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Author Topic: Swarm traps ?  (Read 3283 times)

Offline twintrades

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Swarm traps ?
« on: July 05, 2011, 11:42:44 pm »
When would be the best time to place some ? I know they should be placed out in the spring. But i was just wondering if it would hurt anything to place them out now or would i just be wasting time.

And what would be the best / cheapest design ? I made a nuc and could make more. just wonering what yall make ?
Im in northern wisconsin not shure if ill even get a swarm ever.


Offline CapnChkn

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2011, 01:43:29 am »
At our local beekeeping meeting, I was asking around about this subject and one of the guys offered to give me some old brood comb.  Later I find it comes with a trap.  This thing was a monster.  The wood was 3/4 inch chip board, large enough for 8 deep frames, and sealed from all around with silicon.  It has a 1 x 4 and a big hole cut with a hole saw to hang from a tree with.

Sometimes you want to put the trap in the woods as far away from the roads as you can get, and I couldn't imagine carrying anything like that, that far.



Of course I was smitten with the idea of having a number of nuc boxes I could fool with, and after making them from 3/8 inch CDX, I primed and painted them in Camo to keep them out of the way of "blue bears."  I actually lose them if I don't catch the light just right or map where I hang them.  After tying line around them to form a handle, they're easy to transport, relatively light, and hold 5 full size deep frames.  I fashioned wooden blocks to slip in the entrance and vent cover to keep them bees whar they belongs.



As a regular nuc, they get really hot.  I thought there would be enough ventilation, not so.  The one painted white seemed to work fairly well.  I think the design was for migratory tops, I accidentally had them 3/4 in. wider than the top of the box, so I added some strips to make a kind of telescoping cover.  I would make them looser than they turned out.  Also they'll need an inner cover.

I've got one small split in one of the Camo nucs.  I fashioned a metal covered cover, and wrapped it in Mylar to keep the sun from burning the bees out.  I also added some elaborate venting system.  Those bees are teh happy bees.
"Thinking is like sin, them that doesn't is scairt of it, and them that does gets to liking it so much they can't quit!"  -Josh Billings.

Offline AllenF

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2011, 08:20:47 am »
I use nucs from the prints here on this site designed by Drew Coates.  I keep several out in the back yard and did catch a swarm in one this year.   The one was on the rail of my back porch and in full sun all day.   Spring is the time when the majority of the swarming occurs but there is a very small chance of a late swarm.   

Offline twintrades

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2011, 08:34:06 am »
Yea i didnt know if there would be a chance at all. Im gonna build some later this week when i get a chance heck if i dont geta  swarm this yr mabey next right ?

Offline danno

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2011, 08:50:39 am »
I make swarm traps from Robos design useing 12 sona tubes.  Swarms really like them but after a couple have been caught they start falling apart.  They are very cheap to make.   I also made nuc size useing luan.  The luan needs a few support pcs inside.  The lids are nothing but a pc of luan srcewed to the top of the box.  They are all painted drab green or black.   They are all very lite.  As for th time of year, it changes abit this far north.  Usually it can start the beginning of may but not this year.  This year I couldn't even make splits up here until June.   Other years have been as early as the end of april.  I'm still catching swarm in my traps this year. 

Offline jaseemtp

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2011, 12:15:51 pm »
I attempted the nucs from D. Coates and while they were inexpensive and easy to make, they do not last long.  I may have been using to thin of a plywood but most all of the warped within a month or so even the ones I painted.  So I started looking around and found another Nuc plans from http://dchoneybees.blogspot.com/2011/03/nuc-building-part-3-six-frame-deep-nuc.html
These nucs seem to be holding up alot better and with a little pain I think they will last longer.  It is the same material I use to make my regular hives and this keeps the frame and stuff interchangeable.  I too paint my bait hives camo, not for the bees but for the people, to help keep them away.  I also attach a 2x4 that is about 18 inches long and has a 1 inch hole in the top that allows me to hang the hive to the side of the tree.  Just my two cents from a newbie.
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Offline danno

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2011, 12:27:22 pm »
luan is 1/4 and made for underlayment so it is made from waterproof glue.   They dont delaminate and can be made super lite.   I have many that are over 5 years old and still look like new.  When I made these I ripped down 3/4 X 3/4 strips to reinforce the corners and glued and staples them together.   I have 2 hanging with swarms in them right now and one sona tube with a swarm that need to be hived Sat morning weather permitting.  I always leave them up until I see pollen being brought in.

