The one thing that you really don’t want in your extraction room is bees. They can sting unsuspecting fingers and other exposed parts of the body.

The place to get rid of the bees is at the hive location. Now there are several ways to do this, however, keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to rid the honey supers of bees. I will tell you of several ways to do this and then my preferred way.

Using a bee escape below the honey super will take a day. If you have multiple honey supers on the hive, it will take even more time. You have noticed that rectangle hole with each end of the rectangle rounded on the inner cover. That is where you place the bee escape insert. The inner cover is then place between the super(s) and the brood box with the escape on the underside of the inner cover. This will allow the bees in the upper super(s) to leave and will not let any bees back in. When you remove the honey super(s), remove the insert and place the inner cover on top of the new empty super and replace the top telescope cover. That is, if you use the telescope cover. If not, then do not put the inner cover on the hive.

The next way to rid the bees is to remove the super to a location away from the hive and truck, and using a bee brush, brush the bees from each frame and place  the frames in the truck. This is a time consuming job, but is still quicker than using the escape system.

You can use a fume-board and some Bee Go, Bee Robber, or Fletcher’s Bee Quick. The first two are very odorous and really stink up the truck if you get some on you or your hands. Fletcher’s Bee Quick is not odorous at all to humans, but it will do the same job as the other two.

The last way to rid the supers of bees is by using a leaf blower. I have one that creates a wind velocity of 200+ mph. This is my preferred way to harvest the honey supers. Stand the super on end and blow through the frames moving the bees out the other side toward the front of the hive. Sometimes you may need to turn the super around and blow the other way to get all the bees out. This will encourage the bees to go into the hive rather than returning to the super. The super is not home, it is just a room or level of the home and they will go in through the front door like they always do.

Remember, when using the blower, if the bees will not dislodge from the frames, check the frames for brood. The bees will stay with the brood through a hurricane because “the babies need to stay warm”. Note: if you have brood in the honey super then you need to leave it on the hive.