Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: BjornBee on April 11, 2009, 10:19:29 pm
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I see some of the big bee suppliers have bee vacs for sale. I was going to build one this winter, and I just did not get it done. So I'll buy one.
Anyone have any experience with any of them on the market? Anybody have anything good, bad, or suggestions as to what makes one better?
Anyone here on the forum make them... ;)
Thank you.
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do a search. there have been some ideas and pics posted. who is selling them? could have used one today!
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Hey Bjorn!
I looked at all kinds being made in here and on other sites....But, I finally decided to buy one myself. I figures that if it sucked up bees, and killed a bunch I could complain to a company who sold it to me. When I got it I was surprised to see how it was made...Not worth 200$ in parts for sure, but after using it I thought it was well worth the money cuz it worked great! as a matter of fact, not one dead bee from being sucked up!
But, on a sad note.......I cant remember who I got it from...it wasnt mann lake, and it wsnt dadants....But, I think it was from a catalog which was sort of small, and had a picture of a bee with a head of a man on it( Reminded me of the old movie "The Fly"). Maybe somebody here will know what Im talking about.
Oh yeh....It came with an extra box too!
Aw shoot.....I'll just go outside...in the dark and rain...... and take a picture! Theyre not great, but maybe you will recognize it or somebody else might recognize it....Hmmm Now that I think of it, I think JP has one like it! Maybe he hooked me up as to where to get it!
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_SHAA7n8c6x3sJhN-P17uw?feat=directlink
Good luck!
your friend,
john
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John that looks a lot like this one from Walter T. Kelley.
https://products.kelleybees.com/wtkprod/detail.aspx?item=334
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Bjorn, I can not say enough good things about Robo's design bee vac. I have built two and we sucked up four swarms just today. It is simple to build. With his design, you suck the bees straight into the hive body. When finished, you simply sit the hive body of bees on a bottom board and replace the screen top with a regular hive top. Very few bees get killed and I almost always get the queen. In addition, I have used it on two cut outs with good success. I use a small generator to power it for swarms.
http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/bee-vac/
Let me know if you need some additional information.
Steve
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Thats it Hiker!!..Thanks!
And Thats the guy, walter kelly, who looks like "The Fly!"
The extra box is for when you get one box full....Then you open the vac, pull the box with bees out, then stick an empty one in and Fill 'er up!. Very easy to figure out.
your friend,
john