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Author Topic: The Bix's First Trap Out  (Read 12343 times)

Offline iddee

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #20 on: July 25, 2009, 01:54:34 pm »
Report back here at 8:00 PM today. I think it will be a different scene.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #21 on: July 25, 2009, 07:49:26 pm »
Report back here at 8:00 PM today. I think it will be a different scene.


My schedule will not allow me to check the trapout at 8PM tonight so it's  ~5PM, but still no change.  No bees are in the trap box.  I figure they're still getting inside somehow, but just haven't been able to figure it out.  It is complicated by the fact that the hive is so high up and fairly inaccessible.

Offline iddee

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #22 on: July 25, 2009, 11:35:12 pm »
If you haven't been up to it, it is likely that they are in the box, up high. The bees you see may be others that have come out. You will have to open the box before you will know what is happening.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #23 on: July 27, 2009, 10:53:32 am »
So, I took a close look this morning after a cool night in the mid-fifties.  Not much activity around the hive with the cool temperature revealed that there is no activity in the trap box as well as a hole that I didn't seal or didn't seal well enough and they managed to burrow through.  So they are most definitely getting back into their hive.  I screwed up. What should I do now?

Offline G3farms

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #24 on: July 27, 2009, 10:57:51 am »
Seal up the new hole with silicon caulk. Check the bait box to see what is going on in it, more than likely nothing. Start over with another frame of eggs.

just my thinking, Iddee is the trap out man for sure.

G3
those hot bees will have you steppin and a fetchin like your heads on fire and your keister is a catchin!!!

Bees will be bees and do as they please!

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #25 on: July 27, 2009, 11:21:54 am »
Thanks, at the day-job now...will wait to hear from Iddee and maybe retry this afternoon or tomorrow.

Offline iddee

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #26 on: July 27, 2009, 12:55:54 pm »
Seal up with silicone and check in 3 days. No need to waste another frame of brood until they are locked out for sure. They will take up in the box with the old brood. Then you can give them new eggs to raise a queen.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #27 on: July 27, 2009, 07:48:06 pm »
OK, so trapout #1 is going great.  I have 4.5 frames of bees in the trapout box and there were new field bees exiting the cone doing orientation flights today.  Iddee, this is truly amazing to watch (when it's working of course ;) ).

I went back to trapout #2 and sealed up the hole that I spotted this morning wth silicone.  I did this about 1/2 hour before the deluge/thunderstorm hit...still getting pounded as I write this.  I will report back in three days with what I see.

--Bix

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #28 on: July 27, 2009, 08:31:27 pm »
Post thunderstorm, bees are bearding around the base of the cone and also below the spot where they were getting in.

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #29 on: July 30, 2009, 07:04:09 pm »
OK, so it's been three days since I did the final seal of the hive.  As of yesterday evening there was no activity in the trapout box. Things have been complicated by the weather here.  It has been uncharacteristically cold and rainy.  Two nights in a row the temp was down in the low fifties.  Yesterday afternoon we were hit again with a cold rainstorm that lasted about an hour and then drizzled for a while before another cell moved through and dumped more rain on us.

The past three days the bees have been hanging out in clusters underneath the base of the cone and other areas as well.  I checked the trapout about 3PM today and the first thing I noticed was that the cluster of bees was a lot smaller.  Upon closer inspection I noticed a lot of dead bees underneath the trapout cone.  I assume they died yesterday or this morning due to the moisture from the storm and the cold temperature.  

The good news is that today is the first day that I've actually seen activity in the trapout box.  There were only a handful of beas inside the box, but they were on the bait frame.  And as I sat on the roof from above and watched, I noticed more bees going in than coming out.  So I think we're headed in the right direction.

Should I add a new bait frame now?

Offline G3farms

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #30 on: July 30, 2009, 10:13:10 pm »
I think I would wait until you have enough bees to cover any brood that that is placed into the box.

Again Iddee is the trap out pro here.

G3
those hot bees will have you steppin and a fetchin like your heads on fire and your keister is a catchin!!!

Bees will be bees and do as they please!

