sealing up openings

[bevy's honeybees]

I'm setting up a cone/box/trapout under a trailer (my neighbor's as I'd written the other day, will let it get robbed out after I'm done. Trailer probably will never be used again is my guess).

I need to seal up the seams of the underneath skin of the trailer. I worked for an hour yesterday getting the cone and box set up and started on the seams. Much of it is not separated, just some areas of openings I have to block. I have the cone opening into a feeder hole in center of a lid at their main entry, a medium box, entrance closed but they will be able to move in and out around the cone. I added some empty frames, one with some empty drawn comb, and I prematurely added a frame with capped and open brood. They were going in on their own as I worked and through the cone.

The problem I'm having, with limited work space reaching under the trailer to tape those seam openings, the tape is sticking to my glove if I don't get it on trailer on first try, then getting twisted and messed up.

Maybe something better than tape at those seams once I get cone fully attached? Right now the cone is only 3/4 taped on because of my problem with tape and not enough work area. I'm sure I need to tape the cone, but maybe I can use something else at the seams? Or some way I can keep the tape from sticking to my gloves? I use leather gloves.

There are 2 more colonies under this trailer. This first colony was extremely tolerant of my work so far and the easiest to get to.
Thanks

[Rader Sidetrack]

Obviously I can't see the exact layout you have, but "foam in a can" may be of assistance here. It will stick to about anything and dries hard.

http://greatstuff.dow.com/
You can find it at all the usual suspects.

[shannonswyatt]

It may be easier to work without the gloves, unless it isn't safe due to sharp surfaces or something.

Someone mentioned a while back that if you get the regular expanding foam the bees will chew through it, but there is a type of that foam that the bees will not chew through.

[Blackwater Bees]

Packing tape on the plastic dispenser is easy to work with your gloves on.

[Intheswamp]

bh, I'm figuring that you're using belly tape or either something like duct tape. If the belly has rips in it and you're trying to hold the edges together and tape at the same time then you have your hands full. You could try using short pieces of tape to hold the edges together and then come back over it with a strip of tape to do the sealing.

Something else... Think about those sterile pads with adhesive around the edges that we put on wounds...kinda like a bandaid. You could make some large pads out of clear plastic sheeting, garbage bags, or whatever (sheeting would be easier to work with). Get the tape around the edges before you get under the trailer...then when you get underneath you can position the "pad" and press the uncovered edge of the tape onto the belly without having to gather the edges of the rip together.

Cardboard wedged in between the stringers that come out from the i-beams could block off the bees from larger areas...staple one edge to the subflooring and tape the other edges.

Insulation could be wedged into cracks and crevices to block passage.

Ed

[Beregondo]

Great Stuff works awesomely well for sealing difficult to get to gaps.

Don't forget that if there are any gaps that allow access to the inside of the trailer, they ought to be sealed first or the bees will onto it.

[bevy's honeybees]

Lots of good ideas, thank you so much! I do have one more question after this:

I went to Home Depot and got Great Stuff, and a couple different kinds of duct tape. I forgot the tape dispenser.

I am such a chicken, but I will try without gloves, at least for the areas I'm not right on top of bees.

I also like the sheeting idea with tape around the edge. I can get it ready and have it on a piece of cardboard tape side up. One area in particular this idea will work well.

And the insulation idea to plug it up, or something like that and I could tape over.

I had breifly thought about bees going inside trailer, yes I will have to go in when I get this part done to make sure that isn't happening.

When I start removing bees from the trapout I want to take them to my house (4 houses away, maybe 300 feet from the trailer) and set them up behind my shed. They will face the east where their entrance now faces the west. Will that be enough to get them to reorientate or am I better off taking them out to the farm? I'd love to keep them in back yard as I will be adding to them as I go along. Something in front of the entrance so they reorientate?

