Bee Vacuum

[Mike Henderson]

I recently completed a bee vacuum (picture shown below) of my own design. I have more details on my web site.

There are many, many designs for bee vacuums. I tried to design one that would work for me.

If you have some suggestions that I can incorporate into the design, please post.

Mike

BeeVac001.jpg

[Frederick Skelly]

Mike, Can you tell those of us who arent beekeepers what a bee vacuum is used for?
Thanks,
Fred

[Mike Henderson]

Mike, Can you tell those of us who aren't beekeepers what a bee vacuum is used for?
Thanks,
Fred

Sure, Fred. Let's say you have honey bees that find an entrance into your wall and they've built a hive in the space between the studs. Or you have an irrigation box and the bees have created a hive in the irrigation box and are happy as can be.

You may want to get rid of the bees, but you don't want to just kill the hive because of the difficulties honey bees are having these days. So you call a bee removal expert (who incidentally will charge you for his/her services).

The problem the bee removal person has is how to capture the bees alive so that they can be transferred to a standard beehive. That's where the bee vacuum comes in.

Looking at my bee vac, you attach a shop vac via a hose to the connector at the top of the bee vac and just a hose to the connector on the side of the box. Then adjust the amount of suction at the hose attached to the side of the box with the router speed control. You want just enough suction that the bees are sucked into the bee vac but not enough to kill the bees.

If the bees are in the wall, you have to open the wall, either from the inside or the outside, whichever will be easier to repair when you're finished. Then you start vacuuming the bees into the bee vac. You want to get as many bees as possible, (1) so that the new hive is well populated, and (2) so there aren't so many bees to deal with as you start phase 2 of the removal. There's some complexities here, mostly dealing with the amount of bees and heat in the bee vac box (which will kill the bees) but I won't go into all that here.

Once you get as many bees as possible vacuumed up, you need to start on removing the comb (this is Phase 2). If the comb is left in the wall, ants (and maybe other insects) will invade to get the honey. You cut the comb out, being as careful as possible not to damage the comb (as little damage as possible). That comb is then put into frames, held in place with string or wire, and those frames are put into a standard beehive brood box.

Once you have all of that, you take the bees and the comb home. Now to transfer the bees to the brood box that you put the comb into. With my bee vacuum, you place the bee vacuum on top of the brood box and pull out the sliding bottom. This allows the bees to migrate to the brood box with all their comb. Incidentally, that comb will have developing bees in it and you want the bees to continue to support the developing bees so that the hive continues smoothly.

A good thing to do is to put an excluder at the bottom of the brood box so that if you got the queen she can't get out of the box. If she can (and does) get out, the bees will follow her and you'll wind up with an empty hive. If you didn't get the queen, and the bees stay, they will make a new queen from the larvae in the comb you brought over.

After a week or so, you can remove the bee vac from the top of the brood box and put a regular hive cover on it. After maybe three weeks, you can remove the excluder and maybe put an additional brood box (if it's a really strong hive).

That's the basic idea.

Of course, you have to go back to the house the next day and repair the holes you made in the wall and make SURE you close any openings that bees might use to get in again. Maybe even fill the cavity with foam.

I'm not really an expert so I welcome the comments of others who know more than me.

Mike

[There are people who make a decent living doing this. Even if the hive was exterminated, the wall has to be opened and the comb removed. So if you're going to do all that, you might just as well try to save the bees.]

[Note that if the bees are Africanized, they will probably have to be exterminated.]

[Michelle Rich]

great idea & glad it helps save bees. Without them, we are all going to do without many many fruits and vegetables

[Frederick Skelly]

Fascinating Mike! I didnt know that was how extractions are done. Thanks for the lesson!
Fred

[Michael Handrinos]

Or you can call your county agricultural office and they will remove them for free. As long as they're honey bees.

Regards
mike

[Lee Schierer]

Very nice design Mike. I usually turn down removing colonies from homes as the work is just too much and most people cringe at the thought of someone tearing open the side of their house. I do caution them that if they exterminate the colony that the wax and honey will remain and that wax moths and other bees will find the honey which will eventually cause a mess inside their walls. I do capture swarms for free if I can get to them safely.

[John K Jordan]

I like the design.

I could occasionally use one - recently a neighbor asked me to remove a colony from a huge tree they cut down. It took days and many hours of work, starting with chainsawing a big opening into the tree. I eventually found the queen by scooping up handfuls of bees, dumping them in a clear spot in the cavity, then watching for the queen while the bees scurried away. What a trial, but ultimately successful. Unfortunately all the brood comb was dead, crushed days before when the tree came down, but I've been feeding them heavily (including some of the honey I pulled from the tree) and the colony is growing rapidly.

I have that same Dewalt cordless vac and it is fairly powerful. Another option might be a small shop vac powered by a 110v inverter in a vehicle. Some jump start batteries have an inverter built in and have a surprising amount of power. Or make a venturi vacuum adapter powered by a leaf blower with a gasoline engine. Making an efficient one would be an interesting engineering project.

JKJ

[Mike Henderson]

Or you can call your county agricultural office and they will remove them for free. As long as they're honey bees.

