Swarm Traps Part 1 - Avoid These Beginner Mistakes!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 เม.ย. 2022
- Last year was my first attempt at putting out a swarm trap. Despite doing some things right, I made enough big mistakes that kept me from catching any swarms.
Here I outline three of my mistakes.
1) The entrance was too small. I loved the idea of using a nuc entrance on the swarm trap despite knowing it was smaller than is recommended. This year I’m going with the recommended size of 2 square inches and planning to close up the trap by stapling a section of number 8 hardware cloth across the opening.
2) The trap wasn’t watertight. I felt short on equipment and didn’t want to use a telescoping lid if I didn’t need to. I needed a watertight lid. Any hint of water and a honeybee scout will cross that box off the list of potential homes. This year I will be using telescoping lids.
3) I only put out one trap. This is a numbers game and I only had one chance. If you want 5 swarms, put out at least 10 traps.
This video shows a converted old deep. I will be using a different style this year and I will show it off in my next video.
#beekeeper #beekeeping #honeybees #bees
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I have no problem with the disc entrance. My hole is the exact size as the disc entrance
The disk is fine. I’ve caught many with them.
I caught 8 swarms last year with the same disc on the entrance. My frames weren’t in the way either because I made my traps 15 inches deep
8 traps with circular entrance covers. Caught 7 swarms. Alot of my catches was near water. Caught 4 swarms in woods behind neighbors house with in ground pool. Placement is every thing.
Mine works good , when I build my hives i build them so the entrance is right at the bottom of the frames , the same when I build long hives too 😊
I put out 2 boxes my first year with the same thing only plastic. Caught 20 swarms with it. The most important thing is size of the box and most important is location if you don't have bees in the area it really doesn't matter what you have. Good luck 👍 ❤️🐝
20?! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I have a swarm trap in my yard right now that has that same entrance disk and I just had a swarm move in about four days ago. Imam letting them get established a bit before they take the trip to my actual bee yard. Just as you pointed out, it was the design that is the issue and not the materials. The title thumbnail is the biggest mistake that you forgot to mention.
I agree with others who don't think the entrance disk was a factor. I put out 4 swarm traps last year and caught 5 swarms (2 from the same location, separated by a few weeks. Here's a tip -- if you put the word out that you can do bee removals (even if you don't do complex removals from a house) you'll likely be called to occasionally (or frequently, depending on the area) remove bees from places like sunken water-meter boxes. Once you know where a removal has been done before, ask for permission to hang a trap nearby. Three of my swarms were from places where I knew bees had been removed previously. Scouts have an amazing ability to find places where bees have lived before -- even years ago. Scent with old brood comb, propolis, and a hint of lemongrass oil and they'll find you.
You will see bees moving into tiny holes in buildings. Tom has some points but this one doesn't fit a hard rule.
One inch is fine. I’ve done a handful of cutouts and bees regularly use entrances this small. Even smaller. I think your putting a little to much weight on the entrance size.
Yeah, water getting in was probably the bigger issue. I made several mistakes.
@@BeensBees It could be a number of things outside of your control. I think your right about increasing the number of locations you set. I don’t think your trap was that bad. Even Seeley doesn’t have 100% success and he wrote the book on it.
Yes sir !!!!!!!!!!!!
Two openings w the metal disk?
Bees don't care for a huge opening, but something about 1.25" is about ideal.
Yeah, I think I hit the upper limit using 0.5" x 4" on my new builds this year. Could have easily used 0.5" x 3".
@@BeensBees I have two hive entrances that measure 1.375" X 8" in case I have a big colony that needs a maximum amount of ventilation. A Layens system of 22 frames. Otherwise I can reduce it down to .5 X 3.5". Back during '85 I had a couple double queen honey making machines with 8 and 9 boxes stacked on the bottom board. They were two deep boxes each, a queen excluder between them and 5 medium honey supers. I was pulling filled combs almost every 3 days. I had to leave a 1.5" gap under the bottom box for ventilation at all four corners so bees could evaporate nectar. This only worked if there was going to be a strong nectar flow. We had spotted knapweed and rain for a few hours about every day or so. You wanna know what Heaven smells like, go sit in your bee yard as the sun has set. Then there were drought summers with only a small fraction of a decent nectar flow. Ah, to remember the good ol' days and my youth as a keeper of bees. Cheers, my friend Bob
@@robertshorthill6836 I've seen two queen systems like you're talking about, but 4 deeps and 5 supers is way crazier than the setups that I've seen! That had to have been around 6 feet tall plus stand height. Were you using a ladder to move those top deeps or did you have some sort of lift?
