Bait box design...

[bjosephd]

Hey all,

To keep myself entertained I'm constructing a couple of bait boxes... ya never know, I might get a swarm wandering by that I can move into my imminent hive/s.

I'm wondering on some design ideas.

I am using old wooden wine boxes like this:

http://duckeggdesigns.com/image/cache/data/DSC_1951-500x500.jpg

I am trying to engineer into the build various ways of extracting the bees.

I am up-ending the boxes, covering them with a fitted piece of timber with an approx 1 inch diameter hole close to the bottom.

So two ideas:

One is to have an added removable slide in piece of timber inside at the top that when any bees have gone in, and if any comb has been built, I can just slide it out (after removing the front cover of the box).

The second idea is to drill a 1 or 2 inch hole directly in the bottom of the box that is covered. When a swarm is vaguely settled inside I can cover the front hole, open the bottom hole, and place this on top of a prepared hive directly on top of a crown board with a matching hole. Their new exit/entrance to their home would be through a fully foundation ready hive below them (how I pursued the Queen to move down I'm not sure).

What do you reckon?

The bait box I made a year or two ago, (not as a wannabe beekeeper but as just a bloke who wanted bees to move in) is getting a huge amount of interest from scout bees, but its solid screwed down lid has made me realise that getting the swarm out is gonna be a massive pain and my design needs to evolve!

If I work out how to put pics or vids on here I will.

(I have a couple strips of foundation and some smelly swarm lure that certainly brings all the bees to the yard)

Whaddayathink?

BJD

 

[dexter's shed]

why not simply buy a poly nuc and use that,

 

[bjosephd]

Because I have wine boxes and wood in the shed for free. And it's something fun to design and build.

If someone wants to buy me a poly nuc, then that's fine.
I also built a fence around my potential apiary last week out of salvaged stuff, so that was free too. Sadly I can't buy everything I need until my lottery win comes in. It all adds up.

 

[wessexmario]

One is to have an added removable slide in piece of timber inside at the top that when any bees have gone in, and if any comb has been built, I can just slide it out (after removing the front cover of the box).

Why re-invent the wheel? (a removable piece of timber to build comb on sounds like a frame to me)
Just stick a couple of frames in the box with some starter strips, or smeared with a bit of wax along the top bar, and you can then lift those frames straight from the bait box into your hive.

Should be easy to add a couple of runners to those boxes to hold standard frames, you'll find it a lot easier to deal with them if you have a liftable rather than a solid lid as well

 

[For want of a better word]

I use an old soap box.... hope I get it back after Ding Dong Day on the fist Thirsday in May


Yeghes da

 

[alldigging]

You'd want frames you could lift out to transfer the bees out easily.

Have a read of:
https://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/2653/2/Bait Hives for Honey Bees.pdf

 

[bjosephd]

Well yes, sadly they are not quite the right proportions to fit frames in (perfectly slightly wrong in all dimensions in fact!), and I did think about putting frames in etc, but found that I was gradually trying to basically build a beehive/nuc box. Re-build the wheel as you said, and badly!

It's just a bit of fun with what I've got knocking around the garage and meant to be quick and easy, I'm no carpenter really.

Would my 'bottom hole' bee extraction idea work in any way do you think?

When I built the first box last year, before I was planning on beekeeping, my plan was just to let them move in if they so chose and then leave them to it to live there. But now I see it's in everyone's interest to be able to transfer them to a hive.

BJD

 

[bjosephd]

"Ding Dong Day" ??!

 

[wessexmario]

exactly how big are those boxes, and how many do you have?

 

[bjosephd]

I'll go measure... I have 3

(and all marginally different sizes as from different wine makers!)

 

[For want of a better word]

"Ding Dong Day" ??!

That's the one!

Yeghes da

 

[bjosephd]

Is that the official swarming day?

 

[bjosephd]

Internal dimensions in cm:

50x32, 18 deep

48x31, 16 deep

I'm still curious about my 'bottom hole' idea (and yes, I know your bottom hole is really no place for bees!)

 

[wessexmario]

Internal dimensions in cm:

48x31, 16 deep

to hang some shallow super frames, you just need 2 pieces of wood 2x2x31 cm

Fix the first one inside the 31mm wall of the box, 18mm below the top edge. (that gives a beespace above the top of a 9mm frame bar)

With a frame lug resting on the first piece, position the second piece between the box walls to hold the frame level - fix with two nails through the wall into each end of the piece to prevent twisting.

You only need to hang 2 or 3 frames, most of the space in a bait box wants to be empty, and by using shallow frames, you'll be able to transfer them into a deep or shallow box.

 

[user 6228]

they need to be close to 40 Litres and have an entrance less than 20Sq cms facing south and positioned high.

Nucs are not optimal

 

[bjosephd]

Cool beans! I've just chiseled off the old idea!

Off to the shops for some boring life shopping, and then back to the project!

Great, thanks wessexmario...

Interesting that the bees mostly want an empty box not full of ready frames and foundations. Any idea why?

Also, I'm still curious about my bottom hole idea! Even though the frames idea is an easy transfer (as my old original box will require far more work to convert it - and it already has interest, so if I can drill a ready hole in the bottom over night and replace it, then that would be great!).

Watch this space...

BJD

 

[SixFooter]

I use a 15" plywood cube with a brood frame inside diagonally stuck to the top. There is an entrance closer over the entrance. The bottom of the box has battens around it and screwed through the sides, so when I get a swarm, I can just close the entrance, remove the bottom and knock the bees into a Nuc.

 

[Travelator]

I would use properly sized and constructed nuc as a bait hive because:

- easy to transfer the bees - or keep them until they build up
- if it's already been occupied by bees it should be more attractive to swarms
- if the swarms don't arrive, you can still use it for queen rearing etc.

If you have wooden boxes lying around and a strong urge to do carpentry, I would turn them into handy bee-proof boxes for storing small numbers of brood or super frames. They often come in handy, eg. for carrying a few frames of foundation around. For bonus points, you can oversize them so that the frame size bars can ve overlapped and you can pack more frames into a smaller space.

 

[bjosephd]

Thanks for all your thoughts people!

I've going to engineer a fiew of the ideas in.

Can anybody comment on how my bottom hole idea could work.

Close up side entrance hole - openen up bottom entrance hole - put box on top of hive with crown board hole and box bottom hole together.

What woul happen?

BJD

 

[fatshark]

I would use properly sized and constructed nuc as a bait hive because:

derekm is correct … optimal size is 40 litres = one standard National brood. Nuc boxes are too small. Seeley did all the hard work (reference embedded somewhere above) to determine what works best … not that other things won't work, just that they're suboptimal.

In the hope that I can attract a monster prime swarm mine are all National broods