Bee Vacuum

[scoobee]

Hi All,
  This afternoon I receied a call from my sister that works at a hospital in Utah. She was telling me that her shift has a small party on the patio outside the wing where she works and that they had to cancel the party because on a branch of a small tree was a large ball of bees. She told me that they called a beekeeper to come remove it. Here is what has me wondering. She told me that the beek used a vacuum and sucked most of the bees up and boxed them then waited for the bees flying to enter the box. He told my sister that the vacuum did not harm the bees. I never heard of that, has anyone else?  I'm just wondering if the vacuum was a black & decker or royal! And if you can vacuum them can u use a Hoover shampooer to clean the hive?
               
                Scoobee

[fermentedhiker]

He was using a bee vacuum.  They generally use a shop vac motor, but are designed such that they have just enough suction to draw a bee in without killing it.  Water T. Kelley makes a nice one, and Robo one of the moderators on here has a very nice design of his own.  A great tool for removing honey bees from structures as well.

adam

[D Coates]

I've got one I made from the Robo design.  It works well and of the bees I have gotten with it so far (baseball/softball size afterswarm) there wasn't a one dead one to be found.

[Jim134]

Take a look


http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/bee-vac/
 
https://products.kelleybees.com/wtkprod/detail.aspx?item=334



               BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)

[iddee]

I like the "Tom Sawyer" setup.

http://s81.photobucket.com/albums/j226/Iddee/BEE%20VAC/

[AllenF]

Iddee, what size hardware cloth do you have in your box?  I did not know if 1/8 inch would be too big and get bee parts stuck in it or use window screen?   And so the bees go down into the frames or do they go to the top on the plexiglass?

[iddee]

The wire is 1/8.

There is a sliding bottom. The bees stop there, or you can set it on a hive, remove the bottom, and let the bees go onto the frames.

[AllenF]

Iddee, when you are sucking the bees, do you prefer to vac them with a hive with frames under or not, just dump them in later?

[iddee]

On a cut out, if you vac onto frames, you have no place to put brood. That's why the slide in bottom.

With a swarm, you can vac right onto the frames.