@@BeensBees Yes, I built a step up platform that I could walk up behind each double. I had room for 2 or 3 medium supers that had wet combs in them. Wet meaning they were recently extracted and put in the stack as I pulled filled and capped combs out. My single queen colonies were doing well too, but those doubles were a real work out. My step up stands I could unbolt and take apart for winter storage. Man, I was 37 and 39 and bees as a side line was a full time job in good summers. There was never a shortage of flowers, but a flow could taper off during a spell of 96 98 degrees after 4 or 5 days of no rain. Then we might get a good shower for a day or two and the ladies would be employed again. I saw a lot of dearth years. Part of the reason I sold my bees and never looked back. This was all before Varroa mites and SHB (beetles). Only pest to worry about was wax moth. I kept boxes in a tight shed and taped together during fall and winter and labled dry or wet combs on each box. Picture this: while the 12 colonies were bringing it in, I was busy extracting and filling jars and several buckets with spouts. I don't remember just how much honey I got in a real good year like this but it was a lot. Bob
Check your traps when u re-bait. If paper wasp or mud dobber builds nest in trap you will catch no honey bees.
Deer mice can get in if you use 1/2 inch wire!! Bees will NOT use a trap with mice in it. I caught 6 swarms last year and lost 14 traps to bears!
So glad I don't live in bear country. We have it so much easier than you all.
Don't have that problem in south Africa as the bees here will move into a tuna tin sized pole if there holes drilled in them for the wire..As long as the hole is 8mm or bigger it will get bees...African Honey Bees will move into anything..tyres poles .holes in the ground..etc etc..just caught 7 swarms this week in a 4 frame nuc with 22mm holes as entrances...Good luck to you.
I’ll try to be more specific about how location-specific my advice is! I’ve got serious competition for swarm catches here. There are two swarm traps within a block of my house that aren’t mine. I know of at least 5 people trapping the same area.
Use old hive boxes. A full deep, floor, and frames. Don't let your feet off the ground, put the boxes where you can reach. NOT UP TREES! Place it in the shade of the tree, the dappled shade is best for catching. That's why they work, not because they are high up. You don't need to do anything but put the box in the beeyard.
a lot of this is not really true my uncle and i have caught bees in small opening entrances, we had old boxes with huge gaps in them, and i have put many swarm traps one foot of the ground and caught swarms, so a lot of catching swarms has to do with location and if there are bees that are going to swarm soon. Usually i catch swarms with no frames in my boxes all i use is swarm commander and bees just come.
On the swarm boxes with no frames, are you monitoring those frequently to move them before they start building much comb? Or cutting the comb and placing it into frames?
I catch a bunch of bees in traps that have that entrance. Might have better luck with an empty void under the frames, they build comb under but if you check them regularly it's not a problem. Possibly use a empty medium or build a 4 or 5 inch box under you deep that you can remove after moving them.
@@dougmclelland572 I'm using the design from horizonalhive.com this year and the langstroth version has an empty space under the frames like you're describing.
Or just drill a bigger opening on metal disk?
You could drill a larger hole, but there are disk nuc entrances that come in larger sizes.
2 inch is way too big.. the ideal size is 27 mm, and I've caught two swarms into days this year..
27 mm square or circle? You can do it with smaller, but 2 square inches has worked well for me. 1/2 inch by 4 inch slot opening.
@@BeensBees 27mm, circle and I caught another swarm today... 😁😁😁
1. That is a hive body, not a swarm trap. I love your enthusiasm but that sucker is going to be way too heavy to put up in a tree.
2. Dry is great but access and lure are key. Keep it dry certainly, but it's okay to have an opening on the ends rather than the sides. Honestly, the bees don't care.
Think of it like this, cut that body in half along the frames so there are 5 frames in each half and you have built two taps. (Naturally you will need to close in the cut sides.)
Ten feet or more is good but don't go so high that you put yourself in danger while climbing with a ten plus pound box.
A deer stand ladder is perfect and gives you a platform to work on while attaching the trap to the tree.
I've put traps on a fence post only six feet up and caught bees. Keep it out of a traveled areas and camouflage it against prying eyes.
Lures are available commercially but a cotton ball with lemongrass oil just inside the whole is great. You can refresh it once a week till the season is over without taking the trap down.
Fairly good comb works well in conjunction with the oils. Never use old, dark comb!
Good luck.
Thanks for taking the time to thoughtfully respond! This was one of my earlier videos and made mostly to point out why what I was trying the year before wasn't great. I've kept a few repurposed deeps as traps, but I use more of the taller design traps that fit 5 frames. I should put a disclaimer on all my videos that there are people in the comments with advice that will save them time and effort.
Totally disagree, I put out 4 traps two years ago, 6 last year and had 100% success on ALL the traps. Success is not to do with the entrance type, but rather the fact the hive was badly built and the entrance was badly placed. Where was the landing board?
Silly mistakes, glad the poster learnt from his mistakes
Thanks for watching Tony