Got an email from new customer this morning - did trap-out this afternoon

[PatBeek]

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Woke up this morning with an email from someone wanting bees out of their wall. So I went to a job I had to do and then went a couple of miles down the road to the customers house after I was done with work.

I had to remove the light fixture and then glue the cone-assembly right to the wall with some great adhesive I found today at Lowe's.

I brought my whacked top-bar trap-out hive that I slapped together with spare wood.

Everything seemed to go really well. They were PISSED, though, when I started taking the light fixture off. There were multiple bees attempting to sting me, and one eventually got me on my shoulder/neck area - no biggie. It climbed through my hood on my jacket, under the veil.

The tape you see at the top of the assembly was just an added thing I added in case the glue did set too well at first. I didn't really need the tape because the adhesive was really good.

Anyhow, enough of my babbling.................here's the video and some photos:

By the way, this video turned out really good. The audio of the bees is just phenomenal.

[JClark]

Nice video. Pardon my ignorance but how is this supposed to work? Seems you are just excluding returning foragers from re-entering the hive. Is that the point--you get a bunch of workers and the hive starves then you prevent re-entry for new swarms--or did you do a cut-out previously of this hive?

Guess I could search and read up on trap-outs but I thought the point was to get the hive to eventually move into a box you can move (just my assumption) but I can't see how the queen would get from the wall into your box. I think there is more here that I'm not getting.

[Detroit Bees]

JClark, I'm with you...there has to be more to this trick than meets the eye.

Clearly the bees are being drawn out of the nest and the screen cone provides a way out, but not a way back in.

I wonder how long this entire process took? And is there some kind of attractant in the wood "hive" to draw the bees in? Clearly they started going in and I guess they all did eventually?

Please tell us more!

[PatBeek]

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Those are great questions.

Well, although I SHOULD have brood/eggs to place in the bait hive, I don't. I'm a new bee keeper and I'm trying to get free bees from doing trap-outs and/or cut-outs. However, I did hang some old comb I had inside the top bar hive and I also placed some lemongrass oil in the bait-hive which mimics the queen's pheromone. Optimally, the bees would go in and raise a new queen from a batch of brood/eggs, but since I didn't have that, I am going to hope the queen wanders out after she realizes most of the other bees have left her. I have heard others say that they have gotten that to work.....we'll see.

Regardless, it's late in the season, and even here in Florida, these bees would be hard-pressed to survive. The homeowner was probably going to have them sprayed anyhow and she didn't want the wall smashed. This was pretty-much the only alternative.

But yes, I'm new at this, but ONE day I'll be an expert. You gotta start somewhere, folks.

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[brooksbeefarm]

The queen rarley comes out,anyway i've never had one to. Yes, you can combine the bees you trap out to another hive, but the home owner will still have a problem. The smell of dying rotting brood and bees, honey dripping out of the comb and running down the inside wall, drawing ants and other insects and rodents. I have found that a complete cutout in homes are a better way to go than a trapout, but it's hard to get the home owner to go along with it.Of course it depends on how long the colony has been there.

[Cleo C. Hogan Jr]

PatBeek... Quote.... ( I am going to hope the queen wanders out after she realizes most of the other bees have left her)

Send me an e-mail cchoganjr@scrtc.com and I will send you info on a trapping system so you can raise your expectations of getting the queen quickly. I will also send color photos of traps in progress to show how the system works. You can build, very easily, everything you need. No charge for the info. I do it to help beekeepers.

Brooksbeefarm. I get the queen virtually every time. Most others do also. With my system you will get the queen, unless the brood nest is too far from the entrance, or, you don't catch her in the trap when she is on the comb. At any rate, if she comes into the trap and lays in your drawn comb, and returns to the feral source, you will have her eggs, you can then move the frames and start a new colony from her eggs,(they will make a queen) then continue trapping until you deplete the feral colony of honey and bees, then she will come into the trap. Colony gone, you have the queen.

Cutout is the way to go if you can, but for whatever reason you can't, then get the queen and get the bees. And yes, a trapout without removal of comb will result in insects etc entering and removing any honey and also is an invitation for SHB and Wax Moths to move in, then next year a swarm will move in, clean the mess, and start another colony in the same place you just removed them from.

cchoganjr

[JClark]

Patbeek,

I figured you were working w/in the constraints of the situation--just wanted to be sure. A cinder-block wall is definitely not an ideal cut-out situation.

Cleo, I'll send an e-mail too as I am interested in the info mentioned above. If my hives swarm next season like my first hive did this spring I may have to re-collect some from other folks' houses at some point. And I thought I was only going to have one hive! Suspect that this winter may actually test my abilities though (last winter never really happened here).

