Hi Allen & all

There are dozens of types of escape board and they all work (some better
than others, but none perfect).

Over the last few years... I have come to believe that it is not the precise
design of an escape board that makes it effective, but the principles of
putting in a separator with some sort of channels and some means (small
holes or mesh) whereby the bees in one group can be aware of bees in the
other group.

The idea of a 22 mm rim space on top was mentioned in Allen's previous post.

I am unsure of the source of the idea of using the deep skirt... I was
making 8 way escape boards way back in the days when we measured in inches
(late 1970s)... The sides were originally 2 1/2" deep. The objective was to
provide clustering space for the bees that were 'disoriented' by the
manipulation.

The deep skirts were a nuisance as they took up much storage space when not
in use.

Since those early days I trimmed the rims back to 9 mm top and bottom and
used an eke to provide the clustering space.
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/nateke.html
Shows how I make these ekes, but they can be just four planks. (I will track
down the missing cross section drawing later today.)

If I were making them today I would certainly incorporate 22 mm top rims.

I may also be tempted to fit thin square strips to the top surface of the
board as per the experiment detailed in the page
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/edgefollow.html


Best Regards & 73s... Dave Cushman, G8MZY
Beekeeping & Bee Breeding Website...
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman