Cone Traps Challenge

[Ruben]

So I have had this cone trap on a house now for 8 days, it is in the corner of a rock fire place and a ceder siding wall 2ft off of the ground and I have had a devil of a time sealing up all of the little holes they can get through. My hive body that I put one frame of brood and eggs into with the bees that were on the frame at the time now has three queen cells and probably three times as many bees in it as I started with. I think I finally got all of the holes sealed up but what worries me now is there are about 25 dead bees that the house bees have dragged up into the cone and are starting to clog things up a little. It would'nt bother me but they are 25 miles away from me, I know it ain't worth it but it's the challenge I guess. No different than going out and paying $45 to play a round of golf except I hope I have better success than I do at golf!

[Ruben]

Man I went back today and I'm pretty sure I got all of thier back doors closed up because there were thousands of bees trying to get in and they were extremely ticked off because they could not. I watched them for 3 hours late this evening and most of them went into my hive. How long does it take them to accept my hive as thier home?

[RAlex]

Having never done a cone removal myself I have hear that it can take up to 6 weeks or so . I`m sure others have much more experience than I do in this area...G`luck Rick

[iddee]

The ones in your hive have accepted it. The ones still coming out, of course, haven't. If it is an established hive, there will be new bees emerging for a few weeks. When your box has 3 to 4 pounds of bees, or equal to a package, you can take them home and install another box with eggs and brood at the trap site. I have gotten as high as 4 hives from one trapsite.

[Pete0]

I did a trap out from a tree earlier this year and at 8 weeks there were no more bees coming out and no bees trying to get back in. Just kept adding supers as the bees populated the bait hive. After the 8 weeks I closed up the tree entrance with screen wire and steel wool and took the hive to my home.

I'm now trying to trap bees out of a house and cannot get the entrance isolated as they are traveling behind the brick veneer. If they only have 1 way in and out your got it made. This time of year once the bees have established in your bait hive and there are no more bees coming out you may be able to take your cone off and the bees from your bait hive will now rob out the old comb in the house.

Good luck and have patience!

Pete0

[ClatsOre]

In about 30 days pull the cone and put some around the hole and watch the fun. they will clean it out in a day.

[ClatsOre]

Opps thats honey around the hole