Swarm catching devices and extendable poles.

[Murox]

I don't want to use ladders and I know there are many extending/telescopic poles available and am wondering if anyone has experience (good or bad) of there performance when used with a swarm catching device like those available from Thorne and others which have approx 30mm diameter fittings.

 

[North London Bee Man]

I have the Wolf Garten pole with a lopper for cutting the top off my tree (where I've now caught swarms). It's taken a lot of abuse over 20 years but the pole is still in great condition and stays at whichever length is selected. I can't work out if it would easily connect to the catcher but the pole would definitely handle the weight without risk of bending/dropping.

 

[ericbeaumont]

extending/telescopic poles

I had an extendable aluminium window-cleaning pole with a large water bottle fitted. The base was cut off and the pole thread was screwed into a rubber plug bored to size to fit the bottle. Worked well for swarms, esp. up a ladder because it was light.

Never liked the gardening poles: too expensive, too complicated and way too heavy when vertical. Learned from an old Polish gent (he grew up with orchards) to use a long bamboo cane: cut a 1" cross slot in the end, lay into each slot a piece of heavy wire about 8" long, and bind tight with soft wire. The four cupped wires can be widened for apples or reduced for plums.

 

[Hull Bees]

I just use a tree pruner and temporarily attach a cardboard box to the end by folding one of the flaps back, pushing the saw blade through the edge and securing it with tape. Probably used it 4 times to catch swarms, the rest of the year it's used to prune trees.

 

[Brian Bush]

I have a purchased swarm catcher bag that screws onto an aluminium telscopic pole you use for a roller on the outside of a house.
We have used it for several years shared amongst 3 of us and probably use 4 or 5 times a year on average.
I used the pole extended to 25 ft a fortnight ago and although it was a little bendy in the air at full extension grabbed and bagged a hanging swarm in minutes.
The bag has a metal rim and a cover flap operated by a cord.

 

[judy12]

Last week, a callout. Elderly couple, old farmhouse, a couple of bees round small hole in chimney stack, bees plastering the inside of sitting room windows. Been there all day. No point in opening windows - I thought they'd just go round again. So brushed off the thickest area into a skep, upended it on a sheet and waited. Some fanning round the skep entrance which the bees left on the window ignored even after brushing them down a couple of times. No bees left the skep.
After a cup of tea we were no further, couldn't leave them there, couldn't think what else to do so wrapped up the skep, put a clean bag into the Henry and hoovered up the rest and took all home. Shook them out onto sheet in front of nuke, very annoyed but apparently none the worse for their journey, tipped out bees from skep who, after much consultation, started the walk. By morning as far as I cd see most of them in nuc. Anything else I could have done?

 

[Ian123]

I’ve a Silky pole and they are excellent but expensive!

 

[SixFooter]

I've used the Thornes canvas bag on a telescopic pole a few times.The first time was quite high (8m) and I was surprised by the lever effect when lowering the bees down. This swarm hit the deck at close to 9.8 m/s/s. When not so high, it's easy to use and safer than standing on a ladder. It can be a slow process to get the bees out of the bag and into a nuc. They get stuck in the folds of the bag and not easily shaken out.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Anything else

Assume the queen & colony remains in the chimney and that if your nuc is within flying distance of it, the bees will return.

First job is to identify and seal access from the chimney into the room. A hole the size of a pencil is enough (often smaller).

Cheapest option is to allow the bees to go into winter. If on mild days in spring no flight is seen over a few weeks, it can be assumed it died out.

At that point chimney access must be sealed with very fine mesh and pointing repaired. If this is not done effectively, another swarm will occupy it. It is very difficult to seal brickwork & chimneys in old buildings, but there are professionals out there who will do the job (at a price).

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Last week, a callout. Elderly couple, old farmhouse, a couple of bees round small hole in chimney stack, bees plastering the inside of sitting room windows. Been there all day. No point in opening windows - I thought they'd just go round again. So brushed off the thickest area into a skep, upended it on a sheet and waited. Some fanning round the skep entrance which the bees left on the window ignored even after brushing them down a couple of times. No bees left the skep.
After a cup of tea we were no further, couldn't leave them there, couldn't think what else to do so wrapped up the skep, put a clean bag into the Henry and hoovered up the rest and took all home. Shook them out onto sheet in front of nuke, very annoyed but apparently none the worse for their journey, tipped out bees from skep who, after much consultation, started the walk. By morning as far as I cd see most of them in nuc. Anything else I could have done?

I'm probably missing something here but are you saying you were responding to a swarm having arrived or was this a long standing situation? How did the bees clustering inside the windows enter the room that day? If there had been an established chimney colony using the small (external?) hole for hive access prior to the day it begs the question had something happened to cause a change in route simultaneously with the colony swarming and leaving "down" the chimney into the fireplace? If that was the case opening the window would have released them but their next settling point could have been inconvenient to access.
Since you have most of the bees contained the questions to ask are
1. Does the contained group contain a queen?
2. Is there a colony remaining in the chimney that could issue further swarms?

 

[beeguy]

I had an extendable aluminium window-cleaning pole with a. The base was cut off and the pole thread was screwed into a rubber plug bored to size to fit the bottle. Worked well for swarms, esp. up a ladder because it was light.

Never liked the gardening poles: too expensive, too complicated and way too heavy when vertical. Learned from an old Polish gent (he grew up with orchards) to use a long bamboo cane: cut a 1" cross slot in the end, lay into each slot a piece of heavy wire about 8" long, and bind tight with soft wire. The four cupped wires can be widened for apples or reduced for plums.

Great idea to use window cleaning poles for this. Great minds think alike! I found the aluminium poles to be way too heavy but my husband recently bought some very expensive carbon fibre poles from wfp for his window cleaning business, I took one from his van and omg it was perfect and very light. However I wouldn’t purchase one just for this use as they are very expensive!

 

[ericbeaumont]

very expensive carbon fibre poles

They are! Had a quick look and found that £100 will buy a 10' pole; anything more is £200+, but really, 10' plus a tripod ladder is enough, because the weight of bees in the bottle can be tricky to get down smoothly and quickly.

 

[JamezF]

I wonder if a telescopic pole for a swimming pool brush/net might do the job?

James

 

[Murox]

I wonder if a telescopic pole for a swimming pool brush/net might do the job?

James

I have been looking at just that this morning, my concern is the locking mechanism, seems to be all plastic. I think for occasional use they will be adequate, probably stiff enough as long as its around 30mm dia. pole.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I wonder if a telescopic pole for a swimming pool brush/net might do the job?

James

I use an extending pole used for rollering paint to get swarms from trees. It extends to about 12’

 

[pargyle]

I have two 3.om lengths of redudant 22mm copper water pipe - joined together with a sleeved joint - works well although I had to extend the cord on my Thornes swarm catcher to get to 6.0 metres !

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have a Stan. I leave it all up to him

 

[Antipodes]

I have been looking at just that this morning, my concern is the locking mechanism, seems to be all plastic. I think for occasional use they will be adequate, probably stiff enough as long as its around 30mm dia. pole.

Do you ever see those round wooden curtain rods over there? They went out of fashion in the 90's....

 

[Murox]

Hahaha. Don't think you can join enough together and manage to lift it to use over a 3 metres. Plus I haven't seen anything like that for many years.

 

[Antipodes]

Hahaha. Don't think you can join enough together and manage to lift it to use over a 3 metres. Plus I haven't seen anything like that for many years.

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