What's a beevac ?

[Myron Rotruck]

I was helping a friend the other get some bees out of a house trailer, and he came up with the idea of taking a shop vac and putting a reostat on the power cord to be able to control the amount of force the vac would have. So he went to work with the thing, and it looked like it was doing good. Oh what a mess it made of the bees  They say you learn from your mistakes, we learned not to do that again. As I was reading some post here on Beemaster I see where people was using a beevac. I never seen one. How do they work without hurting the bees? plus, where can you buy one?

[TwT]

here how i modified a shop vac to work and not kill the bee's

http://www.beemaster.com/beebbs/viewtopic.php?t=2775

[Michael Bush]

http://www.beesource.com/plans/beevac/index.htm

[latebee]

Myron Rotruck asked a question about bee vacs

How do they work without hurting the bees?plus, where can I buy one?

    Well Myron they work on a double container principle go tohttp://www.beesource.com/plans/beevac/index.htm   and you can see the plans there.I really am not sure if anyone is selling these. I have built an exact replica of the plans from beesource and it works beautifully! Follow the instructions from the plans and there will be no problems. The only thing I will CAUTION everyone on, is the vacum adjustment.It must be set properly or you will KILL the bees.The best way I can desribe the proper setting is to say that the bees are almost able to crawl away from the vacum force but it barely sucks them in. Also you can tell by the feel of the vacum hose-if you can feel the bees bumping along the hose-reduce the vacum using the adjustment hole in the plans.It is a very slow tedious process vacuming bees.I probably killed over 30% of the bees the first couple of times I used it.Now I have developed the patience to take ample time and remove them very slowly. THe last four times I have used it I don't think that 50 bees total were killed or hurt using it.Also if you do not feel comfortable building one yourself,maybe you can get a buddy to build it for you in exchange for some of that delicious honey!!

[stilllearning]

 I never seen one. How do they work without hurting the bees? plus, where can you buy one?

Used correctly, they can really help, they can also kill lots of bees, especially the queen.  I had not used one until recently, I messed up
uniting 3 different groups of bees, left out the newspaper between
two supers and had a real mess of bees in town near too many homes.
I grabed a shop vac unaltered in a few minutes I had them all in side
most of them dead but under controll. I now dont do such in the back yard. Regulation of the amount of suction is paramount to proper operation.  I built the one from bee source and use a slick hose and
padded the interior with foam rubber when I use it I seldom kill
any bees. I only use it to collect a feral hive, in my oponion it is too
slow and not necessary for a swarm.  Try Bushy Mountain, they used
to advertise one for sale.

[Michael Bush]

I have made two of my own and bought one from Brushy Mt.  I don't like them much.  They kill too many bees.  IMO MOST cases where people use them it would be just as simple to brush or shake the bees as to vacuum them and it would kill a LOT less bees and be less risk to the queen.

That said I still have two of them that I hardly ever use.  :)  If you plan to not use them it's surprising how well you can do without them.

I have considered a few improvments like a smooth hose so the bees don't get roughed up so much and some foam in the bottom so they don't have such a hard landing.

An adjustable draft is essential and adjusting it so that it barely sucks up the bees is essential to not kill them.

[latebee]

The beevac can be deadly to bees-no doubt there. I prefer it to tearing out an entire wall cavity or re-siding half of a house wall. Used with smooth extensions,one can reach about five feet up or down a building maybe more,when going between floor joists or roof rafters. The proceeds from doing  dwelling extractions has funded my entire beekeping odessey. Under a lot of situations I agree that it is just as easy to simply transfer the combs into frames(using rubber bands)along with the bees.BUT when you are on a ladder 30 feet in the air a beevac is a neccesity.If you are in an area with a lot of onlookers it also gets the bees where you want them without having bees flying all over the place.Keep the intake hose as short as possible(tie the vac box to your ladder)and increase the length of your vacuum hose accordingly.I did line the interior of the vac box with soft floor padding-the kind used under carpeting-maybe it helps somewhat. The major drawback in a lot of dwelling extractions is that a good percentage of the brood comb is damaged. Because I have to scrape it out with a long handled tool.Not much finess can be employed using such a tool (ie a garden hoe).Also when using a flahlight to look into a four inch wide cavity your depth perception and hand eye coordination is really hampered when going beyond three feet.  And remember the less force the vacum has,the more live bees there  will be in the beevac.