Beekeeping > Do-It-Yourself Plans and Prints
swarm trap
rober:
my brain broke wind again. I have used my trap out box & some old nucs for swarm traps & was thinking about building a couple more when I had an idea while picking up some plumbing parts. I took a free 3 gallon icing bucket from a bakery, drilled an 1 1/2" dole near the bottom with a hole saw, & added mated threaded PVC fittings. when you catch a swarm install a PVC cap to transport the girls. the lids snap on so it's secure. I haven't done it to the trap in the photos yet but I drilled a hole thru the cap & fittings so I can drop a 16D nail thru the hole to secure the cap. add some burr comb & lemon grass oil, & a queen cage from a recently released queen if you have one, & you're good to go. if you wondering about the cavity size I've already caught 2 swarms in these. if you want more room use a 5 gallon bucket. these will stack when stored so they take up less room in the shed.
tedh:
Brilliant, rober, brilliant!
rober:
I do tend to think out of the box & try to find things that can be repurposed so I can use things off the shelf without having to fabricate parts. this trap cost less than $5.00 & takes about 20 minutes to build. the threads on the male fitting need to be trimmed roughly 5/16" to allow the fittings to be drawn tight together on the bucket. in one photo you can see some blue on the inside of the fitting. on a trim job one time I ran out of beeswax for lubricating wood screws & had another brain fart & used liquid soap to lube the screws. it worked great. when the fitting was trimmed the threads were a bit glitchy so I used dish detergent as a lube.
my wife says i should have pointy ears like a vulcan because of the way my brain is wired.
neillsayers:
Nicely done. Looking forward to pics of it's first catch. :)
Bakersdozen:
I like the idea of using what you have. How do secure it down? I would have trouble removing any comb they built in there to place it in a brood box.
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