Author Topic: Church trap-out (Read 8580 times)

Perry · « **on:** July 23, 2014, 11:36:47 am »

An old church (1894) that is empty now, has a colony in the back wall. They asked me if I would remove it so I will try.
I haven't done one of these for a while, so I hope it works. I had a mating nuc, basically one frame of bees with a laying queen, that I installed in this.
Within 15 minutes there was a big crowd of bees, I hope they don't overwhelm the queen and her frame. I also hope they eventually move down off the wall and into the box.

This was started at 10 am, and only took me 15 minutes to set up.

efmesch · « **Reply #1 on:** July 23, 2014, 11:47:46 am »

Perry, don't you feel guilty, stealing the church of its present congregation?

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #2 on:** July 23, 2014, 11:49:54 am »

Lookin good Perry! You'll have rumers "abuzz" in that church...

sorry

riverbee · « **Reply #3 on:** July 23, 2014, 01:35:02 pm »

"Perry, don't you feel guilty, stealing the church of its present congregation? "

LOL!!!!..........

Marty68 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2014, 08:08:09 am »

nice job there looks good

Perry · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2014, 03:27:42 pm »

I went back today, a little over 24 hours, to add a tenth frame!

I had put a tiny mating nuc (basically a frame of bees with a laying queen) in there when I started this. I peeked in to put the 10th frame in and found almost 8 frames covered in bees.

There was also a huge cluster of bees (couple of fistfulls) on the inside of the cone right at the base. They were fine (at first I thought dead) and appeared to be just settin out. It was raining quite a bit and I guess they went out to set on the porch, but not far enough to leave the cone. I assume they will when the weather is nice tomorrow. I may have to remove some frames and add more if this keeps up.

efmesch · « **Reply #6 on:** July 24, 2014, 04:58:03 pm »

So the congregation was bigger than you thought. ...packed to the porches. So you're giving them a new pastor.

Perry · « **Reply #7 on:** July 24, 2014, 05:01:02 pm »

Quote from: efmesch on July 24, 2014, 04:58:03 pm

So the congregation was bigger than you thought. ...packed to the porches. So you're giving them a new pastor.

iddee · « **Reply #8 on:** July 24, 2014, 07:20:19 pm »

A new pastor, and a new pasture.

Perry · « **Reply #9 on:** July 31, 2014, 07:06:02 pm »

I went to the church today, and it was a good thing I brought an empty 5 frame nuc with me!
I had to pull 5 frames of bees out of this, and dropped in 5 frames of foundation. I didn't see any bees coming out of the cone, but there were tons in the air still trying to figure out where home was, so I guess it stays up. I figured maybe it hadn't been in the church long, but I am rethinking that hypothesis.
I forgot my ladder,so I pulled up alongside with my truck and worked off the canopy.

tmrschessie · « **Reply #10 on:** July 31, 2014, 07:14:59 pm »

Very nice, hope to get one on a flat wall some day...LOL Thanks for sharing the pictures and story. Tom

iddee · « **Reply #11 on:** July 31, 2014, 08:25:06 pm »

Did you have 2 or more cells to give one to each box?

Perry · « **Reply #12 on:** July 31, 2014, 08:35:18 pm »

No, I started this trap-out with a queen and a frame of bees that needed a boost. I left the queen at the church and brought the 5 frames of bees home and newspapered them on top of a another nuc I had just moved into a single.

Slowmodem · « **Reply #13 on:** July 31, 2014, 11:01:55 pm »

Holy honeybees!!!

jb63 · « **Reply #14 on:** August 02, 2014, 10:14:22 am »

I just found your thread Perry, and all I can add is to remind you to come early so you can pick your pew.

blueblood · « **Reply #15 on:** August 03, 2014, 12:50:13 pm »

Nice Perry!

Perry · « **Reply #16 on:** August 24, 2014, 07:16:34 pm »

To close this up, I went out last night and took down the trap-out. I knew it was full of bees, and I hadn't seen anything come out of the cone in a good long while. I peeked in today, and found about a dozen queen cells, lots of capped brood, and no eggs or larvae. Guess I should have pulled more bees at least once more. Total of 15 frames of bees.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

efmesch · « **Reply #17 on:** August 25, 2014, 02:10:53 am »

Maybe you'll make good use of those queen cells----sell them to others or use them yourself to do late summer queen replacements.

After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #18 on:** September 01, 2014, 09:44:09 pm »

Yes.. What did you do? Let them have at it or did you USE those spare queens?

apisbees · « **Reply #19 on:** September 01, 2014, 11:52:11 pm »

The season is winding down and some of the hives are expelling the drones. Successful Queen mating in the fall can be an issue. The weather, the nectar flow, the mating nuc size, will effect the successful mating. Then there is the issue of will the hive have time for the queen to lay efficient brood to provide a abundant winter bee population?
If they haven't produced a queen by now, Put the bees with a hive that could use the population to assets it in having it's queen being able to raise it's winter bee population.
In my opinion the risk out way's the rewords off trying to succeed and raise a queen and get the hive through the winter with raising queens at this time of year north of the 49th. And I would suspect it would be true anywhere north of the 40th circle of latitude at this time of year.