# Brushing bees from frames, without repercussions



## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

I though you were kidding at first but apparently you're serious. If you flick with your brush instead of rolling, you won't make them mad. Bees hate to be rolled. Use a bee escape and save yourself allot of work.


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## rwurster (Oct 30, 2010)

I do 3 shakes then brush them off with cheatgrass stalks. it doesnt take much time to figure out how to do it but i have never made them angrier than they were... post hive opening. Taking bees and brushing them off away from the hive is a bad idea, they probably arent coming home. Experimenting isnt a bad thing either, I have a swarm I caught which is my 'experimental hive' that I have harassed in almost every way under the sun at least 2 times a week since I captured them. Important note: I have 15 other hives I dont screw with  Don't bring a pan of water or brush them off into water away from the hive, brushing is an art that you need to practice to perfect. Keep the bees in their respective hives and use protective gear especially if youre going to make them pissy. I only brush when Im taking a frame of capped/larvae/eggs to put in another hive so the second hive can raise a queen. If you need bees out of a honey super do what charlie b said or use a fume board, save yourself some time and some dead bees.


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## Keth Comollo (Nov 4, 2011)

Charlie B said:


> If you flick with your brush instead of rolling, you won't make them mad. Bees hate to be rolled.


Spot on!


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## dnichols (May 28, 2012)

Wow?!:scratch:


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## wanderyr (Feb 11, 2012)

Well, I seem to have hit a nerve. Don't worry guys, I won't get any more bees wet. Thanks CharlieBee for the flick vs roll, and thanks rwuster for the supportive advice.

I must say, though, I'm not sure I see the problem. Bees get wet all the time, naturally, in my pond. Its windy here, and I'm always seeing them get blown into the pond when they're drinking or collecting water. The same wind blows them to the far side (only a few feet away), and they dry off and fly away... Of course, it helps that I'm in the high desert. It's so dry here that glasses of ice water don't show condensation, and any spilled water will evaporate over the course of minutes.

I'm certainly not trying to damage, or mistreat them. That's why I posted the question to the forum, right? To make sure I don't do anything dumb.

Thanks guys,
wanderyr


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## rlsiv (Feb 26, 2011)

Wanderyr, I'd be concerned about shaking/brushing any bees off the frames away from the hive, (whether it is into water or not) as these are generally the nurse/house bees and not foragers. So even if they are little olympic swimmers, they'd have a tough time identifying how to get back "home". 

There is no such thing as a dumb question.


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## danmcm (May 23, 2012)

rlsiv hit on the same thing I thought when reading your post if they have not have a orientation flight and you drop the more then a few feet from the hive they are lost. twenty bees not a big deal but as a technique to de-bee frames probably not a great way to keep your population healthy. my 2 cents


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## Katharina (May 2, 2011)

The water boarding of bees sounds like torture to me. 
First you should try to drive them down with honey robber or something similar. My supers have a 3/4 hole in front, and I tell you they go down quickly if you pump smoke into the hole. Then you can shake off some of them. The final step would be brushing them off. I hate using a bee brush, because it does irritate them. They also get caught in the bristles. I prefer to use a goose feather. It works so much better. Put it into an old pen shaft and you even have a handle.


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## mrobinson (Jan 20, 2012)

Look ... these are _stinging_ insects by nature. You can't change that.

Take your bee brush and, smoothly and gently but pointedly, sweep them off the surface that you need to clean. Obviously, since you are disrupting their hive, they _will_ launch some kind of defensive response, but you'd probably do the same thing if it was your house. Be about your business, and trust your bee suit (if any) to do its job. Any response that the bees might produce to your action is, well, "nothing personal." (Don't take it out on them by  sweeping them into a _pond!_  What, exactly, prithee, did they do to you?)

Be about your business, and let the bees be about theirs. Recognizing, of course, that "their business," as Nature has equipped them to perceive it, is to defend the hive against _you.

_I have worked with bees for quite some time now wearing a veil, disposable rubber gloves, a short-sleeved T-shirt, shorts, and hiking boots. _(Trust me: I have a suit and I am not afraid to use it.)_ Yes, "bees are buzzing all around you," bonking into you with an insect's equivalent of a body-slam, but ... that's just what these insects do. Meanwhile, you have business to attend to, and _if_ you will simply attend to it ... you'll discover that they are not-at-all "out to get you." Yes, it is absolutely possible that you will get stung zero-or-more times. But, don't take it personally. It's the individual, genetically-programmed decision of an individual insect who will die for the sake of her hive in the attempt. Meanwhile, you have a job to do, and to be done with ...

I've _got_ a smoker, of course, but a spray-bottle full of peppermint oil and water works just as well and won't burn your fingers. Makes 'em think it's raining outside, I suppose; anyway, it works. If you do get zapped (and you will...), the peppermint oil masks the alarm pheromone until you can scrape the stinger out with a dull butter-knife blade. (Much easier than taking your glove off.) You've got a job to do. Stay focused on _that. _ Strange as it may seem, it's rather like Zen.


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## Keth Comollo (Nov 4, 2011)

If you flick them off properly they hardly respond at all.


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## Sharpbees (Jun 26, 2012)

You can also turn the frame up sideways and brush upwards toward the top of the frame it doesn't make them as mad as when you sweep downward. (I found this out at our last regional meeting), since cells are drawn out at an angle any bees in the cells are bent backward when you brush them downward, in essence your trying to break their backs and they don't like it. By brushing toward the top your brushing them out of the cell. Just remember like the other posts say flick the brush, not long brushing strokes.


