate
to their home, and how they find it.
 
BTW, We were out removing honey the other day and decided to put
some of my claims to the test.
 
Normally, I don't think about what I am doing much.  I just do what
the bees tell me to do -- without being particularly conscious of
how my activities vary with time of day, weather, location, wind,
etc., and things usually work out fine.  My guys are pretty good
beekeepers too, and they just adjust to the situation as they go.
 
Having written about such a complex and intuitive subject, I was
challenged -- in my own mind, at least -- to consciously observe and
explain better, and to confirm for myself what I wrote.
 
Of course, things are never as simple in the beeyard as they are on
paper or a computer screen, but in other ways, they are much simpler.
 It is much easier to do these things than to try to explain them.
 
Anyhow...  the flow is over, we have had killer frost, the day was
sunny and in the low to mid twenties (C) or mid 70's (F) with a
light to moderate south wind.
 
The yard consisted of 24 hives -- four per pallet, laid out so that
3 pallets are in a semi-circle on the west of where the truck sits to
load, and 3 are on the east.  On the south end are a group of 15
splits (no honey supers) we made as the flow wound down.
 
Of course, we do not move the truck into loading position until the
honey is clear of bees and stacked up ready to load. We park it well
out of the way. The nearest other bees are a yard of 24, 1/2 mile
away.  They did not seem to become involved.
 
We started to tip about noon, opening all hives, and smoking the top
box, then removing it and placing it on end to one side of the
entrance.  We then smoked all the hives (on top only to drive bees,
and particularly queens down) and removed the next box and placed it
next to the previous one, on end.
 
Periodically we carefully smoked the pulled boxes to disorganise
the bees and to break the loose clusters that had formed because of
the lack of flow.  Bees began to flow up to the top surface and fly
away.
 
We observed that where the supers touched the hive and one another,
the bees would march right into the entrance like a swarm without
flying.  If a stick or a bit of comb was made into a bridge, they
would walk across to the hive, fanning as they went.  Of course, some
just flew.
 
The wind had a considerable effect; the bees that had their hive
downwind from the supers on the ground had a lot more trouble
walking home than those which were downwind of the hive.  In one
case, the hive scent and fanning of the entrance bees was carried to
them, in the other, it was lost on the wind.
 
We were initially putting lids back on hives that were complete (down
to the two brood boxes), but had to remove them again because
robbing started up.  Once all the lids were off, there was still *a
bit* of robbing, but the bees settled right down, and stinging
ceased.  Of course we put all the lids on -- after a tetracycline
dusting and feeding -- as we left the yard.
 
We were in a rush, and had to clean up the boxes with a blower (on
low speed), before stacking them up and loading them, but given time,
all the bees would have been gone.  With all the lids off the loss
due to robbing was very insignificant.
 
That last trick was one I learned right here on BEE-L, so thanks to
the individual who posted it some year or two ago.  It has proven a
handy trick more than a time or two.
 
An interesting result of this time we had taken to observe and better
understand was that my helper, Matt came up with a variant on tipping
the next day.  He discovered he was able to stand the thirds on end
on top of the seconds (which were still on the hive) smoke lightly
and watch the bees march down into the hive.  This was quick,
involved less bending down, and resulted in less bees lost.
 
He cleaned up once again with a blower in order to be able to
leave quickly, but most of the bees went down by themselves.
 
Since we did not use excluders this year, we are always worried
about losing queens (hence the liberal and regular smoking on top
only), so this was a good method from several points of view.  (We
discovered there was no advantage to leaving the excluders off, but
many, many disadvantages).
 
An interesting thing about tipping, as distinct from simple
abandonment is that the boxes are placed *on end*.
 
For some reason, when the boxes are placed on end, the bees become
disoriented and run up and down.  And BTW: boxes on end are very
easy to scrape compared to those in normal position, and when we
need to scrape top bars in the spring, we tip the hive forward.
Otherwise populous hives are hard to scrape because the bees boil up
so fast.
 
At any rate, when boxes are tipped on end, the bees leave very nuch
faster than on the flat, partly because of this efect, and also
because of the exposure of both top and bottom to light and air.
It helps to align the boxes so that the sun shines directly in
the space between the combs.
 
Anyhow, I hope I have managed to shed some more light on this
interesting technique.
 
Once again, a reminder to beginners not to bite off more than they
can chew with this method.  Uncontrolable robbing can result if
there are other bees nearby, and you do not know exactly what you are
doing, or how to deal comfortably with such problems.
 
If in doubt, stick to bee escapes -- either on a floor on the
ground, or on the hive.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0  Internet:[log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~dicka>