Failed trapout; smart bees!

[gardeningfireman]

Started a trapout on July 11th. Bees were entering between the exterior brick chimney and the vinyl siding. I caulked and taped, and installed a funnel.  Removed one nuc of bees and replaced the nuc. Lots of bees, so I put a double nuc there. Twice, they chewed through the caulk and I had to recaulk and tape. Twice I put frames of eggs in the nuc and they still didn't produce a queen. Last week I checked on them and there were several bees GOING BACK INTO THE FUNNEL! I went yesterday to remove the double nuc. I was going to put a queen-right nuc there to rob out the hive. Not only were there bees going back into the funnel with pollen, there were more bees there, and they chewed through the caulk AGAIN!  So, I brought the queenless double nuc home and combined it with the queen-right nuc. I put another nuc box there with medium frame of honey, one deep frame LOADED with eggs and newborn larvae, one drawn out frame and two undrawn frames. I also put a new much longer funnel on, right  over the old one and sealed the base of it. I also re-caulked and taped. I know it is normally too late in the season to start a trapout, but this lady wants them gone. These bees are really frustrating the heck out of me, but I will not be outsmarted by bugs!

[Meadlover]

Sounds like your problem is that you are using a non silicon based caulking that they can chew through.
Make sure it's a silicon based product so that the bees can't chew through it.

ML

[Michael Bush]

If you use the wire window screen and pull the wires on the tip a little you can make a sort of bee escape where a drone can push his way through, but the wires are actually too small for any bee to push their way back in.  It takes a little practice but it's not that difficult.  You end up with a sort of a porter bee escape effect.

[D Coates]

Ditto Mr. Bush regarding the actual escape.  As for plugging holes, I use scrap screen and wire mesh.  You can see what they are doing, it's easy to clean up (silicone can leave marks, steel wool will rust also leaving marks) and has spring to it so you can wedge it into just about anything.