Regards
mike

Not around here. Especially if you have to do "construction" work to get to the bees. They won't even come to take a swarm hanging from a branch. It's even difficult to get the bee removal people to show up before a swarm moves on when they're hanging from a branch. The problem for the bee people is finding a place to put the hive. Open land is scarce around here and there's a limit to how many hives you can put in one place because all the hives feed in the same radius. This area is dry so there's not a lot of natural forage.

Some have tried recruiting homeowners to have a beehive in their backyard (sort of fostering a beehive) but that's difficult for the beekeeper. They have to travel a lot to visit the hives and sometimes they can't get in the yard because no one is home. They'd much prefer to have a bee yard with lots of forage close by.

There's a lot of work in beekeeping. Even once you've harvested the honey, you have to extract it and bottle it and find some place to sell it.

I'm too old to get into it, but I think the best business is the bee extraction business. There aren't many people who have the construction knowledge to get into a hive that's in a house (to take the wall apart properly), or to repair the "damage" afterwards. The people who do that get top dollar for their work.

It's difficult work - you have to work in a bee suit and those are hot in the summer, and you can encounter aggressive bees which will really assault you. Plus, you're often working on a ladder at the second story. But if you do construction, bee extraction can be a profitable sideline. And you can sell the hive to a beekeeper (you won't get a lot of money for it, maybe $25.) You'll make your money from the homeowner.

Mike

[Lee Schierer]

+1 Around here the the county extension people will refer you to a local beekeeper, but that is all.

I get 3-4 call each summer to remove bees, but usually they are the paper wasps that people have discovered in a tree or bush and not a swarm of honey bees. When I do go to hive a swarm, people are astounded that I don't wear a veil or gloves. I work in a tee shirt and blue jeans with just a hat. I don't even use a smoker.

[Mike Henderson]

+1 Around here the the county extension people will refer you to a local beekeeper, but that is all.

I get 3-4 call each summer to remove bees, but usually they are the paper wasps that people have discovered in a tree or bush and not a swarm of honey bees. When I do go to hive a swarm, people are astounded that I don't wear a veil or gloves. I work in a tee shirt and blue jeans with just a hat. I don't even use a smoker.

For others who may be tempted to do the same, I'll bet Lee is talking about capturing a swarm hanging from a branch and not an established hive in a wall or other container. The swarm hanging from a branch is pretty docile - my dad, who was a beekeeper - did the same as Lee. For hanging swarms, he didn't use any protection. But don't try that on an established hive. The bees are much more protective.

And now, with the risk of Africanized bees, you have to be a bit more careful, even with a hanging swarm. I don't think Africanized bees have made it to Lee's area.

Mike

[What we need to "save the bees" is for homeowners to put one or two hives in their backyard. In the process they'll learn about bees and become advocates for them. Also, bees in a backyard are pretty much in an ideal environment. Usually, there are flowers in the yards and the hives are spread out so they aren't all foraging the same area. And most homeowners do not use much pesticide. If you look at how the commercial people treat the bees that they move from state to state for pollination you'll understand why their hive losses are so high. A good look into commercial beekeeping for pollination is the book "The Beekeeper's Lament". Interesting read.]

[John K Jordan]

For others who may be tempted to do the same, I'l bet Lee is talking about capturing a swarm hanging from a branch and not an established hive in a wall or other container. ...

People are so terrified by a swarm (the ones hanging on a branch). What they don't know is bees in a swarm are chock full of honey and will not (normally) sting.

Foraging bees (collecting nectar) will not sting - you can pick them up in your hand as long as you don't pinch them. I friend of mine used to win bets with this.

But disturb their house? Ha! If I even try to peek in the top of a hive without the smoker, ESPECIALLY during a time of the year when there is no nectar flow, the guards let me know very quickly I'm not welcome! And some hives are simply more aggressive than others. No way I'll open an existing hive without at least a veil and gloves. My usual uniform is jeans, rubber boots, jacket with hat/veil, gloves.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

Great project and a very nice job on it, too! If you go after swarms, that's a very useful tool to have for sure!

[Mike Henderson]

I got a call on Labor day from a neighbor. Bees had taken over her Bluebird box.
Bluebird-bees004b.jpg

You can see the bees in the hole in this closeup.
Bluebird-bees003b.jpg

In the evening, I put a garbage bag over the bluebird box and brought it to my house. I let it hang in a tree close to where I'm going to put their hive for about a week. Today, I moved them to their new hive. They had quite a bit of comb in that box - four layers. The bluebird box was pretty much full of comb. I moved the comb to two frames in the hive.

Here's their new home. I hope I didn't inadvertently damage the queen - I was pretty careful. I just shook the bees into the hive. Note that I have half of the hive blocked off. It's a small number of bees so I don't want to give them too much space yet. As they grow, I'll take the spacer out and put in frames.
Bluebird-bees002.jpg

Around here, if you choose to work with feral hives, you don't have a varroa problem, but the hives are a bit more aggressive. Not really bad, but they fly around more when you're working the hive. You have to wear a veil when working them. The feral hives are a cross between Italian bees and African bees.

If you go pure Italian, you have to treat for varroa on a regular basis, but the hives are very docile. Hopefully, one day they'll develop real varroa resistance in Italians. The varroa resistant Italians available now still have varroa problems - just not as much.

Mike

[Pat Barry]

Are there still killer bee's out there? How do you tell one of those from a nice honey bee?