# General beekeeping > Everything and anything >  Porter bee escapes

## janeoh

I have put a clearer board on and 2 porter bee escapes but the bees are not moving.

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## lindsay s

Hopefully this link will provide you with an answer.
http://beespoke.info/2015/08/05/porter-bee-escape/

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## janeoh

Thanks Lindsay, that's very helpful. I will give them a little more time. If that doesn't work I will check for drones. Jane

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## Thymallus

I prefer a rhombus myself, much quicker and no moving parts to jam up. Although even they haven't been as effective in this hot weather. I presume that the bees are seeking out the heat from the main hive below the clearer board, but when it's been as hot overnight as many nights this year they don't bother.

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## Jambo

Been having similar problems. I have a slab of insulation on the hives year round - I keep meaning to try removing it when the clearer boards are on, my thinking being that the supers would and cool and they would be slightly more inclined to seek out the warmth below the board.

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## Thymallus

Not such a daft idea....I have poly crown-boards and roofs Doh!
Now where are those old wooden ones...hmmmm.

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## janeoh

I may have also made a mistake of keeping a half drawn super under the clearer board perhaps reducing the smell of the queen pheromone in the brood box.

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## Mellifera Crofter

Im not sure that removing the insulation will help to cool down the supers.

I think removing the insulation might have the opposite effect as it also insulates the hive from outside heat and helps the bees to maintain a constant temperature inside the hive. 

Kitta

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## greengumbo

> I have put a clearer board on and 2 porter bee escapes but the bees are not moving.


Porters are a pain. One fat drone and the whole things stops.

Make a rhombus escape. Far easier and quicker.

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## Jambo

> I’m not sure that removing the insulation will help to cool down the supers.
> 
> I think removing the insulation might have the opposite effect as it also insulates the hive from outside heat and helps the bees to maintain a constant temperature inside the hive. 
> 
> Kitta


Yes indeed - it depends on the relative temperatures between outside and inside and whether the hive is in direct sunlight or not and what colour it is painted, and whether or not the sun makes an appearance that day and so on.  

My usual (I say this as if I have been doing it a while) strategy is to put boards on in the evening and then remove supers first thing the next morning.  In that scenario the supers would be substantially warmer than the surrounding air and they can only cool faster with the top insulation removed, especially as this then exposes the mesh I have blocking the feed holes on most of my crown boards.

I agree that if trying to clear during the day in the height of summer it might have the opposite effect.

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## Thymallus

How do drones get through the queen excluder into the supers in the first place? 
There should be no drones in supers.
.....but folklore persists.
But agree rhombus/figure 8 work more efficiently.

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## greengumbo

> How do drones get through the queen excluder into the supers in the first place? 
> There should be no drones in supers.
> .....but folklore persists.
> But agree rhombus/figure 8 work more efficiently.


Not really folklore. I've often carried out a demaree and then allowed them to backfill the top brood boxes with honey in strong OSR flows. I let hatching drone out every so often but the odd one persists and gets stuck when clearing. In my experience porters are a total pain, not just with rogue drones but due to slow slow clearing efficiency and malfunctioning springs as well.

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## Feckless Drone

I don't use Q excluders on colonies at the heather and the drones hide away from the brood nest, up top cause they may know what is coming or the workers hassle them out of the way. The porter escapes can sometimes then get clogged - I have found drones stuck in the springs.

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## Thymallus

I've tried no QX a few times on the heather. Bloody plume of brood throughout every super. This may, however,  be a characteristic of the type of bees I keep. 
Personally I think the only place for porter bee escapes should be as exhibits in museums of beekeeping . There are better options that cause less problems...Rhombus/Figure of 8 etc. It's not that porters don't work, they just don't work as well as easier options.

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## Adam

Brother Adam preferred Porters, apparently.

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## wee willy

> How do drones get through the queen excluder into the supers in the first place? 
> There should be no drones in supers.
> .....but folklore persists.
> But agree rhombus/figure 8 work more efficiently.


If you stack your supers higgly piggly when inspecting a colony , drones can enter them and end up above the QX . 


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## Thymallus

> Brother Adam preferred Porters, apparently.


Preferred to what though?

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## Thymallus

> If you stack your supers higgly piggly when inspecting a colony , drones can enter them and end up above the QX .


Then don't stack them higgly piggly.  :Smile: 
I can understand when demareed or no excluder used. 
But I can't see the number of possible drones entering supers in a short inspection time having much effect on rhombus clearer's. I reckon there is plenty of room for a drone to get through a rhombus. They are not as "tight" as porters.
What has caused a problem for me this season has been a number of dead bees blocking them. I think the high temps and then isolating the supers has meant the bees were not able to regulate the internal temperatures well here. I had a couple, early doors, where this happened,so I vented the supers whilst clearing through rhombus escapes (the beauty of Abelo poly crownboards) . Still didn't work as efficiently as usual. Due, I think, to the high temperatures we had this year.

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## wee willy

> Then don't stack them higgly piggly. 
> I can understand when demareed or no excluder used. 
> But I can't see the number of possible drones entering supers in a short inspection time having much effect on rhombus clearer's. I reckon there is plenty of room for a drone to get through a rhombus. They are not as "tight" as porters.
> What has caused a problem for me this season has been a number of dead bees blocking them. I think the high temps and then isolating the supers has meant the bees were not able to regulate the internal temperatures well here. I had a couple, early doors, where this happened,so I vented the supers whilst clearing through rhombus escapes (the beauty of Abelo poly crownboards) . Still didn't work as efficiently as usual. Due, I think, to the high temperatures we had this year.


I think the problem cited was getting stuck in  QXs 
A proper check for afb means just that ! 
Most people stack their supers on the up turned roof, these are deliberately positioned, turned through a few degrees for both stability and to minimise edge on edge contact!


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## Thymallus

> I think the problem cited was getting stuck in  QXs


Nope OP was  


> I have put a clearer board on and 2 porter bee escapes but the bees are not moving.


You may be getting a little confused over a post by me asking how drones would get through the QX into the supers.

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## wee willy

> Nope OP was  
> You may be getting a little confused over a post by me asking how drones would get through the QX into the supers.


.com 🤣🤣🤣


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## Thymallus

> .com 🤣🤣🤣


????

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## lindsay s

I’ve cleared nine hives with porter escapes this week and some of them had three supers on. The escapes were on for two to three nights and eight out of the nine hives had no more than the odd bee in the supers when they were removed. Unfortunately for me one hive had the escapes blocked with brace comb that was on the underside of the frames, it was my fault for not checking. I ended up brushing bees off the frames in the rain and I got soaked while the bees got madder.  :Mad:  I couldn’t leave it till another day because the hives were eleven miles away and I had taken feed out with me. Overall I still think the porter bee escapes do a good job.

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## janeoh

So the reason for the board not clearing became apparent on the removal of the board to find the porter bee escapes had jumped out of position when placing the heavy supers on top. image2 (1).JPG image1 (1).JPG

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## Adam

Some suppliers make the slots too long.  :Frown:

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## Jambo

Jane the hole in each end can be used for a drawing pin or similar to hold them in place.

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## wee willy

> Some suppliers make the slots too long.


I use the rhombus type , I find the quicker and simpler . 


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