# Blowing Bees from Supers



## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

For those of you who blow bees out of your supers when removing honey....

1. What type of air volume blower is necessary... It there a max force you don't want to exceed?

2. Also do you have a stand you set the super on when blowing bees out or do you just turn it on its side.

Thanks,


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## bee crazy (Oct 6, 2005)

*Sound like your pulling honey!*

Hi Dan, I just use a leaf blower and operate it at about half speed. You will get the hang of it after a while. I just set the super up on it's side in the hives lid. Work on one side then the other and back to the first side and do this over again till they are out. Then I take the super away and put the lid back on the hive. I would guess about two pound of bees. Never really noticed any dead bees but they are stuned for about 20 mins. When I work with someone else they just hold the super at an angle towards the hive being careful to give the bees enough room to keep from being plastered on the hive. Did that before...not good  
This is really a fast way the pull honey. Hope it helps.


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

Thanks Steve,

I pulled about 1000 lbs of honey last weekend and had about 500 bees flying around my head in the honey house while I was trying to process. that was after many left via the window. Problem was the bees that came from the outyards. They didn't know where to go. 

I just need to get more bees out of the supers than I did with the fume boards. They worked pretty well but even with 15 bees left in each super it starts to add up in a hurry.

I probably still have another 1000 lbs to pull and am going to use a leaf blower AFTER I use the fume board. I run 3 fume boards at a time and as I pull off 3 supers I'll move the fume boards and while they are working I'll blow bees out of the other. At least that is the theory.... 

Having never tried it I'm not sure what to expect.

Its fairly uncomfortable having bees all over the place while you are attempting to uncap, extract, filter etc....


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## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

Dan:

I would have to agree. It is nerveracking when bees come into the garage when I am trying to do something. RRRR......


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## bleta12 (Feb 28, 2007)

Hi Dan,
I have been thinking of getting a blower myself. So far I use 5 boards and I harvest only when tems are mid 80 and up. It is hard work on those temps but I don't like much bees in my honey house. If you get a blower please let us know the model.

Gilman


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## kc in wv (Feb 1, 2006)

I have a Sears gas leaf blower that I use some times. At 1/2 throttle it works fine. Some times the bees will hide in the burr comb between the last frames and the side of the super


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I use leaf blowers with a 2 1/2" vacuum hose and clevis nozzle at pretty high speed. I made a lazy susan stand out of a drafting stool that has a strong lazy susan roller. The ace hardware store ones don't last. It is also handy for painting equipment. Sometimes we just stand the super on neighboring hives. We kill a few dozen per 1000 pounds on honey, and have to be careful we don't step on blown bees. I like to blow from the top bars first, then from the bottom bars, less bees blow back onto you. Some strains of bees blow easier than others. Wide frame spacing helps too.


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## Bee Draggle (Apr 5, 2006)

I have a shop vac that doubles as a leaf blower once you detach the motor. I attach a short crevice tool to the blower which is great for blowing between the frames. After getting most of the bees to leave the super using a fume board, I then set the super on end on a piece of plywood and blow out the stragglers. The blowing doesn’t seem to hurt the bees or even make them angry. Bees in the honey house are a pain.


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

I definately will need to use a gas blower as I won't have electric capabilities at my outyards.

I've heard some people use a chute of some type to direct the bees back toward the entrance of the hive? Is this preferred?


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## ScadsOBees (Oct 2, 2003)

Dan,
I use the fume boards, then before bringing them in, turn them sideways and use my shopvac hooked up to the exhaust to blow out the stragglers.

It worked really great and I didn't notice any dead bees. Not the highest air speed, but it worked. An extra minute or two per super and they were very bee free. If you fume them down first, I don't think there would be too many casualties even if you did have too much airspeed.

Rick


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## Beemaninsa (Jun 9, 2004)

I use fume boards mostly but occationally use a kelly blower or both. I tip the box on end and blow. Make sure one end of the super is hanging over the side or bees will crawl back in from the box below. If supers are uncoverd once you leave the yard, you wont have near as many bees once you arrive home.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Dan Williamson said:


> I've heard some people use a chute of some type to direct the bees back toward the entrance of the hive? Is this preferred?


