At 09:48 AM 7/15/96 -0500, you wrote:
 
  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.
>
        Hi Mark:
 
        I'm certainly not as experienced or as knowledgable as many others
        on the list; and I'm sure you'll get many other suggestions but
        here's my method..for what its worth.
 
        After experiencing mostly frustration with bee escapes and being
        unwilling to mess with fume boards, I happened on an article in
        Bee culture magazine last year that described shaking and brushing
        as a means of removing bees from supers.
 
        I bring an empty super with me when I am going to pull off honey
        supers. Frist I remove all the supers on a given hive. Then I pull
        each super frame, give it a sharp shake (do not knock) over the
        hive to dislodge most of the bees, then quickly brush off the
        stragglers. The frame then goes into the empty super. I place a
        piece of plywood on a hand truck, put the super on the plywood and
        cover with a spare outer cover. The process is repeated with each frame
        to be extracted. When transporting I strap the plywood, supers and cover
        together with my Kevlock straps, maintaining a bee tight package.
 
        Now for the qualifications.
 
        * This process is done most efficiently  with two people
        * I was only working three hives w/3 supers/ea...this method may be
          too labor intensive for more than, say, 10 hives.
 
        Hope this is of some help.
 
 
Tim Peters, Kirby VT
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KirBee Apiary, Bear Bait Honey
I rather be flying!