The standard placement of a Bee Escape Board is directly between your honey supers and the brood boxes. It serves as a physical separator, positioned beneath the smaller boxes containing excess honey you intend to harvest and above the larger boxes where the colony raises young and stores winter resources.
The Bee Escape Board acts as a one-way valve that clears bees from honey supers without the need for chemicals or excessive smoke. For it to function correctly, it must be oriented so that traffic flows exclusively downward from the supers into the brood nest.
Proper Installation and Positioning
The Vertical Hierarchy
To install the board effectively, you must understand the vertical layout of the hive. The brood boxes (the permanent home of the colony) form the base of your stack.
The honey supers (the surplus storage areas) sit at the top. The Bee Escape Board is inserted precisely at the junction where these two sections meet.
Directionality is Critical
The board is designed with a specific mechanic that allows bees to exit the top boxes but blocks their return.
You must set the board so that bees crawl out of the supers and down into the brood box. If installed upside down, you will inadvertently trap bees inside the honey supers, making harvest impossible.
The Mechanics of Clearance
Utilizing Natural Behavior
Bees naturally move between the honey stores and the brood nest throughout the day and night to regulate temperature and feed.
By placing the board between these sections, you allow the bees to follow their natural impulse to return to the cluster in the brood box. Once they pass through the escape mechanism, they cannot navigate back up to the honey.
Clearing the Supers
This placement typically clears a super of bees within 24 to 48 hours.
Because the board physically isolates the top boxes, it ensures that when you remove the supers for extraction, they are virtually free of bees.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Ensuring a Tight Seal
A common error during installation is leaving gaps between the board and the boxes.
Because the supers are cut off from the main colony, robber bees from other hives may smell the unguarded honey. If there are gaps, robbers will enter and strip the supers before you can harvest them.
Overcrowding the Brood Nest
When you force all the bees out of the supers, they must go somewhere.
Ensure your brood boxes have enough physical space to accommodate the population that was previously occupying the supers. If the lower boxes are completely full, the congestion can cause overheating or stress.
Making the Right Choice for Your Goal
When utilizing a Bee Escape Board, your approach depends on your immediate objective:
- If your primary focus is harvesting honey: Verify the board is oriented correctly to allow downward movement, or you will trap bees on the frames you are trying to clear.
- If your primary focus is colony health: Ensure the brood boxes below have sufficient ventilation and space to hold the influx of bees descending from the supers.
Correct placement turns a chaotic harvest into a calm, streamlined process.
Summary Table:
| Placement Aspect | Key Requirement |
|---|---|
| Standard Location | Between honey supers (top) and brood boxes (bottom) |
| Traffic Direction | One-way downward (away from honey, towards the brood) |
| Clearance Time | Typically 24 to 48 hours for full clearance |
| Critical Factor | Airtight seal to prevent robbing from external bees |
| Capacity Tip | Ensure brood boxes have space for the descending colony |
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