When 'wet' supers that have been
extracted are returned to the bees for cleaning up, they need to be separated from the bees, so they remove the honey.
This
method, using a sliding metal plate to cover a hole in the
clearer board, has been used in conjunction with porter escapes to
allow the beekeeper to open and close the access to the supers.
In
the past most manufacturers made clearer boards like this, but few, if
any, do now. The main problem was the slot the blade slides in becomes
glued up with propolis, making it difficult to move the blade. It is
possible to treat the area with
Petroleum Jelly to try to avoid sticking, but this is quite unsatisfactory. I
have never used these for this purpose, even though many of my boards
have them. The simple thing to do is to partially cover the porter
escape hole.
| |
|
|---|
