Clearing bees from honey supers - interesting method

[Yarra_Valley]

I was just having a look around the honeybee australis website and I found some interesting images from Northern Australia.

The commercial beekeepers up there rest the full honey supers on top of the hives and wait about four hours for the bees to leave the supers. They state in the captions that the bees up at that area don't even try to rob the honey.


I've never heard of this method of clearing bees before!


If you want to have a look at the pics go to:
http://www.honeybee.com.au/menu/Images.html

Does anyone know why this occurs without robbing, or why the bees don't stay with the honey?

Could this be due to the strain of bee, which is less inclined to rob? Could it be that all the bees are more concerned about being robbed than robbing? Could it be something to do with the climate? Could it be a combination of these factors? Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
James

[manowar422]

The bees in my area would rob those supers of every ounce

See my post in this thread...

http://beemaster.com/beebbs/viewtopic.php?t=4012&highlight=

[Michael Bush]

During a heavy flow or just before dark it can work.  CC Miller was fond of this method.  I'm always afraid of setting off robbing.  In a dearth it is a DISASTER of Biblical proportions.  Well, I exagerated a LITTLE.

[downunder]

This is a common method for removing honey in Australia during extremely prolific honey flows.

On pattersons curse you can often do this. The bees are more interested in the nectar yielding potential of the purple menace .

A lot of beekeepers stack them like this then walk along with a leaf blower (bee blower) to accelerate movement of the bees.

I've done it several times, you will find out quickly if conditions are not good enough.

Cheers

[Michael Bush]

>you will find out quickly if conditions are not good enough

That's the part I'm a little afraid of.  When it works this method works well.  When it fails it fails in a frenzy.

[Yarra_Valley]

Hi there downunder, where abouts in Australia are you from. There is a lot of pattersons curse about a 40 minute drive away. It flowers in spring as I recall. Should be a good spring flow to organise, if I ever find my way back to Australia that is. Think I will wait till I have a bit more experience before I try this method though!

[downunder]

Yes curse flowers well from early spring, and with good rain up until Feb sometimes.  It is extremely prolific in South Australia, Victoria and NSW.


I am located in Richmond (western sydney) NSW.


This technique takes some experience before attempting. The worst thing to do is get halfway through and fail in a frenzy as Michael eludes to. Is very daunting cleaning up a yard of 100 robbing colonies. You lose many!

Despite this it is still commonly used for those commercial giants with the experience in judging conditions.

[SherryL]

I actually did this once this past summer - with a super of comb honey.

I had trouble removing the last of the bees - 30 or so.  It was getting dark, I've heard that at dusk the bees will return to the hive.  Sure enough.  I left the super sitting on top of the hive and returned to the house to put my 'wares' away.  I walked back out to the hives about 20 mins. later, all the bees were out of the super, I carried into the house bee-free. Not a problem with one, but just remember, if you're going to do this with a bunch of hives, that means you're working with a lot of full supers in the dark.