Plain Talk Beekeeping
A Bee Vacuum: A very useful tool when needed
An explanation may be necessary
This past spring, I had a swarm leave one of my hives and cluster about 14 feet up in an old pear tree. I am not a young man anymore, and after trying to climb a ladder, I felt that I was skirting with trouble. It is one of the few swarms that I have ever given up on hiving. I gave up.
However, the swarm had a made a terrible biological decision. I knew from weather reports that it was to turn abnormally cold with dark skies and rainy weather. This was to last about a week. That nice, large swarm had made a seriously bad weather decision. Nothing I could do about it. I thought the bees would magically find some resolution. They didn’t.
Swarming bees generally take enough food to get by for about three days. On the fifth cold day, a much younger beekeeper friend, Jason, said he would take a look. What we found was unacceptable. The swarm was dying. Abundant dead bees were on the ground and foliage. But the swarm was mostly still alive. With no other alternative available to us, I got out my ancient bee vac and cobbled it up with Shop-Vac-style hoses.
Years ago, I used a Dadant bee blower to generate the vacuum power, but that device is no longer available. I used my shop vacuum for suction power. Miraculously, that old system worked. My young friend climbed the ladder and we hived the swarm. The queen successfully made the trip.
I thought, this would make a nice article. Well, I’m not sure it did. It’s kinda tedious to read. But know this, I have been using homemade bee vacs since 1976. When they are needed, nothing is more beekeepingly useful. If you don’t want to construct your own, buy one. It is like an emergency gasoline generator — you don’t need it until you do.
It all started many years ago
Many years ago, I needed a bee vacuum to conduct some research assignments. I had to remove bee populations, estimate their numbers, estimate brood populations, and then put everything back into the hive — even during the middle of winter. I developed a simple vacuum to help me with this unusual bee manipulation. The description of the trap that follows is the result of the evolution of my bee vacuum over the years.
Uses for a bee vacuum
A bee vacuum can be used for picking up swarms, removing bees from the walls of buildings, removing bees from flight cages or other research projects, removing them from honey processing rooms, taking them off people who have presented bee-beard demonstrations, and filling packages for making splits or divides …
