We have had some good comments with this thread.  I wanted to be somewhat
more precise in describing my use as I think it may be especially helpful to
hobbyists.

I produce a lot of comb honey.  This year, over 200 supers.  I also produce
extracted honey, mostly because I need the frames to replace those I take to
use to make up nucs for sale, but also because large-scale comb honey
production inevitably results in some amount of extracted honey production.
My use of repellents and a leaf blower are the same regardless of whether
the super is for comb or extracted honey.

First, the preceding day I break the supers apart and turn them end-for-end.
This results in an enormous time savings in clearing bees as well as a much
cleaner honey house.  When I want to take the supers I first give them a LOT
of smoke.  This starts them moving down.  Then I put on a repellent board.
This year I have been pretty much solely using Fischer's Bee Quick.  It
works really well in our temperatures of 80-90 degrees.  (Last year I tried
it in 60-70 degree temperatures, and it did not work nearly as well.)  Lack
of an offensive odor (to humans) is a big plus.

I use three boards.  One per hive, of course.  By the time the third one is
on, the first is ready to come off.  I bought a cheap spray bottle in the
supermarket and spray the boards instead of squirting them.  Works much
better, IMHO.  The boards will leave 10-20 bees in the super.  I take these
and stack them near my truck.  When I have all the supers off the hives, I
blow the remaining bees out of each super and immediately put the super in
my truck.  Before I direct the blower at the super I first give it a couple
of puffs of smoke to start the bees moving.  As others have said, surprise
is the key as they can hold on through an amazing volume of air at a high
velocity.  Back at the honey house I  average fewer than 3 bees per
super...which is what I prefer, as they are an annoyance and distraction.

So, the repellent boards take about 2-3 minutes per super, as does the
blower.  A commercial guy can't take that much time, but they will put up
with a few hundred bees in the honey house.

After I have been using the honey house for a few days, the bees figure it
out and gather around the door to get in when I bring in supers or take wet
supers out.  A friend showed me a neat trick to solve this problem...he set
up a fan expelling honey house air to the outside, through a window screen
located on the rear of his honey house.  He keeps this on while he is
extracting and bottling, and the bees gather around the screen trying to fly
upwind and get into the honey house.   When he opens the door to take in/out
supers the bees are at the other end of the building and he can proceed
without a few hundred flying in through the open door.  works for me as
well!

Lloyd
Lloyd Spear, Owner of Ross Rounds, manufacturer of comb honey equipment
for beekeepers and Sundance pollen traps.
http://www.rossrounds.com
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