Pollen trap

[Laurence Hope]

I recently purchased a couple of the Sundance II pollen traps for the top of the hives. I placed one on a hive two days ago. The bees had been accustomed to a top entrance. They seem to really dislike or are having a lot of trouble entering the hive through the screens. There has been a large mass of bees covering the top of the hive and down the front since installation. I have looked my other one (not installed) over to see that I have it on right.
Is this normal? Will the bees become accustomed to it? I would rather not bother them like it seems to than get pollen from an upset hive.

[Jim Fischer]

No matter what alternate entrances are used,
the bees can take a while to adjust to the
sudden removal of those entrances.

But they DO figure it out.

They don't get "upset", they are merely
"confused", as bees are very much creatures
of habit.

So, give it a few days, and the bees should
adapt to their new entrance through the pollen
trap.

[power napper]

Like the directions that came with the traps state--takes about a week for them to adjust. Patience will prevail is what I learned. They work fantastic.

[Dick Allen]

After bees have been trained to go through bottom mounted Sundance traps, they get confused when the bypass door is lowered and crawl around trying to get into the hive when they could just as easily go directly into the hive about 3 inches above where they were previously entering. Take the bypass door completely off and many of the bees will still enter through the trap instead of taking the easy way in.

[RAlex]

I think it was Velbert that mentioned in a related thread to be careful the you dont have a virgin queen or she might not be able to get back in after her mating flight. I suppose if the queen is superceded the same thing could happen ...Rick

[Laurence Hope]

Thanks for the replies. I missed the part about needing a week to adjust.
Lord, grant me patience, and please do it NOW!

[Laurence Hope]

Thanks for the replies. I missed the part about needing a week to adjust.
Lord, grant me patience, and please do it NOW!