Comments on: Bushkill Bee Vac

By: Eric I

Eric I — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:02:43 +0000

Well….I’ve used mine a number of times and have to build one more as a spare. My father and I are partnered and sometimes we have too many in a weekend or large colonies so we’ll have two set up and a generator on the truck for power(fully 65% of the places we go have no electricity). When I transport the box/vac back to the yard, I leave them in the box for a day or two before I pull it apart to insure that the pheremones are set, so to speak. I made my top with a sliding lid which I seal with tape while in use. Remove the tape and spritz them down with syrup and come back in a day or to replace the bottom and top. At that point they are settled and usually building comb. I’ve got frames set up to hold some of their comb and brood and I get those in fairly quick.

I have found that with the low pressure and when pulling a large colony, the hose sometimes gets clogged so I’m thinking of using a smoothe hose. I have not built the ladder hose yet but will probably do so this winter. We’re getting more and more calls this year as people find out about us. Several pest-control companies refer people to us so that’s good.

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:57:58 +0000

Bought one from you last year. It is a great product. I have a very low mortality rate with this setup. I have used it at least 6 times this year and have 3 more cutouts setup and also a huge colony in a tree (on a branch).

Need to make me a second one as I need to go to SC and do a cutout in a house that has a huge amount of bees which have been there since before 1980!

By: jane b

jane b — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 11:57:49 +0000

Another beek & I just finished up a HUGE cutout–I’m talking 3 days. He had built one of your vacs, & when I saw it, I whipped one up that evening using parts I already had. The only thing I did different was strapping the containment unit together first, then strapping on the top & bottom vac units. I can take the top unit off onsite to allow ventilation (re-strapping for the trip home), and once I get to the apiary, I remove the bottom vac unit and place the whole containment section directly on the hive base. Unstrap and slide the strap out.

I am using a 2 1/2 hose for bee intake and a small “Hang Up” ShopVac brand vacuum with the smaller hose. Had a little trouble with air leakage between the sections (I use weatherstripping on the top & bottom vac pieces), but wrapping that with duct tape solved the problem. Wonderful suction, and fully adjustable.

Still noodling how to work in another screen shim to slide in *after* the girls are collected.

By: Robo

Robo — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:14:01 +0000

Chris,
Thanks for the feedback. I too have had good luck using the 2 1/2″ corrugated shop vac hose. May you have continued success with your vac.

Rob….

By: Chris Sims

Chris Sims — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:06:43 +0000

I made an exact copy of you design and used it on a cut out of epic size. The hive was 2 foot wide by 10 foot tall by 4 inches thick. There were 12 sections of comb and everything went off with out a hitch with the exception of trying to use a 1 1/4″ vac hose and a 2 1/4″ suction for the bees. Not a good idea. I then changed in the middle of the cut out and used both 2 1/4″ hoses and went great. We vaccumed approx 25 pounds of bees out of the colony. We ended up using 2 deeps and a mid honey super and vaccumed until it would not suck any more. We filled all three boxes to the hilt and the vac just kept on working. We did use the corogated shop vac hose and in the end had approx. 100 dead bees in the end. I am so glad that I found your plans and built this thing. I would have ever been able to get this large of a hive in one day by any other means. Cudos to your design and imagine hand shaking 25 lbs of bees out of a standard bee vac………………….. Thanks Chris

By: Karessa

Karessa — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:13:16 +0000

Awesome! Thanks so much for posting this! I was just about to try building a bee vac from a different plan, but hiving the bees directly makes so much more sense.

By: David

David — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:19:33 +0000

Thanks so much for this posting i made a crude copy (not the best wood worker) had all of your features slotted top slanted bottom (no dado’s) lots of gorilla glue to make up for miss cuts
did first cut out large colony in apt bldg 2 deeps worth
maybe 2 handfulls of dead bees and i think we got the queen your design is very simple and worked great

THANKS AGAIN IT IS GREAT THAT A CREATIVE PERSON LIKE YOU POSTED THIS

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:09:51 +0000

Thanks! I am sure I am not the only one who will appreciate them!

BTW – I am finishing a version of your frame jig tomorrow. I have 200 frames to build and I am confident it will make the job much simpler.

Thanks for sharing this information!

Dave

By: Robo

Robo — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:09:43 +0000

Dave,
A set of measured drawings is in the works.
Rob..

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:12:19 +0000

Do you have a PDF of this article or the plans in a PDF file? I want to reproduce it but cant print this page to aid me.

Dave