Dadant? sells a folding shoot, it is a piece of sheetmetal on legs. I have one, but rarely use it, we just blow out into an area that we will not be walking on. The bees have all gotten back to their hives within an hour or so.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

ive used a modified leaf blower for more then 18 years to get bees out of the supers, i've gone through three blowers plus you the blowers of other beeks when i worked for them.

it's important to use queen excluders if your going to blow bees or you risk the chance of blowing out the queen.

when the time comes to blow the bees all i take the lid and inner cover off and lay on ground in front of hive. then, standing behind the hive i crack the super pull towards me and set on end so bottom bars are facing me then putting the blower on max blow the bees out from between the frames and always making a pass through the end bars as thats where a lot of bees get stuck after blowing throu the frames. then i'll walk around the front and blow the bees if any off the top bars then another quick pass through the frames then it's off to the truck.

the blower i have now is a blessing, it's light weight and pushes a wopping amount of air, i use dadants mostly now for my honey supers because with even the pack on my back, i still like to keep the weight down.


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

Thanks for the info guys.

Chillard. Could you elaborate on how you've modified the leaf blower?


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

well, just like the way tim allen would, arrr, arrr, arrr.

actually its just the main nozzle that would origanaly adapt to the blower to make it long enough to blow the leafs on the ground i took off. then using a peice of 1 1/2" hosing i duct tape it to where the adadapter would fit. thats the way it worked for the one i have presently. some blowers have 2 extender peices the the nozzel, if thats the case the just don't use the extender peices.

in how ever you set it up, the end of the nozzel should be a 3/4 to a foot longer then where your hand is when your holding it with your elbow bent at 45 degrees or more just for ease of operation.


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## AstroZomBEE (Aug 1, 2006)

*backpack blower*

We use Stihl backpack leaf blowers, I'm not sure what the model is but i just ask for the largest model in a backpack variety. Just line the supers up and hold the throttle down.

One tip is to put some kind of screen over the intake on the blower, elsewise you end up sucking bees into the turbine and after a day or so of honey pulling, your turbine will need some serious debugging.

Aaron


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

AstroZomBEE said:


> We use Stihl backpack leaf blowers, I'm not sure what the model is but i just ask for the largest model in a backpack variety. Just line the supers up and hold the throttle down.
> 
> One tip is to put some kind of screen over the intake on the blower, elsewise you end up sucking bees into the turbine and after a day or so of honey pulling, your turbine will need some serious debugging.
> 
> Aaron


Interesting... I hadn't thought about the intake aspect probably wouldn't have either until it was too late... thanks for that tip.

So do you guys pull honey supers with the backpack blower on or do you pull the supers first and then work thru the boxes blowing out the bees?


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

Has anybody used the battery powered blowers? I thought of using one with a pad [not all] saturated with Bee-Quick on the intake.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

take lid off, blow bees, bring super to truck, lid back on, next.....so on and so forth


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## John Cunningham (Jan 24, 2005)

*after blowing 'em out*

After I blow the bees out I stack the supers and put a bee escape on the stack. I leave the bee escape on until I get the supers in the honey house. If there are any bees left the shop vac gets them.
I don't like bees around when I am extracting either.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

As previously mentioned, you use the blowers only when you use excluders otherwise you risk blowing the queen out. 

I've an old metal folding chair that I cut the back out (the frame is still there).
Once I've pulled the super I set it in the chair that's facing the hive and just let the air fly.......
I've put extension hoses on my backpack blower....it beats hoisting the blower to your back every time you use it. I just let it sit and idle between supers.

I'm thinking of trying some of the newer handheld models....... I've need to see what kind of velocity they have. Wide open, my backpack will blow a small 2x4 around......

May try what Dan Williamson will attempt.........fume board then the blower.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Larry, do you realize that you just responded to a 2007 thread?


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> Larry, do you realize that you just responded to a 2007 thread?


Oh well, --it happens........duh.... have no idea ..


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