I have currently 12 trapouts in progress and 14 more to set up.
The paper here in Searcy, Arkansas did an article on me doing trapouts and not hurting the honey bees.
I am now getting swamped with calls for trapouts.
here's a couple of pictures of some trapouts in progress.
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll312/capt44/trapoutgumsprings2014_zpsd96c2d78.jpg)
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll312/capt44/trapoutmeadowlakeapts1_zps5c92c63e.jpg)
Nice setups. I especially like your little walk bridges.
Well just like you said, the bees will not jump.
They will crawl to the edge and crawl under but not across the gap.
So I've started using a little walk plank to bridge the gap in situations where I can't get the landing board againist the funnel.
Bees love to crawl and they'll go right over the ramp to the hive.
So far my success rate is over 98%.
I had one fail last year and I blamed it on the fact that some folks sprayed the trapout with insect killer.
I'm going to start my first trap out tomorrow. I've watched Iddee's video on how to do one several times over the past few years and I really just have one question, what's the minimum length of the cone you can use? The one I made is about 8" long and should work for the job at hand.
I don't know the minimum, but I have one about 5 inches and it works well.
Got the trap out going with a 12" funnel. It worked like a charm, added 1 frame of mostly eggs (had to chase the queen off the frame) and all the nurse bees on said frame, another of drawn comb with some pollen and honey, one frame with small cell foundation and 2 foundationless frames. Checked back on it tonight and the bees hadn't found another entrance so I think the trap out will go well.
Do you ever have a situation where the bees bunch up on their entrance at the base of the cone and don't come out? The bees aren't getting back into the hive and the bees in the wall are bunched up at the base of the cone. I'm guessing time and a lack of food will bring them out and this is just one of the quirks of a trap out...?
Instead of using cones I now use the white, plastic, bee escape that goes into the opening in a inner cover. I just drill a 1" hole in a price of plywood that is big enough to cover the entrance and staple the escape to it. Works real well.
Jim
Jim
any pictures of the be escape
Quote from: jayj200 on August 17, 2014, 11:04:16 AM
Jim
any pictures of the be escape
Let's see if this works. If you zoom in on the area in front of my hand, you will see one on the wall. It is white on a brown wall.
<a href="http://s1282.photobucket.com/user/sawdstmakr/media/2C1E4782-F4DD-4078-A2D0-570D8D8B35E2_zpsvy0s9anm.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1282.photobucket.com/albums/a538/sawdstmakr/2C1E4782-F4DD-4078-A2D0-570D8D8B35E2_zpsvy0s9anm.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 2C1E4782-F4DD-4078-A2D0-570D8D8B35E2_zpsvy0s9anm.jpg"/></a>
after my bad experience we are down sizing from 4 to 2
the pics are great thanks
Jim, can the drones and queen come out through the escape?
Quote from: iddee on September 14, 2014, 07:25:59 PM
Jim, can the drones and queen come out through the escape?
Yes they do.
so one should use the middle finger to gauge the hole opening? or smaller?
I guesstimate 3/8 to 1/2 inch opening. I have one cone that is about 1/4 in. by 1 in. It was too big, so I just flattened it. It works fine.
Quote from: jayj200 on September 25, 2014, 01:05:50 PM
so one should use the middle finger to gauge the hole opening? or smaller?
Jay,
The hole in the escape is about 1" so that is the size I usually use. Bigger is better but you want the hole to be smaller than the escape which is about 2" across the narrowest side. I would not make it smaller than 3/4".
On a patio trap out that I did a while back, I elongated the hole to one side under the escape due to the hole in the concrete the bees were using was up against a 4x4 post.
Jim
thanks info stored