> Help-I extracted today and the wet supers are still in the utility room
> and I need to get them out in the morning and clean.

ROT is 300 feet.  I don't recall whose rule, or whose thumb, but my
recollection is 300 feet.  And you will still have a nasty scene at the
supers.  You may not start robbing at the hives, but the bees will not be
kind to each other at the feeding frenzy.

An alternative I've been exploring is to put the wet supers back on the
hives very early on a cool morning.  Hereabouts that's about 6:30AM and
50dF.  This is well before the bees are flying.  I make sure that all hives
receive at least one wet super.  Robbing doesn't get started and the bees
clean the supers quite nicely.  Down side is you have to clear the bees from
the dry supers again, although I suppose (but I have not experimented) that
the bees will be inclined to abandon the dry supers readily if the
abandonment method is employed as dusk approached.

I clear bees with triangular escape boards.  A tip I picked up this summer
from a seasoned beekeeper is rather than stacking supers above a single EB
on the same hive, a stack of supers can be built off to the side of the hive
with an EB on the bottom of the stack and an EB on top of the stack.  The
bottom EB needs to be kept off the ground (an empty super works well) and
leaves bees room to exit.  I put the bottom EB perpendicular to the bottom
super.  The top EB should be weighted down with a brick or stone to make
sure it stays in place.  Of course, with EBs, ALL cracks between supers MUST
be sealed (duct tape, the beekeeper's friend!).  In as little as 15 minutes
bees will be making a mass exodus from both top and bottom of the stack.  In
most cases, ALL bees (every last one) will have left the hive in 24 hours.
There will be rare exceptions, sometimes the bees just won't leave, and
they'll never abandon brood.  But I'm sold on the double escape boards.
More labor, without a doubt.  But no funny smells in the extraction room!

Aaron Morris - thinking bee go my ass!  It's beekeeper go; I won't go neear
the stuff.  PU!

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