Bee Escape
Lexikon
The bee escape is a small one-way device that lets bees pass down from the honey super into the brood chamber but blocks their way back up.
The bee escape is a small one-way device that lets bees pass down from the honey super into the brood chamber but blocks their way back up. It is fitted into a divider board in place of the queen excluder, or set directly into one, and placed between the top brood box and the honey super that is to be harvested. For both the colony and the beekeeper, this small aid makes the honey harvest considerably calmer, because hardly any bees are in the way when the honeycombs are cleared.
The bee escape is usually inserted the day before the planned comb removal, i.e. about 24 hours beforehand. During this time most bees leave the honey super toward the brood nest and the queen, so that it is almost free of bees by the next day. The beekeeper then only has to brush or shake off a few remaining bees when taking off the combs, instead of clearing the fully occupied honey super comb by comb by hand.
There are various designs: common are round escape boards with two or eight small exits that are set into a divider board; there are also diamond-shaped versions that are placed directly on the brood chamber combs and require an opening in the divider board for this. A common mistake is leaving the bee escape in place too long: if the harvest is delayed by several days, the divider board should be swapped back for the original queen excluder, because honey in combs without bees can otherwise reabsorb moisture and thereby lose ripeness and keeping quality.