Trapping out bees from tree

[Frisbee]

She will then leave the hive with remaining bees to find a new home.

I wonder what makes you think the queen will leave the hive? Queens only normally leave when prepared by workers getting ready to swarm. These are insects you are dealing with, working under instinct. Their insticnt is to feed and look after the queen who is colonising their world. She won't think 'Oh all my workers are not returning. I must pack my bags and go see what they are up to'.
If your plan works and workers slowly remove themselves into your nuc, the queen will remain in the tree with fewer and fewer workers to look after her.
She will continue to lay, flying workers will fail to return, but new workers will emerge until the remaining ones starve to death through lack of stores coming in. A small amount of workers will remain with the queen and keep feeding her until they either run out of stores or they die. Whatever, you will not get the queen.
As we are fast approaching the end of the season, the queens laying will naturally reduce. So the re-population by emerging workers will speed the demise.
Either way, my money is on you not getting the queen and you would be better off giving your nuc an opportunity to make their own queen. It will give the workers you have caught, the stimulus to continue foraging and working for their new home.

Frisbee

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

But it does work apparently - some people on this site have had success, but it's taken time

 

[Jeff Buzz]

Either way, my money is on you not getting the queen and you would be better off giving your nuc an opportunity to make their own queen. It will give the workers you have caught, the stimulus to continue foraging and working for their new home.

Hi Frisbee

Thanks for your comments

I did put a frame of brood containing day old eggs from another hive in my nuc at first attempt hoping they would make a new queen but as the bees found a way back into the tree this has not worked.
On the second attempt again I have put a frame of brood in the nuc including a QC so they have a chance to have a queen in the nuc.

I do not really expect to capture or need the queen from the tree and it may be that I just foam the hole up at the end of the project.

 

[Mike a]

Jeff
I intend to leave it in place for perhaps 6 weeks.
Plan is to allow all all flying bees to exit, then wait until all the brood hatch, these then leave the hive and leave the queen with no pollen or food coming in with bees being depleted all the time.
She will then leave the hive with remaining bees to find a new home. When I am sure that no new bees are emerging from the hive I will remove the cone and let the bees rob out the hive for a day or so.

Hi Jeff
I hope this helps, you won't get all the bees, the queen will continue to lay during the trap out until they run out of pollen to raise more brood and or the remaining colony starve to death from lack of nectar/honey. The only way to get the queen is if they build up enough and swarm, you can get into the void and physically remove her or there is a slim chance you can drive her out with smoke or bee quick but this process could take many hours and still not work.


General info
The main purpose of a trap out is to remove the majority of the bees from a location before it is sealed up. It is not a good idea to leave the void open to be robbed out as the bees will just go back to their queen.
Ideally trap outs should only be used as a last resort and/or if they are in a public area or causing problems. Otherwise they are best left alone and use bait hives to try and attract swarms and just to clear up one other point from an earlier post placing an empty nuc or a nuc with a frame of brood on the outside is pointless unless it contains a queen right colony as the duration of a trap out done properly is several weeks to a couple of months depending on the size of the colony inside.