Round bee escape Quarti®

01 · HOW IT IS FITTED

Cones facing the brood body

The escape sits in the hole of the crown board, and the crown board goes between the super and the body. The entry side faces the super and the cone exits point down into the body: bees in the super find their way down straight away, and from below they cannot find the way back. Fitted the other way round, it simply does not work.

02 · TWENTY-FOUR HOURS

No less, and not much more

It goes on the evening before harvest. In a day the super is practically empty. Leaving it longer improves nothing and brings two problems: the super with no bees in it stops being ventilated — in real heat that is a risk — and, if anything is out of place, some bee eventually finds the way back in.

03 · THE TWO CONDITIONS

No brood above, no gaps

The escape fails for two reasons, always the same. If there is brood in the super, the nurses will not abandon it and next morning they are still there — which is why a queen excluder in place is what makes the escape work. And if the super has an upper entrance or a gap, the bees come back in through it and the whole job is wasted: everything but the escape has to be shut.

04 · COLD AND HEAT

When they go down best

With mild nights the clearing is clean. In the cold the bees cluster and do not go down; in real heat it is not wise to leave the super alone for many hours either. Taking honey off this way has a double advantage: no bees in the van, and the honey arrives warm from the nest itself, which is when it extracts best.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It needs a crown board with a hole: it fits the one on the hives we sell. And it only works if the super is free of brood and properly closed.