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #31 on: August 02, 2009, 12:03:18 am »
I am delighted to report that the second trapout is finally going my way.  Iddee is right, those bees will chew right through the Great Stuff foam.  I've sealed everything off (again) with Silicone and the bees have taken to the trapout box.  My bait frame is completely covered with workers and I hope to pull may bees out of this hive.  Apparently they've been there for 10 years!!!

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #32 on: August 02, 2009, 11:40:29 pm »
So after about 36 hours of an effective trapout I have about 4.5 frames of bees in a deep hive box.  Is there any problem with just stacking another box on top of that one if/when I get 7 full frames?

Offline iddee

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #33 on: August 03, 2009, 04:47:55 am »
A single box hive can weigh 100 plus lbs. A double can go 150 or more.

Will your stand hold 150 lbs?
Can you get it down when it does?
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #34 on: August 03, 2009, 04:52:30 pm »
Yeah, thought about that...would definitely be problematic getting them down...stand would hold it, but getting them down is the big difficulty.

Back to Trapout number 1.  I visited the trapout when it just got dark to see exactly how many bees I had in there.  What I saw from underneath the five (screen bottom board) was six frames completely convered with bees, plus a few more on frames 7,8 and 9.  All in, probably 6.5 frames if they were all shoved together.

What I also noticed was that there was a big pile of bees clustered together at the entrance to the trapout box.  Not hanging in a beard below the entrance, but piled up and across most of the screen bottom board entrance.  Never have I seen that before, it was as if they were not allowed inside even though there was plenty of room for them.  The trapout box is a 10-frame deep hive body.  Any ideas what is going on?

Offline iddee

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #35 on: August 03, 2009, 05:40:02 pm »
Waiting for the usher to seat them???   :?


They will go in when it cools down.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #36 on: August 05, 2009, 10:16:13 pm »
The wheels have fallen off fof trapout #1  :(

So I think I know why the bees were bunching up outside the trap out box the other night.  They were getting ready to bail out.  I went by this morning and about two thirds of the bees have left.  I looked at the bait frame and found three queen cells that were empty.  It looked like a queen actually emerged from two of the three.  I wonder if one of the queens swarmed out of the trapout box.

Offline David LaFerney

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #37 on: August 06, 2009, 02:29:07 am »
The wheels have fallen off fof trapout #1  :(

So I think I know why the bees were bunching up outside the trap out box the other night.  They were getting ready to bail out.  I went by this morning and about two thirds of the bees have left.  I looked at the bait frame and found three queen cells that were empty.  It looked like a queen actually emerged from two of the three.  I wonder if one of the queens swarmed out of the trapout box.

I wonder if placing a new frame of brood in the box a bit before the queen cells are due to open would help prevent this sort of thing? 

It's just idle speculation, but it seems that  bees are attracted to brood and are disinclined to abandon it.  The queen cells were probably made out of the youngest brood on the frame so by the time they hatch and the queen hardens off most if not all of the other brood has hatched as well.  So the hive which has been queenless is now without any brood whatsoever, and when the queen flies out to mate there is nothing to keep them home so they try to (or do) follow her. A new frame of brood might give them some vested interest in staying home until the new queen sets up shop.

I also wonder if the screened bottom might prevent the bait hive from accumulating a hive smell sufficient to make it homey.  Again with the idle speculation.
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Samuel Clemens

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Offline Highlandsfreedom

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #38 on: August 06, 2009, 08:32:31 pm »
So very newbee here, my mentor Shaux decided he needed to go to California and the guy he suggested I contact is on vacation on a beach in Texas.


Sorry, Im back from the beach, the pics look good.  Have a safe journy.
To bee or not to bee that is the question I wake up to answer that every morning...

Offline The Bix

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Re: The Bix's First Trap Out
« Reply #39 on: April 28, 2010, 12:32:54 am »
Hey iddee!  Check out the big beautiful queen the girls raised from last year's trapout!  She's so big she looks like a mutant! ;)

Thanks again for all your help.  Last year I started beekeeping and with the trapouts, I feel like I jumped into the deep end of the pool.  Never could've done it without the great info you provided here on the forum.



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