Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS => Topic started by: CapnChkn on April 02, 2012, 05:05:29 pm
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Does any one know of a swarm trap around 1000^3 inches (16.4 liters) being used as a swarm trap? If so, was it ever successful? I'm out of frames for deeps, but have one Medium 5 frame nuc.
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Well, since nobody seemed to know, and I had the thing just setting while the season rolled on, I set the nuc up in a tree next to a falls on one of the local streams. It's on a limestone cliff in a cedar tree facing over the cliff toward the water. I haven't measured, but I could say it's 20 feet above the water.
I placed the trap weeks ago, didn't go to check on it until today, and there is definitely a swarm inside. I can't tell you what they look like yet, I have to get them out of the tree and it really is a haul out to the spot. But climbing the tree and shining a flashlight shows bees all along the bottom of the frames.
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Congrats!
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Looks like you got the answer you where hoping for. Congrats....
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Thanks to you good folks! I've been trying to get bees for years, and never thought to just set a hive out for them. It's because of everyone here that I know what to do!
Here's the swarm trap on the good day I went out to get them. By the time I'd gotten them home they were pretty antsy, gotten jostled around on the back of my bicycle, and the screen cover I made to confine them barely fit. I hadn't taken into account how difficult it would be to climb up, secure them, and then get them down and out of the woods in the dark.
I had to get them through a field of Barley on the way, and am surprised how it affected me. You can hear me coughing, spitting, and supressing a sneeze.
fissionholebees.flv (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ku4lSUb18#)
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Congrats! Brings back memories of beeking in TN.
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That’s a nice looking backyard you have CapnChkn!
Good to know a 5 frame medium will catch a swarm.
What happened to the cammo paint?
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Video the inside of that trap and let us see what you caught. And you didn't show up where the old still was at on the creek.
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I was wondering how a medium would work myself. I made a medium nuke while thinking about moving to all mediums, but I changed my mind since I already have deep woodware too. So I was going to put it out as a swarm trap, but there doesn't seem to be very many bees in my area other than the two hives in my backyard.
Congratulations and thanks for the info and video.
Having fun!
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Ok, I finally managed to get the camera to record instead of dropping right at the beginning. Here you can see the general look of the bees. So far they're calm and nice, though I was apprehensive at first due to the roar they were giving. Once they calmed down they mellowed...
I don't think there's actually a still on this one, the Revenooers live right up the road...
I've moved them into a full sized Medium now.
5 frame Medium Nuc Swarm trap (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbqiK0Mx0mQ#)
BlueBee, I have thse Camo traps all over the city. In this case they're so far off the trail I didn't really worry about the trap being seen. Here's one that did catch bees, next to a local excavation company.
Mulching bees two step (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soBUfxxphNA#)
Just to show how good the paint job is, I've been using this as a test video. The trap here has shown some interest, but it's been out there for 2 months now with nobody moving in, yet...
Camo Nuc in Tree. Now with Bees! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3cFmYmm2ho#)
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Nice job
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Well, for round two I've placed the same nuc in the same tree, last year I had one frame with drawn comb, filled with honey. This year I had one drawn frame without, and hung it in the tree with an entrance reducer; 1 x 5/16 in (25 x 5 mm).
Though the trap has been in this tree for around 4 months now, last year I had caught all my swarms by the end of April, I have been out to shake ants, roaches, and rehang the thing several times without any indication of bee-interest. I left it out there while going on other business, and checked it yesterday to see a swarm had moved in.
This, for me at least, verifies that volume is relative to the bees choice of a proper cavity. It's the only trap I have that holds medium frames, all the Deep sized caught swarms though May and June. I'll see what happens next year with more.