my Homemade Bee Vac

[dexter's shed]

spent the last couple of days putting this together, hope you enjoy, feel free to leave any comments below

https://youtu.be/DD4KUCOjBDw

 

[Nige.Coll]

Cool.
All you need now is a huge extension lead

 

[dexter's shed]

as I've posted on other forums as well as here, it was made primarily for use on underground stations and cut outs from roof voids were electric is readily available, so your not the first and you won't be the last to leave a silly comment

 

[wessexmario]

You don't even need that long an extension lead, those little Honda generators are brilliant.

 

[SixFooter]

Mine works off an Aldi mains vacuum, but also off a petrol leaf vac

 

[dexter's shed]

You don't even need that long an extension lead, those little Honda generators are brilliant.

yup, have a little genny, so would work anywhere without electric, although not allowed on the underground because of the petrol, 99.9% of swarms I've been to on the tracks are within station or depot grounds, so sockets close by

 

[dpearce4]

I noticed that aldi and lidl now sell generators sometimes to maybe get one of those when next on sale.

 

[dn170221]

Always love seeing how people find DIY solutions!
Also learnt that you can get a brood box for the P1yne$ Nuc!!!

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Brilliant bit of DIY. The only observation I have is that a piece of soft foam rubber, inside the box where the bees will land, might prevent a few headaches for the bees. You might also want to think about some sort of extendable rod (landing net handle, etc.) to attach to the hose with elastic bands for when you want to operate it remotely e.g. when you don't want to climb into the narrow part of a roof-space or when you don't want to get down on the track - you could do it from the loft hatch or platform.

Is the inside of your suction pipe smooth or ribbed?

Will LU pay for this bit of kit or is it your bit of give, for taking the bees home?

CVB

ps there's another forum member who makes bee vacs and sells them on Ebay for about £95 + P&P - see http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30555

 

[isc26]

I use an ash vac (duratool 1958) from CPC £15 attached to a Henry does the job very well.

 

[dexter's shed]

Brilliant bit of DIY. The only observation I have is that a piece of soft foam rubber, inside the box where the bees will land, might prevent a few headaches for the bees. You might also want to think about some sort of extendable rod (landing net handle, etc.) to attach to the hose with elastic bands for when you want to operate it remotely e.g. when you don't want to climb into the narrow part of a roof-space or when you don't want to get down on the track - you could do it from the loft hatch or platform.

Is the inside of your suction pipe smooth or ribbed?

Will LU pay for this bit of kit or is it your bit of give, for taking the bees home?

CVB

yes, have a foam square that sits on top of frames, just forgot to include it in the video,
good idea on the extending rod, thank you
the pipe is ribbed, tried getting smooth to no avail, watched american clips on you tube and they all seem to use this, we will see when we collect the first swarm if it was a mistake or not
I already get paid a weekly wage for any pest related work, so no extra money, but like you say, I keep the bees

 

[B+.]

the pipe is ribbed, tried getting smooth to no avail, watched american clips on you tube and they all seem to use this, we will see when we collect the first swarm if it was a mistake or not

Thats an interesting piece of kit you have there. You'll have to keep us informed how it works for you.

From what I've seen on YouTube, the American beekeepers who use these a lot have very wide tubes (something like http://www.rutlands.co.uk/pp+woodworking-workshop-equipment-dust-collection+d01000) with powerful vacuums and, as you say, they have a smooth bore....not sure how you can get around that. Have you seen the Bushkill BeeVac on YouTube?

You also seem to have reversed the input/output sockets. The american bee-vacs have the bees going in the bottom with the vac ontop. I think that might help to avoid sharp bends in the hose which you might get. Also, the bees coming in from the bottom can climb up rather than falling down onto the frames.

Good Luck

 

[Nige.Coll]

as I've posted on other forums as well as here, it was made primarily for use on underground stations and cut outs from roof voids were electric is readily available, so your not the first and you won't be the last to leave a silly comment

glad you realised it was meant to be a silly comment

 

[dexter's shed]

Thats an interesting piece of kit you have there. You'll have to keep us informed how it works for you.

From what I've seen on YouTube, the American beekeepers who use these a lot have very wide tubes and, as you say, they have a smooth bore....not sure how you can get around that.

You also seem to have reversed the input/output sockets. The american bee-vacs have the bees going in the bottom with the vac ontop. I think that might help to avoid sharp bends in the hose which you might get. Also, the bees coming in from the bottom can climb up rather than falling down onto the frames.

Good Luck

I asked on a few american sites, and all the replies said pool pipe, so that's what I opted for, theirs is ribbed too, the reason for reversing the flow of bees, was so that the poly nucs could be used, rather than building a wooden brood box affair, as you say, time will tell, I'll come back to this post when I get to use it, you watch, this year we wont be inundated with cut outs,lol