Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: ozebee on February 27, 2013, 04:42:33 am
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Many years ago I recall, beekeepers would use a chemical which was put into the supers which would clear the supers compeletely of bees making it simple to take out full boxes of honey with no bees. Does anyone remember what that chemical was and is it still available? I need to find a way to encourage bees out of a tree rapidly. I have been doing a trap out using the Hogan method and it is working but it is slow. The local council now wants the bees "gone" ASAP and is prepared to resort to poisoning them. I would like to force as many out as possible so that i can take them away and then plug up the tree.
Any suggestions as to the best substance to use would be welcome. I have several "back door" entrances to the tree colony which I have closed off but I can introduce the substance through those thus forcing the bees the other way through the exit i would like them to take. I have tried moth balls but with little success.
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I think what you may be referring to is Carbolic Acid where they used, what was referred to as, a carbolic acid mat. As it is now banned with respect to bee keeping I do not know where you would be able to get hold of any.
Kevin
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There are two basic chemicals (under a variety of names) sold by beekeeping supply places to remove bees. One is butyric acid, which is basically the concentrated smell of vomit. It is marketed as "bee go" and "honey robber" (honey robber is the "cherry" smelling version so it smells like vomit and cherries...) The other product is Fischer's Bee Quick. It smells like Benzaldehyde which is the smell of maraschino cherries or artificial almond flavor. In recent years there was a supply issue with Bee Quick and several of the bee supply places have come out with some generic version or another of it. It smells a million times better than butyric acid... Some people just use benzaldehyde. I know George Imirie used to.
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They smell like puke.
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I like Bee Quick.
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Bee quick gets my vote!
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I have never used either. I have hung out with other beekeepers and have smelled both. If I were going to use one, it would be Bee Quick... but I have never seen a good reason to use them.