bee blower

I have a friend that used to be a large sideliner (150 hives). He used a Stihl Backpack blower. I am planing on using my Stihl BG 85 to blow out bees. I would also like to hear what others do.

Kingfisher

I'm curious if there's any way to use an air compressor to do this - I've got a small portable.

Air volume not pressure is key in blowing bees. Stihl back pack units work well. I use the (heavy) unit Dadant sells which is repowered with a Honda engine.

mrspock; your air compressor will work just fine for the first 9 bees then you'll run out of volume! Takes a lot of air, moving fast, to get the bees out of a super.

We have a blower on a home-made stand, with a John Deere backpack blower mounted underneath the chute that the super sits on. As far as I am concerned, it is a wimp compared to the 5 hp Chrysler engines we had in the early 70's , with "Blower Application" cast aluminum fan shrouds. We could make waves in our skin with those, bigger hose too.

Roland

i use a cheap ($25,close-out) weedeater brand 120 volt AC blower and a 700watt harbor freight inverter and my truck or tractor battery(depending on where i'm at). works good for me, less than $100 total,new. good luck,mike

I use a Rigid wet/dry shop vac with detachable blower.
http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/WD1670-16G-Blower-Vac/EN/index.htm and small a Honda generator. The shop vac works great as a Bee Vac and the detachable blower works great for getting bees out of supers.