# General beekeeping > Starting out >  Problems with porter bee escapes?

## onj

I have been keeping bees for three years now and have two colonies. When harvesting honey I have always used porter bee escapes to clear supers without any problems, until yesterday! Two weeks ago I placed a wet super over the feed hole on one of my hives for the bees to clean up, after a week it was dry but still full of bees, so I put another wet super underneath, a crown board with two new porter bee escapes on top then the dry super. Yesterday I went to take off the first dry super and to my horror discovered a couple of hundred dead bees on the crown board, all was well below. There were some dead bees in the escapes. Can anyone shed light on where I went wrong?

Onj.

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## Neils

I wont suggest that they were on upside down  :Wink: 

I've not yet had any problem using Porter escapes but I've heard a few tales of them either being propolised up by the bees or drones getting themselves stuck in them and blocking them so that the workers can't get through them, any chance that happened in your case?

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## onj

> I wont suggest that they were on upside down 
> 
> I've not yet had any problem using Porter escapes but I've heard a few tales of them either being propolised up by the bees or drones getting themselves stuck in them and blocking them so that the workers can't get through them, any chance that happened in your case?


Hi Nellie, definitely the right way up, unpropolised, no drones just a couple of workers in the escapes.

Onj

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## Jimbo

Could it bee (sorry about the pun) that the top super was so far removed from the queen and separated by a crown board that the bees were not attracted back to the brood box by the queen scent. As the top super was dry the dead bees died of starvation.

Jimbo

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## onj

> Could it bee (sorry about the pun) that the top super was so far removed from the queen and separated by a crown board that the bees were not attracted back to the brood box by the queen scent. As the top super was dry the dead bees died of starvation.
> 
> Jimbo


That sounds like a reasonable theory, I think starvation was probably the cause of death. Lesson learned! Thanks for your help.
Onj.

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## Adam

Could not the porter escapes have been adjusted too close and hence too stiff so the bees could not get down?

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## onj

> Could not the porter escapes have been adjusted too close and hence too stiff so the bees could not get down?


....mmmmm, didn't know you could adjust them, or do you mean at manufacture?

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## Rosie

> ....mmmmm, didn't know you could adjust them, or do you mean at manufacture?


They sometimes clog with propolis and need to be slid apart for cleaning. I also check the spacing of the spring tips every time I use them.  I set the gap at about 3mm but I am not sure what the standard gap should be.

Rosie

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## GRIZZLY

> They sometimes clog with propolis and need to be slid apart for cleaning. I also check the spacing of the spring tips every time I use them.  I set the gap at about 3mm but I am not sure what the standard gap should be.
> 
> Rosie


5mm at each end is about right.

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