[imthedude]

Tuesday night I tried vacuuming a swarm that was on the ground. The yield was mixed results. It started out good, but there were so many bees that the hose clogged after a bit. This made me question the hose I'm using, a 1.5" HTH swimming pool vacuum hose.

What works best for you all, and where did you find it?

TIA

 

[Gilligan]

I use and have always read that you should use 2.5" hose (shop vac hose).

 

[GaryG74]

See if you can find the hose that is smooth on the inside. Lowe's carries a clear 1 1/4" (and other sizes) that fits my bee vac. Cuts down on dead and injured bees. Make sure the impact area where the bees "hit" inside is padded also. I used the shop vac corregated hose that came with it on my first cutout and lost about 30% of the bees, even with adjusting the suction as low as I could. The clear hose is stiffer than the shop vac hose which could be an issue in tight places.

 

[MichaelShantz]

how big is your input nozzle? My setup works fine (but a bit slow) with a 1 1/4 " vacuum hose and a 3/4" PVC input nozzle. So the input cross sectional area is about 1/3 that of the hose and the input air velocity is about 3 times that of the hose. This setup doesn't clog and doesn't kill bees but it is quite slow. I'd like to try a 2.5" hose with a 1.5" input nozzle.

 

[odfrank]

I use a 2 1/2" and add a tapered nozzle for swarms in a thicket of branches. Even a 2 1/2" will clog when vacing swarms. You got to go slow and keep the hose straight as possible.

 

[burns375]

I use larger diameter shop vac hose

 

[crabbydad]

i'm making a shop vac with one of the bucket head vacs from home depot. it comes with a 1 1/4 inlet. would the 2 1/2" work for the hose coming out of the bucket to vacuum bees? i wonder if it would have enough power. the vac head i think is 1 3/4 hp.

 

[G3farms]

I have always used the 2 1/2" shop vac hose with good results. I find that vacing up a swarm is difficult since they are all clinging to each other. They tend to come off in "chuncks" so to speak and can clog the hose quickly. You have to work slow and from the bottom of a cluster of bees. Too much suction will leave you with dead bees for sure.

 

[My-smokepole]

I am with odfrank
David

 

[imthedude]

I have always used the 2 1/2" shop vac hose with good results. I find that vacing up a swarm is difficult since they are all clinging to each other. They tend to come off in "chuncks" so to speak and can clog the hose quickly. You have to work slow and from the bottom of a cluster of bees. Too much suction will leave you with dead bees for sure.

this is what i found on tuesday night. the "chunks" clogged up things to the point that i finally gave up. i will try the 2.5" hose to see if that works any better.

 

[Mr.Beeman]

The length of hose also has a impact on how quickly it will clog. I run 1 1/2" smooth bore hose but it's only 10' long.