Bee Escape Rhombus Clearer NICOT®

01 · HOW IT WORKS

A maze with no moving parts, which is exactly the point

The rhombus forms a funnel with a double exit: the bee enters through the centre, leaves towards the brood box following the queen's scent and the ventilation, and on returning cannot find the mouth she came in by. Against the classic Porter escape, which does the same with two sprung blades, here nothing moves — so there is nothing for propolis to glue up and nothing a drone can jam mid-job, which is the standard failure of the sprung type after two or three seasons.

02 · WHEN TO FIT IT

Fit it in the evening, harvest in the morning

In good conditions most of the super clears in 4 or 5 hours; leaving it overnight is what really empties it, which is why the practical routine is to fit it at dusk and lift the supers the next morning. In cold weather they come down more slowly. Two conditions without which this cannot work: if there is brood in the super the bees will not leave it — hence using a queen excluder through the season — and the super has to be bee-tight above and at the sides, or what you have built is an invitation to robbing.

03 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It measures 125 × 300 mm and only 10 mm high, so it neither lifts the hive nor upsets the bee space. It fits into the crown board, and the crown board goes between the brood box and the supers you want cleared. It also serves to unite colonies gradually, the other classic use of a one-way passage.