Offline G3farms

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2011, 01:55:29 pm »
jase, sorry to hear of the misfortune with your nuc boxes. I made some this year and they are not even painted and are in service. I did place a piece of corroplast (plastic political signs) on the top of them to shed the rain water.
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 T Beek

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2011, 02:11:28 pm »
I place mine in mid May, about a month before our swarm season begins in N/W Wisconsin, but any swarms I catch seem to like small (15-20') trees.  Have only caught one in a trap in 6 seasons.  Better placed too early than too late I think.  I usually have an empty hive (loaded with frames of old brood comb) in my yard and have also been successful catching a few that way.

thomas
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Offline jaseemtp

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2011, 07:32:11 pm »
ehh G3 its no worries about the plywood nucs. 
T beek, I have caught more swarms in my own back  yard then I have caught in the bait hives.  I know folks with chime in and say ohhhh they must have come from your hives.  Well Im here to tell you no they didnt.  The hives in my yard a in small nucs and if I was getting swarms off of them then those hives would be EMPTY.  Most of the swarms seem to around the size of a football and they are all dark colored bees, I have been requeening with cordovan italians just so i can keep it straight.  I also agree that it would better to place the traps out to early than to late.  Is it a problem to leave them out all year?  As long as the entrance / exit is closed to small enough to not let birds in.
Jason
"It's better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!" Zapata

Offline danno

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2011, 09:00:55 am »
ehh G3 its no worries about the plywood nucs.  
T beek, I have caught more swarms in my own back  yard then I have caught in the bait hives.  I know folks with chime in and say ohhhh they must have come from your hives.  Well Im here to tell you no they didnt.  The hives in my yard a in small nucs and if I was getting swarms off of them then those hives would be EMPTY.  Most of the swarms seem to around the size of a football and they are all dark colored bees, I have been requeening with cordovan italians just so i can keep it straight.  I also agree that it would better to place the traps out to early than to late.  Is it a problem to leave them out all year?  As long as the entrance / exit is closed to small enough to not let birds in.
Jason
A few years ago after catching several swarms back in my fields, I started marking queens.   I did it for a couple of years just to see If I was catching my bee's and I never did.  Aside from a colony that swarmed in my face and clusterd in a bush just a few yards away I never caught a marked queen.  
« Last Edit: July 07, 2011, 01:32:39 pm by danno »

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #11 on: July 07, 2011, 01:08:39 pm »
I put out 2 swarm traps at my farm hoping to catch a couple form the beeks that put their hives in the forest near me. The only thing I trapped were a dozen mud dauber wasps. They made a mess of the foundations that I put in them.
Jim
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Offline twintrades

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2011, 09:16:16 pm »
Haha i didnt even think of that. Funny but it musta sucked !

Offline skatesailor

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Re: Swarm traps ?
« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2011, 09:53:06 pm »
In 50 yrs of keeping this is the first yr I purposely put out traps with lures. Previously I have had swarms occupy idle equiptment. After reading about trapping here I put out 5 traps with lure I bought from Dadant. The day before I moved my own hives home in May I caught a swarm in a deerstand back in the woods. Moved it far away and then back home to the yard and put another box in the stand. I went up today to get the box and it had another swarm in it.
So the answer is, its never too late to catch a swarm. Now its a matter of getting it ready and through winter.

 

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