[jredburn]

Bev
Come by the house and I will give you a bottle of my bee repellent. You can put it on your hands and work without gloves
Regards
Joe

[My-smokepole]

Jredburn
Witch be begone do you like. I love your trick
David

[nathan-D]

I tried my first trap out today under an old shed that is very difficult to get to. There were thousands of bees and I smoked the area and started to tape up plastic to the shed with a two inch hose coming out into a box. Not sure if it will work, probably not. The point of my post is I couldn't believe the bees didn't really bother me too much. I went gloveless and no stings until the very end when I crushed one under my finger and got stung once. I was trying to work steady but my hands were shaking because I was waiting to get attacked, LOL I had a regular jacket, jeans, sneakers and a hood. When I first went to check it out I got fairly close before they started dive bombing me but they didn't sting at all, it was nerve racking anyway.

[jredburn]

Nathan,
The company that owns the land I keep my bees on had a hive living in the floor of their dynamite trailer and they ask me to remove them. There was no power available and I could not use fire or flames. So I built a wooden cover that I could screw to the bottom of the trailer and thereby close up all the entrances. I cut a 1 1/4" hole in the panel and stuck a plastic hose in it. I ran the hose into the top of a five frame NUC box that had a hinged lid and a solid bottom. I put a one way cone out of #8 hardware cloth and put it in the top of the Nuc. The bees could only come out of the nest, into the Nuc and then out the entrance of the Nuc. They could get back into the Nuc but not into the original nest.
It was 10 weeks before I could get back into the area to check on them. I found a laying queen with 4 frames of comb drawn out and 5 to 6 pounds of bees.
They are doing nicely in my yard.
Regards
Joe

[nathan-D]

Wow, a dynamite trailer definately beats my story, LOL I'll probably check on mine today or tomorow and see how their doing. I didn't put the one way cone on because I wanted them to get used to the box first. Who knows, I'm glad I had a chance to try and we'll see how it goes. It was a freebee anyway since I don't know what I'm doing.

JRedburn: I just noticed you're from Ft. Myers, I'm pretty familiar with Ft. Myers. I'm from the Port Charlotte area but have been living in Ft. Lauderdale for a few years now.

[bevy's honeybees]

Joe thanks for the offer, I somehow got through the first part of the trap out. I've been back and have to keep sealing up new spots they are finding because my tape work not very good. The other day I put a frame of open brood in the box and there were more bees coming through the cone than before. That night the cold moved in so I don't know yet if the frame survived. I hadn't checked the weather in advance.

Your trailer job, it's funny because yesterday I thought of something that might work for the other colony in same trailer I'm working at. In fact could have worked on first colony too. Next one, the trailer is sunken and no way can I fit under there like I did first one. The area they are coming out is at a seam in the skin, pretty wide gap and at least 6" before it narrows down again to where it's sealed. I"m going to take a plastic frame and pre tape all around the edges for several inches out. Before I do that, I'm going to drill some holes and I have some one way cone escapes, the small red ones, which I will install in frame close together and seal those off . Then I will put a nuk with a frame of comb at the area they fly from under the trailer.

I hope to be at the next meeting, I will let you know how it turns out.

[jredburn]

Bev,
It works better and faster if the cones is just inside the Nuc. The bees have to exit by going through the box. That tends to "fix" the box in their GPS and they will return to it. The house bees that come out of the original hive will move right onto the brood comb and start to take care of it.
Regards
Joe

[bevy's honeybees]

Yes that's what I was able to do with the first colony. This next one, after reading your post I thought about running a tube like you did with yours. My only other option is dig dig dig, which I'm not inclined to do. They would only have one exit if I do the tube, and it would have to run several feet as the seam is about 1 -1 1/2 ft back, and it cant crease off. The clearance I have right now height is about 1 foot at the most. I will give that some thought. Our biggest goal with these colonies are to get them out of the trailer, without construction, so his yard man can get work done. I told him about leaving dead stuff behind and at this point he doesn't care. It's not a livable trailer at this this time.

I was just thinking, I do have a 4 frame nuk with 2 round entrances, one lower on one side, one higher on the other, where I could run the tube into the lower--no creasing--and they would then go in and out through box entrance on the other side. This might work!