I'm looking for input for getting the bees(without queen) from the hive to the funnel.
Looking for queens then shaking the bees 1 frame at a time is good for cooler weather but it is sooooo slow.
Using bee-go in the smoker to drive the bees through an excluder up into a shaker box is fast. You will have much less of a chance of getting a virgin or mated queen(those times there are 2 or more queens in the hive). But you need warm weather and you need to be real careful you don't drive to many bees out.
Has anybody used a syrup concoction with say honeybee healthy? Place a shaker super above an excluder on all colonies packages are being shook from for the day. Spray top bars of that super with the solution. Wait for bees to come through then shake/blow them into the funnel. The bees could be trained with some tease tastes of the syrup by an open drum feeding so they key in on the scent. Then later(day or 2) when that solution is sprayed on the shaker super the bees will in a way go to robbing(not each others hives but what is within their hives). Yes the bees will weigh more because of the syrup so that will be dealt with by making the packages a little heavier. I think if this would work it will be fast and will greatly reduce the injuries caused by excessive bee-go smoke or just plain smoke used to drive the bees through the excluder.
Looking for queens then shaking the bees 1 frame at a time is good for cooler weather but it is sooooo slow.
Using bee-go in the smoker to drive the bees through an excluder up into a shaker box is fast. You will have much less of a chance of getting a virgin or mated queen(those times there are 2 or more queens in the hive). But you need warm weather and you need to be real careful you don't drive to many bees out.
Has anybody used a syrup concoction with say honeybee healthy? Place a shaker super above an excluder on all colonies packages are being shook from for the day. Spray top bars of that super with the solution. Wait for bees to come through then shake/blow them into the funnel. The bees could be trained with some tease tastes of the syrup by an open drum feeding so they key in on the scent. Then later(day or 2) when that solution is sprayed on the shaker super the bees will in a way go to robbing(not each others hives but what is within their hives). Yes the bees will weigh more because of the syrup so that will be dealt with by making the packages a little heavier. I think if this would work it will be fast and will greatly reduce the injuries caused by excessive bee-go smoke or just plain smoke used to drive the bees through the excluder.