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Author Topic: My Swarm Traps  (Read 2044 times)

Offline Bush_84

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My Swarm Traps
« on: March 22, 2018, 03:56:28 pm »
Hello all. I finished my swarm traps for the year. I don?t have a ton of good places to put them so I build five of them. I just wanted to share my build in case somebody could take anything from it or improve my design. Nothing here is new or invented by myself. Just things I?ve pulled from here and there. Also keep in mind I?m no expert swarm catcher. I?ll freely admit that sawdustmaker and other southerners are the experts. My boxes are all old 8 frame deeps that have been well worn. There?s a stud, or whatever other scrap I had laying around, for the post to be hung from a tree. These are screwed from the inside into the stud. I?ll use two screws through the stud into the tree. No magic for the entrance. Some have old bottom boards screwed on. These have entrance reducers on to get the entrance closer to the appropriate size. Some have scrap plywood screwed to the bottom. I have one that has a hole in the box that was there from natural wear and tear that serves as an entrance. Another has two separate one inch holes drilled into the box. All have hardware cloth over the entrance to prevent mice or birds from getting in.



There she is. Some of my boxes are two shallows fixed together to equal a deep. I use whatever I have for tops. Some are scrap plywood or particle board with tar paper to keep the rain out. I?m going to use chicken feed bags for inner covers.



Another neat trick I found was to put screws in the frame rests to keep the frames from shifting when you put the trap up and take it down. I?m honestly not planning on getting them very high. I?m 6?5? and have fairly long arms. So if I get a couple of rungs up a ladder it?ll be high enough.



So this is where I start to feel a bit clever. I?m not sure where I read this but I?m pretty sure it was somebody here. These pipettes work great for lemongrass lure. I just made a few more up since my lemongrass oil came in the mail. You just suck some up. Enough to avoid excess air space. Take a lighter to the narrow tip and pinch it off. It seals and creates a vacuum (pinch bulb when sealing). The smell still leaches through the plastic and they last forever. I kept mine from last year in my workshop over the winter (they froze) and still smell great. No issues with burst lures. I?m not sure if it?s overkill but I?m putting two in per swarm trap. It might be to much. I staple one to the box and one to the frame next to the entrance. If I were redoing them I?d just do the frame as it fits perfectly on the side of the frame and the one on the box gets in the way.

Edit-All of my frames have been in a hive and covered in propolis. Not all are drawn out and some have just a bit of comb at the top. At this point I am mostly foundationless. As I was going through deadouts I simply set aside the drone combs or combs that had a lot of drone comb. Those got put into my swarm traps. The traps away from my home apiary are getting mostly scrap and crap comb as well as the frames that amount to starter strips worth of comb. The trap/traps at my home apiary are going to be more full frames of comb.
Keeping bees since 2011.

Also please excuse the typos.  My iPad autocorrect can be brutal.

 

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