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## Sam Fugate (Jul 28, 2012)

Charlie B said:


> I though you were kidding at first but apparently you're serious. If you flick with your brush instead of rolling, you won't make them mad. Bees hate to be rolled. Use a bee escape and save yourself allot of work.


I don't mean to hijack this thread but, explain bee escape to a first year beek. Namely me.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

A bee escape is usually placed underneath the honey super the day before you want to harvest. The bees in the super leave through the openings or "escapes" but can't figure out how to enter. The next day most of the bees are gone. You may have a few stragglers but that's it. Here's a link to one you can buy.

http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/8-Frame-Escape-Screen/productinfo/254ES/

Much easier than flicking with a brush.


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## Sam Fugate (Jul 28, 2012)

Very cool ! 3 on they way. These are a must have. Thanks.


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## iwlf (Mar 25, 2012)

Try using a large feather. I've attached one to the body of an old, empty "Bic" pen. Clears them off gently.


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## the kid (Nov 26, 2006)

t word the end of my first year having hives I saw a guy hold the frame in his left hand and hold it over the hive , and hit the back of the hand fairly hard with the right hand ,, the bees just dropped down on the frames and went down into the hive ,, I thought now I will have to give that a try ,, as when I used a brush it just peeved the bees off ,, I thought , hey cann't be much worse ,, went out and tryed it ,, now I never use a brush ,, I just hit my hand ,, works great ,, and yes if I had not seen it done and some one told me this ,, I would have said sure your trying to get the crap stung out of me ,, but I seen it done so I thought I would try it ,, now thats the way I do it .. put on the suit and try it it does work and bo I do not wear a bee suit doing it


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

They work great Sam, you won't regret buying them.


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## Dan. NY (Apr 15, 2011)

I pulled a frame of honey recently and used a feather to clear it, sweeping downward while holding the frame over the hive. No stings, no angrier than normal bees. It took a while though. A bee escape may be in my future.


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## John Kuhn (Jul 1, 2012)

I blow the bees off the frames with a leaf blower with the speed dialed down, in the direction of the front of the hive. Seems to work fine, have not seen any dead bees, nor do they seem especially angry. I haven't tried a fume board, but that might be the best solution.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Apparently you haven't seen a lot of drowned bees. Bees drown often in water. They can only swim for a while. Getting bees off of combs is all about surprise. Flicking rather than brushing.


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## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

I think one can make the mistake of trying to be too gentle with a brush, and it doesn't really work. It's like you have to decide the bees are going, and then you make it happen. Flick flick flick. Then they come right off.

Adam


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

My technique:

Pull the super or supers that you need to take completely off the hive & set alongside it. Pull a frame at a time and first give several hard shakes down into the remaining hive boxes. Then use the brush to give a quick and decisive stroke. (Flick it, as described above.) Then move on to the next frame.

DO NOT SHAKE OR BRUSH THE BEES ONTO THE FRAMES THAT YOU STILL NEED TO TAKE OFF! The bees will put up with the indignity of being unceremoniously evicted from a frame maybe once, but if you keep brushing them onto the next frame you plan to pull and then hit them again and again, who can blame them for for getting miffed? Seems too simple to even mention but I've seen this very thing done more than once.

Even in my shallow bird bath next to my home hives, I often see drowned bees.

Wayne


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## wanderyr (Feb 11, 2012)

Michael Bush said:


> Apparently you haven't seen a lot of drowned bees. Bees drown often in water. They can only swim for a while. Getting bees off of combs is all about surprise. Flicking rather than brushing.


You're right, Michael, I have actually never seen drowned bees except in feeders. We don't have a lot of standing water around here, and what is here is pretty easy for the bees to climb out of 

I'm glad I asked the question here, cause I would have felt terrible to have drowned a panful of bees 

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. My post must have given a few wrong impressions... I've harvested twice, with a bee brush, once with a bee suit and once in a t-shirt (and veil). I didn't get stung either time. I wasn't looking for a new technique because the others seemed wrong or too hard; I just thought I had found a better way.

If we didn't occasionally find better methods, we wouldn't use smokers, either, eh? I'm glad to have the forum where people can tell each other things like, "Bees can drown, you dummy!" Before I simply try it and have to live with the results.

Take care all,
wanderyr


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

I dont use a fume board yet, but will in time when I have a bunch of supers to harvest. For now, I just remove frame by frame, shake the majority of he bees off into the top of the hive and then use a brush or goose/turkey feather to swipe off the remaining bees. They dont like the brush to much, but never seemed to mind the feather! I then take the "bee free" frame of honey andput it into an empty super with a plywood bottom and top. After putting the frame into the super I replace the top to prevent robbing. Simple as that!!

But I cant wait to try the fume board method!!


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## BeekeepingIsGood (Aug 12, 2012)

Maybe in your particular location you could get away without drowning them, but the distance from the hive part is worth considering. 

Going to harvest tomorrow. Wish I had some feathers. Last time I tried branches of white pine. It worked but was probably a little rougher than I'd like.

This what a little stream looked like at an old bee yard:




We actually go through a decent amount of trouble making sure they have safer places to grab a drink.


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## Cedar Hill (Jan 27, 2009)

Use a fume board and save yourselves all the work of taking ea. frame from the supers. The taking off of the honey crop is done within minutes. It's efficient, no rolling of bees, no waiting a day for them to leave the super. If a single orifice is left open between the honey supers and the main body of the hive during your usage of the bee escape, your entire crop could be robbed in no time by the bees in the yard. Be extra careful and leave no other openings except at the bee escape. OMTCW


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