[EastSideBuzz]

Queen is going to stay in and then you will have a dead out in the wall, Ants roaches, mice etc in that wall. You need to get at the chamber and get them cleaned out. You might have to break a brick or two. Go in from the inside etc. That screen thingy you have is clever but, not practical. You will only get the ones that leave the hive and the nurse bee's and queen will not leave and you wont get the honey out. Leaving wax behind is ok but, you need the honey out.

Now if you wait long enough they will all die. You could Co2 them kill them off and have a hive outside to rob out the honey. Then all you will have left is smelly brood. That smell will go away after a few months when it all drys out. Maybe you could heat the wall and it will cause them to dry out quicker after all the honey has been robbed out. But, you will have a project and mess if you don't do it right.

I just got paid $500 to remove a hive behind siding on a historic house and they were happy to pay it. They put the siding back up. Price the work accordingly of course.

[PatBeek]

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Well, since the wall is cinder block, I'm not too sure how much invading and stinking there will be once the hole is sealed up. The cinder blocks are sealed on both the inside and outside. Again, I don't see how it would cause much of a stink or insects once it's sealed at the lamp hole. Please correct me if I'm wrong.....I'm not trying to be a smart@$$ or anything like that.

Oh yes, and the most the lady agreed to pay before I even came out was $100.00. I'm not going to smash a wall for just $100.00.

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[PatBeek]

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Oh, would you all look at how sweet this setup has turned out to be. Much, much better than my first attempt:


Here's the trap-out cone. It's pretty much empty of any bees. No passage-ways they've eaten through or any disasters like that:



And check out the new home they have populated. Anyone want to wager the queen has also come out?

[odfrank]

This gets the "Most Frugal Trapout" award for 2012.

[JClark]

Let us know if you got the queen in there. Would have never thunk it. Congrats!

[PatBeek]

Yeah, I'm Texas right now, so I can't confirm. But thanks.

That hive needs to stay there another week-or-two anyhow to account for any hangers-on (including the queen) which may still be in the wall.

By the way, does this count as a bee-removal? I mean, they are removing THEMSELVES, technically. Florida seems to have adopted a no-cut-out policy
of which they are supposedly clamping down on. It shouldn't be illegal to place a cone on the outside of a house, right? I was just trying to protect the light fixture from rain - - yeah, that's the ticket. (sorry about the old catch-phrase). If bees are in your house, it shouldn't be illegal to be able to do work on the OUTside of the house.

[PatBeek]

This gets the "Most Frugal Trapout" award for 2012.

Hmmmmmm, should I take that as a compliment...or?

Hey, are you jealous of that trap-hive I nailed together with spare wood?

Next time I'll do a Cadillac trap-out......the DELUXE treatment.

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[PatBeek]

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And by the way, it looks to me from the photo (the customer snapped it for me.......I've been out-of-state for weeks) that they are bearding
on the outside bottom of the hive to cool off.

They aren't trying to build comb underneath the entrance, are they?

Please don't tell me they are festooning down there when they have a perfectly good nailed-together-with-trash-wood-hive of which they can build comb on the inside.

[shannonswyatt]

What is that you have nailed on top for a outer cover? An old piece of tarp? I would think think that it would get too hot inside and be to moist if that is the case. Or is it some kind of breathable material?

[Lburou]

Good job!

I would be surprised to hear that the queen is out of the wall though. Here is why. When colonies have sickness where the bees fly away or otherwie die away from the hive, the queen is often found with a few workers on the combs where she presides over her own death.

[PatBeek]

Good job!

I would be surprised to hear that the queen is out of the wall though. Here is why. When colonies have sickness where the bees fly away or otherwie die away from the hive, the queen is often found with a few workers on the combs where she presides over her own death.

Hmmm, that may be very well true. However, the bees haven't exactly absconded. They are just right next door in a new flat. I would bet that the queen may somehow get a communique' that her crew is just right outside her palace and go check out what's going on. I could be wrong. I will say that I've heard others testify here that they've gotten the queen to come out. I'm sure it's a very hit-or-miss proposition. To be honest, I don't really expect to get her, but it would be a huge bonus.

[shannonswyatt]

You may want to check out the way that Mr. Hogan does it. He would attach a flange to the wall that and then have have a hole in the hive body to have the bees fly through, effectively building a hive around them, versus having them go to the new hive. Then putting the brood in the hive after a few days and springing the trap, at which time they can't go back into the old hive. You still may not get the queen though.

What is that you are using for your hive cover?

[PatBeek]

What is that you are using for your hive cover?

Yes, it's tarp material. The real roof is at a farmer's house where I used that hive up in between two trees as a bait hive for swarms. The roof wouldn't fit on it up in the trees, of which I found out after I nailed the wood stand up in the trees. So I improvised really quick with some tarp material he had. Anyhow, to make a long story short - I wouldn't trust the original roof for picking up a trap hive full of bees anyhow, because it doesn't seal good enough. I want that roof sealed TIGHT for the evening I come screen'-off the front holes and throw the thing in my van.