When does a stuck swarm become bee vacuum safe
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HUH??? I sucessfully vacuum numerous swarms a year. We did this "stuck" swarm recently, it mas maybe a week or more old. Comb but no brood. We vac them as soon as they land. They are looser and easier to vac when new. If you go the next day they are very tight.
Thanks odfrank. I tried vacuuming a swarm years ago and it was horrible. Got told by a large beekeeper you can not vacuum a swarm because the bees drown on their own vomit. Went up and vacuumed this swarm about 30 hours since they swarmed and a lot of the bees lived. Maybe I had the vacuum turned up to high on the other one. This time I had the bee vac turned down with just enough suction to pull in a few bees at the time. How strong do you run yours when your vacuuming bees. Thanks again.HUH??? I sucessfully vacuum numerous swarms a year. We did this "stuck" swarm recently, it mas maybe a week or more old. Comb but no brood. We vac them as soon as they land. They are looser and easier to vac when new. If you go the next day they are very tight.
Went back and checked the hived swarm a couple of days later. More dead bees than I would have liked but the queen and most bees survived. Talked with a professional who does bee removal for a living and he said I probably had the suction to high when I did the swarm years ago and it ended in disaster. He told me swarms were more likely to rupture their guts because they were stuffed with honey. Nine years in beekeeping and still learning. It was a well timed lesson because I had another swarm land in my bee yard on the ground in high grass. Successfully vacuumed them up as well. High winds have got almost all the swarms this year low to the ground. Hope this learning experience for me helps someone else as well. Got a huge cutout coming up soon so the vacuum experience will help as well.
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