Modified Hogan Trap

[Scottsman]

Thought someone might be interested in this. It's made as light as I could make it with wood. It's the size of a deep NUC and I used Luan for the sides. the ends are pine and the top and bottom 1/4 plywood. The reason for the light weight is the location, about 14 feet up the tree. The knot hole is huge and it was very difficult to seal up. With the box sticking out so far it put a lot of strain on the collar.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7988615...in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7988615...in/photostream

[ken rice]

I use an old style tv wall mount screwed to the tree to set the box on.

[Scottsman]

That's a good Idea,in this case it's too far from the tree to the box. I had thought about running a wire or cable but it's in a fork and would only pull sideways. I'm going to look at a house with bees in the soffit, the way the guy talks I'll have to make a special collar and support the box on the second story eve.

[Cleo C. Hogan Jr]

Scottsman...Others.... The only thing I see is that you should always try to make the two mating transitions as short as possible so the bees think the trap is another chamber of their colony. In other words, get the end of the trap as close to the tree as possible. Queens will not travel long distances, and if the distance is too great, the bees will use the trap for honey storage and not brood rearing. It is the same principle as splitting a brood nest in a normal hive.

Setup looks good. Good Luck.

cchoganjr

[ken rice]

Cleo, Just finished up with one. Took 5 weeks, opened the box and there she was,on the frames in the box. Left her bee and put in the funnel to get any left in the tree. Thanks again for your design, Ken

[Scottsman]

Cleo;

The transition when put together is four inches, is that too long or about rite. The reason this looks so far from the tree is because the knot hole is about three or four inches out from the tree as well. It appears as if it's in free space. I had to go back twice to seal it all up, finally used great stuff over plastic to protect the bees.

[Cleo C. Hogan Jr]

Hard to say if it is "too long", my intent is to say, keep it as close to the brood nest as you possibly can, and yes, it looked like it was very long in free space.. Four inches should be O.K.
cchoganjr