[seamuswildflower]

Looked at a hive in a concrete block building today. For my first trapout this looks easy! There is a truck body that makes a perfect platform to work on. It is less than a foot from the building, could not fall if i wanted to. 6 feet above is a flat roof. 1 foot below is the entrance to the hive. So i plan to put a 6 frame nuc on the flat roof and attach pvc pipe to the front of the hive up to the bee house. Do it a little at a time and let the bees find a new way in. Then at night fall i will put the cover on a nuc with drawn com sprayed with sugar water. Then in a week come back with a frame of open brood, see if her highness will inspect and decide to lay her own eggs in it. Then come back with another hive and let then rob the rest out. Any suggestions? As ross used to say "i am all ears" jim donovan

 

[jrose1970]

Sounds like a plan Boss. I'm not a complete newbie, but I'm coming back after 10 years. I have just decided to learn a little more about trapping. It's less expensive and you get hardier bees, I think. Good luck. I had an empty hive last spring, and one day there were bees in there. They stayed!

 

[seamuswildflower]

Cleo hogan i hope you are listening? Just started my first trapout. I thought i would be easy wroooooooooooooooog. So far i have gotten the bees to come out a pvc pipe that is encased in great stuff. But when i attach more pipe into a nuc they cannot find it! I sprayed drawn comb with sugar water, put a pollen patty at the entrance. I pulled the pipe apart today and there is a 90 % pvc elbow and the bees were all gathered at the joint in the pipe but would not go further! Then i put a short pipe, 6 inches, in the elbow. They came in and out of that ok but when i put a 9 inch peice on they could not find their way in. I left at dark with the pipes attached to the nuc and hoped for the best. This is an olllllllllllllllld colony. Thier could be as much as 200 pounds of honey in there, you can see stains in the drywall for 12 feet or more. There is no way i can do a cutout, there is an auto repair shop below that churns out money by the ton. Anybody out there with idea i am all ears. Jim donovan

 

[Cleo C. Hogan Jr]

If I understand what you are doing, i would use a 4 inch flexible dryer hose attached and sealed to the concrete blocks on one end, and going into the rear of your trap box, ( I like a 10 frame deep.) If all entrances/exits are sealed, then all bees going and coming will have to be through your trap. I would not bother with sugar water or pollen patties. Let them get used to going and coming through the trap box.

If I understand your post, the trap would only be a foot from the colony entrance/exit. Let the bees get used to going through the hose, into the trap, then out the trap to the outside. When they return they will enter at the front of your trap, pass through the trap, then through the hose, and then back into the wall.

Since your trap may not be near the brood nest you may not draw out the queen or nurse bees even if you add a frame of unsealed brood. In walls and buildings the brood nest may be several feet from the entrance that the bees are using. In this case I would install a funnel inside your trap, (use screen and form a screen cone or you can use a conical bee escape funnel). Any bee that exits the colony will have to go through the funnel and into your trap in order to go outside. In this case you will initially get mostly field bees, then as other bees (including drones) exit for rest or cleansing flights they come through your funnel to the outside and then cannot get back into their colony because the funnel will trap them in your trap. At this point they take up residence in your trap. Providing them a couple frames of drawn brood comb will help. Field bees will start depositing pollen and nectar in the trap.

Leave the trap on until the box is either full of bees, or, you get enough to start a colony.Leave the trap in place, move frames as you need to. Eventually you will weaken the colony so badly that the queen and the remaining bees will come through your funnel, into your trap, and they cannot get back to the colony. Move them away, or let them rob out the honey in the walls. Trapping finished.

Hope this is helpful. Good Luck.

cchoganjr

 

[seamuswildflower]

THANKS Cleo. that pipe i have set is their only way in and out and it is encased in great stuff. i like the idea of the cone. i was worried that they had not started coming in and out by the first day. should i just wait and see?

 

[seamuswildflower]

I put a frame of brood with a queen and a brood patch slightly bigger than a silver dollar 5 days ago, now she has palm sized patch and many more bees have come out of the trapped colony. Looking good!