Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => HONEYBEE REMOVAL => Topic started by: KeyLargoBees on April 19, 2016, 05:31:25 pm
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swapped out the NUC sized trap out back for a 45 Liter job and voila got to witness my first swarm move in this afternoon. Its not as impressive as the one Jim posted but it was a great experience and I think the video turned out pretty good too ;-)
https://youtu.be/5baBXcASadM (https://youtu.be/5baBXcASadM)
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Really cool, KLB!
Did you use brood comb or LGO for a lure? How many days was it out?
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There's been a trap on the tree for several weeks but changing out to this new larger trap was only about five days ago after I had a swarm ignore my trap after two days of Scouting and move on somewhere else weekend before last.
it's just foundation and foundation less alternated and swarm commander but I got a ball of propalis warm and rubbed down the inside walls of the trap so it smelled "lived in"....totally out of unused drawn frames but may steal a brood frame from another hive to anchor them😀
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good job! :smile:
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What are the dimensions of your 45 lt box?
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Good job Jeff.
I am also increasing the size of my traps.
Jim
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I have 4 of these
http://www.horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/swarm-trap-free-plans.shtml (http://www.horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/swarm-trap-free-plans.shtml)
and 8 DCoates 5 frame Nucs set out as traps...so far its 3 catches in the larger boxes and 1 in the NUCs.....too small a sample size to say for sure yet but they definitely seem to like the bigger boxes based on the current numbers.
Odd thing is the largest of the 4 swarm catches was in the smallest trap.....so there is definantly a lot of random chance involved.
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Cornell did a study and found that the best size is a ten-frame deep, and that it should ideally be 15 feet high, in the shade, and facing south. Distance from the parent hive was irrelevant.
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I will agree with the distance thing....I have traps placed on hollow concrete power poles that host feral hives...poles are 80 yards apart (working with the power company to keep additional swarms from entering their poles and I get free bees in the process :-). I typically trap on an adjacent pole....and so far it seems to be working well. The one in the video is in my back yard but there are 3 known feral hives in poles within a half mile so I expect its one of them that threw this swarm...I checked my trap line later the same day and had another swarm in another large box so it looks like the large boxes are definitely winning.
Personally I think anything above 10 feet is OK and I really dont like trying to jockey a trap full of bees down an extension lader from much higher than that....also I think afternoon shade is more important than "full shade" from a placement perspective but hell who am I to argue with Cornell :-)
I had more scouts on a secondary (smaller) swarm box today in the yard so either another of the three has cast a swarm or there is a secondary swarm forming...also activity on 3 other traps on the line when I checked this afternoon...Things are really heating up and I need to build more hive stands and finish preps at another outyard LOL.
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Very interesting, you guys! Thanks for the extra details. I'm always thinking about swarm catching around here and the easier I can make it on the guy who has to place the trap and then get it down, the more likely I am to actually see it happen.
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Sounds like a "honey do" project to me :-)
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Put out two 40 liter bait hives yesterday. Daughter has my tall ladder so they are 10 ft high. Was wanted to go 15. Time will tell if it does any good.
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Herb,
I have had a lot of swarms pick traps that were 7', 5' and 1' off the ground while there were 2 traps at 12'. I have since lowered them down to 8'.
Jim
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Herb,
I have had a lot of swarms pick traps that were 7', 5' and 1' off the ground while there were 2 traps at 12'. I have since lowered them down to 8'.
Jim
Thanks. I've heard of swarms moving into bait hives sitting on blocks. I just want to maximize my chances.
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Herb,
I have had a lot of swarms pick traps that were 7', 5' and 1' off the ground while there were 2 traps at 12'. I have since lowered them down to 8'.
Jim
I tend to agree with not so high. My first two traps were at 5' and 6' and another sitting on a the ground that had swarms. Had a five frame nuc up a tree 15' for a year and never saw a bee, not even from my own hives. Comb, LGO, etc.
:cool:
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well I hung the trap back on the same tree on Saturday .....and another swarm moved in....and another of the large traps is full of bees up on the "trap line" . That's 4 swarms in 5 days.....I am busily building hive satnds and have a meeting scheduled this evening to check out a new outrard at an organic vegetable site ;-)
I love these new larger traps and as always Swarm Commander is the bomb.