Gentlepeople:
 
        I pulled supers this past weekend and had a rather
     depressing day of it.   I used fume boards (probably
     incorrectly) to pull supers and when I got home there were a
     LOT of bees that came home with me still in the supers.  They
     were confused, flying all around the place, landing in small
     clusters, and generally trying to figure out where they were
     and what happened to them.
 
        Now my wife only tolerates this pastime of mine and wouldn't
     be caught dead in a bee suit.  Bugs of any kind, stinging or
     not, are verboten.  Need I say that several hundred (thousand?)
     confused honeybees flying around the neighborhood concerned
     both her and me.  After all, suburbia is not the place where
     you want your neighbors to get stung or be afraid of being
     stung.
 
        At the time, the only way I could think of to deal with the
     problem was to hose the clusters down with the garden hose
     whenever they grouped.  Thus went the day and the battle of the
     bees.  It was NOT fun.  I spent most of my year nurturing these
     insects trying to keep them healthy and such.  Now I was
     killing them off by the hundreds.  It definately took the
     pleasure out of the harvest.
 
        Two things for this group:
 
        First, Fume boards.  Are there any special tricks or
     procedures that I should be aware of?  I placed the fume boards
     on top after ensuring that about one tablespoon of repellent
     was squirted onto the board then waited about 5-10 minutes
     before I pulled the super.  The pulled super was then placed on
     top of a cardboard sheet in the truck to seal the bottom then a
     bee escape was placed on top for whatever bees remained to use
     to exit the super(s).  The fume boards did not work on the deep
     supers at all.  Do you replenish your repellent frequently?
     How long do you leave the fume board on to drive bees out of a
     6&5/8" super?  A 9&1/4" super?  ANY tips on these devices would
     be appreciated.  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.
 
        Second, was their ANY other solution to my problem of loose
     bees in my neighborhood other than killing them?  Would a hive
     body of drawn comb drawn them into it to form their cluster?
 
     Living and still learning,
 
     Mark Egloff
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