tbh pollen trapping

[Dick Allen]

Have any of you folks trapped pollen from your top bar hives?

[oldgreyone]

All the pollen traps I've seen will take some imaginative modification to work with my TBHs.
I don't see why it couldn't be done, though I don't know of any who have tried it yet.
If you try, let us know of any successful modifications you make. Who knows you may start a whole new branch of TBH studies.

Duane

[Dick Allen]

Well, I made the original post looking for some direction a bit too hastily. Then, suddenly, I had the "aha experience". Front mounted exterior traps are ideal for a tbh. Those wooden exterior traps are sold by, at least, Dadant and Mann Lake, but they are real simple to make. The trapping screen is simply a 'V' or 'U' shape piece of 5 mesh mounted vertically in front of the hive entrance.

As a matter of fact, I just mounted one of those plastic jobs someone asked about on another forum. I did have to drill several 7/8" holes higher up on the front just behind the trap for a new entrnace. My original entrance was an opening on the bottom. I'll have to close that off.

I'm not real keen on those type of traps generally, preferring instead bottom mounted traps, but for a tbh I guess that's the way to go.

[AlpineJean]

Why would you want to trap pollen?

[Joel]

Why to eat of course for it's 12 vitamins, 28 minerals, 10 essentail and 8 no-essential amino acids, 16 beneficial fatty acids and a protein content of about 25%, depending of course on the pollen source.

[Michael Bush]

And to feed the bees early in the year before there is natural pollen avaialable.

[Tomas]

I'm a beekeeper down here in Honduras. I've been working with TBHs for about 14 years now and I've used pollen traps with them. I put the entrances at the end with this in mind. I leave each box with about a two inch landing board (just an extension on the bottom). I then built a half-sized pollen trap to fit on it. Becuase the trap will be narrower than normal, I usually leave the screened entrance area a bit higher than what I've normally seen on exterior pollen traps for langstroth hives, just to give the bees a bit more area to go through in case there's lots of activity. And (probably its obvious) I make the screened part removable so I don't need to remove all the trap when I don't want to collect pollen. I`ve had about as much success traping pollen on TBHs as I've had with a similar pollen trap on langstroths. Usually my only problem is getting good quality screen for them.

Pollen (when I collect it) is a nice additional income from my hives. I can usually sell it with out a problem.

[Wojtek]

Could you Tom or Dick provide us, if possible, with some picture of it or a diagraph? to see haw it technically works.
Also, where to obtain such “5 mesh”.
I will also need a sheet of queen separator/excluder (24” x 24” or larger) “mesh”, and similar size of mesh of propolis catcher. I will be thankful for some hints.

[Michael Bush]

http://www.betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=522

[Wojtek]

Thank you, Michael., for referral regarding hardware cloth, (mesh). This will be some problem for me because I donÂ’t need as much of it (10 feet). for trying to built experimental pollen trap for my type of hives, (TBH). I need to think out something about it. May be I will look within some perforated sheet of metal. There are different kinds on a market of about 2Â’ x 4Â’ but I didnÂ’t find some of proper diameter of holes.

There is other thing. What about drones. Drones will be not able to get through it as well as a queen. Regarding queen, - this could be even better to keep her in the hive, but drones should fly, I think, isnÂ’t it?

[Dick Allen]

Wojtek, I don’t have pictures available. The five mesh hardware cloth on some front mounted traps is formed into a “V” or “U” shape as you are looking at it from each end. This folded mesh or screen, looking like a trough, simply gets placed lengthwise across the opening so that the bees have to crawl through it to get into the hive. For a front mounted trap, you only need a piece no larger than about 12 to 14 inches (or less, depending on the width of your trap) by about 4 inches. When formed into the “U” shape as viewd from it’s ends it will fill the trap’s opening which would be about 2 inches high.

If you have a very difficult time getting the 5 mesh cloth, as you mentioned perforated sheet metal will work. The holes need to be 3/16 inch diameter. The 36th ed. of ‘ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture’ shows such a pollen trap (page 516) made that way. Another option is to use a piece of tin or aluminum and drill 3/16 inch holes into it. Granted, most people would not consider that a practical solution since it will require somewhere between 90 to 100 holes drilled, but it will work if that’s all you have available and you can find the time to do it. Drone escapes are simply a 3/8 inch or slightly larger hole drilled on each side of the trap between the screen and the hive’s entrance. Usually they are kept closed for a few days until the bees have convinced themselves they have to go through the screen to enter the hive. After that the drone escapes can be opened. A few bees will use them, too, but usually most will continue going through the screen.

[Michael Bush]

If you drill them, then deburr them careful not to get the hole to big. A gun store with reloading supplies will have a deburrer that would work well.

[Dick Allen]

MB, you have the 36th ed. I believe. Here's what's written (p. 514):
"Each hole in the grid has a jagged burr on one side resulting from the perforating process. Trap efficiency is improved by inserting the grid with the burred side facing out so that the burr snags the pollen pellets as the bee passes through."

I don't know, but I think I'd also deburr them though.

[Wojtek]

Thanks, Dick. This helped me to understand now the concept of making bigger holes on periphery of a screen. This way drones will have to crawl a bit before finding a hole sufficient to get through, while bees will use a shorter way. Good.
Looks that I am trying to “invent a weal” :)
This is because I have never had any pollen trap in my hands and I want to construct something what will fit functionally and technically to my “V” shape hive with side entrance and will be esthetically incorporated with shape of hive in a possible harmonious whole. Efficiency of pollen collection is not my priority in this type of hives.
By the way: Is queen excluder made with the same # 5 mesh screen, or this is something different?

[Michael Bush]

I'd be afraid of the burrs tearing up the bees.

[beenovice]

Can someone give me measurments of #8 mesh. I am just guessing but is this 8 squares by inch ?

[Michael Bush]

>MB, you have the 36th ed. I believe.

Actually I don't. I have the 1877, 1945, 35th and 38th editions of ABC XYZ of Bee Culture. Well the 1877 one is just ABC of Bee Culture. :)

>Can someone give me measurments of #8 mesh. I am just guessing but is this 8 squares by inch ?

It's eight wires to an inch. The holes are the thickness of the wire smaller than that.

[Wojtek]

After some time of mental struggle on functional pollen trap for KTBH with side entrance finally I found commercial trap which was relatively easy to modify and adopt to my “V” shaped hives. One of the pictures in my WEB domain depicts this tap mounted on the hive.
http://homepage.interaccess.com/~netpol/POLISH/Ule/CzescII.html

Besides, I noticed this entire year that there is very little intake of pollen except slightly better lately but still much lower comparing to former years. Last year I was able to collect sufficient for me amount of pollen in these traps.
There also will be very little honey harvest this year. Some hives are without honey even in the upper part of brood combs. The rest is completely dry in some hives. I wonder if this is because of local forage condition or a nature of my bees. Have to talk about it with local beekeepers in Chicago metropolitan area.