1st Big Cutout - Bushkill Vac - Pics & Video

[mgmoore7]

This was my 1st big cutout.  When I got the lead on this cutout, I decided to make the Bushkill Bee Vac not really knowing if I would need it or not since I did not know how long the bees had been there and the homeowner could not give me much of a description.  

It turned out that the hive was very good size and the vac was well worth the effort.  

The brood shim worked great to add the brood and then let the bees move up into the brood.

I did have some clogging, especially when sucking up the beard at the end but we might have just been going to fast and/or the bees just did not want to move out of the bottom of the box fast enough.  

So how many pound of bees do you think are in this beard toward the end of the video.    

Thanks for all the help.

http://blog.moorehoneybees.com/?p=54

[G3farms]

Looks like you did a good job. The bee vac is so nice to use, it gets all those pesky little bees out of the way so you can start cutting the comb out. I think it really savea alot of bees from getting killed.

nice job and thanks for the pics and video.

G3

[JP]

Great job with the new vac. I watched the video, in the beginning and the end of your removal the pile of bees on the exterior looks the same and I can't stop thinking it sure looks like a swarm.

If I had to bet, I'd say it is a swarm and the queen is in that cluster. This may sound strange to you but this is the way I'm seeing it. It has the definite appearance of a swarm cluster. Did you happen to find any swarm cells during the removal? Any of which may have been hatched out already?


...JP

[mgmoore7]

JP
I agree that it looked like a swarm but fairly confident that it was not. 

The only ventilation this hive had was the 1" round hole that the bees were bearded around.  The outside temperature was about 95 and the inside temperature was over 100 degrees.   

You can't quite see it in the video or pictures but they had actually made a tunnel underneith the beard to allow the foragers to come and go.

There were no queen cells found any any of the comb.   

The beard toward the end actually was bigger than in the beginning.  I thought more would come in as it would have cooled them down some since we opened the wall. 

[Robo]

I often get a cluster of bees at the outside entrance when doing cut-outs from the inside.  Not usually as big as Matt's, but I would surmise the overall large quantity of bees and the temperature had something to do with that.   It is almost like the word gets out that destruction is going on inside and they are just waiting for the queen to come out to abscond.

JP, you have to get with the program and start doing more cut-outs from the inside, especially thru the ceiling

[mgmoore7]

One lesson I learned in this cutout was to do a better job at cutting the comb the correct size for the frame otherwise it sagged or fell to one side or the other. 

I solved this the day after by drilling holes in the tops and some sides of the frames that had comb that was not straight and putting long finish nails into the holes and then into the comb.  I was able to hold the comb in the center of the frame and insert the nail. 

[JP]

MG, a razor knife works great for cutting off that little extra bit of comb that allows them to fit inside the frames.

Rob, nope, been there done that with the ceiling thingy, only go there if I have to. I don't mind going in from the inside btw, seems like lately, most have been from the interior.


...JP

[mgmoore7]

MG, a razor knife works great for cutting off that little extra bit of comb that allows them to fit inside the frames.

...JP

My problem was cutting the comb too short.   It seems it would be best to cut it 1/8-1/4 too tall and then trim or squeeze it in so that the "fit" holds it in place and the rubber bands are more for as a saftey catch or for the smaller pieces.  I cut some that were as much as 3/4" too short and therefore, they would fall to one side or the other since the top bar is wider than the comb and thus the between the rubbers band was as well.