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chrysalis

New Bee
Joined
Jun 1, 2010
Messages
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Location
uk
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
How do you all cope with wasps? is the wasp trap a good method? it works for snails!!
 
If its the in-laws I hide behind the sofa when the door knocks.

The best way is to narrow the entrance right down to keep them out.
 
If its the in-laws I hide behind the sofa when the door knocks.

The best way is to narrow the entrance right down to keep them out.
?


Admin Are your relatives W.A.S.P.s from New Hampshire


wasp bottle traps, i set them up on the edges of the apiary---i cut 2ltr Cola bottle or water bottle top off1/3rd the way from the top and invert it in the bottom half...two holes for string and hang in tree

a mix of jam and cider vinager seem best
 
Sorry,it was the title of the thread:
unwelcome guests.
 
If you go to pretty much any beehive in the country in Aug/Sept you will more likely, as opposed to less likely, see a wasp trying to get in. If they get in, they most usually get killed. No need for beek to panic.

Keep strong colonies. Put entrance blocks in before wasps season starts. Don't set up wasp traps because they attract hundreds of them that wouldn't otherwise come.

Any sickly or weak or small colony, then vigilance is required. Go down to very small entrances is problem starts.
 
Like all wasp-paranoid new beeks I set up a double ring of tiny ack-ack emplacements, manned by highly trained gunner bees.
 
A old beek told me that a wasp will never travel through a tube! he sets up 3 or 4, 1 inch bits of hose pipe in a entrance block. he ses we never get any problems. except for wasp around the hive sting his bees.

Has anyone else herd of this technique :boxing_smiley:
 
Not a circular tube specifically. Probably mentioned in bee books of the 1940s and previous ones too! So nothing new.

Wasps will enter a tube but the point is the colony guards have more chance of getting to them before the wasps can evade them?

Regards, RAB
 
Is this more effective than just a block with a 3 inch gap?


Thanks RAB

Hows your 90 broke ;o) If its not leaking its empty ;o)
 
I put a slightly stunned but walking wasp on the hive landing strip the other day.


It was like the old days of when you walked into a shop you got jumped on by 12 shop assistants....... only in those days they didnt grab hold of you and sling you down the steps..
 
I have been getting quite a lot of uninvited honey diners..

Once or twice a day to both hives but not always at the same time.

Not too much death and destruction going on though although one hive seems to be kicking out unwanted brothers...

One of my hives is home to a family of immigrants which arrived on the day I was due to collect my nuc... Had to make as much of another hive in a few hours as I could... all worked out OK tho.

Am wondering if the food snatchers are family members of the free bees..
 
Meant to say that I bought my nuc from Hebeegeebee, who was very helpful and even built a special nuc box with removable bottom so that I could fit it onto one of my Warre boxes.

Worked fine. Colony doing well. Two weeks ago I had to clear comb off the top of the frames, which the bees had decided really needed to be there) and just by letting it sit in a seive, got half a jar of honey from it...
 
Dishmop - thanks for the post above! I am pleased the bees are doing OK.

Wasp traps work to an extent and anything helps. However in my view a small entrance is the best way to go - even a small nuc should be OK like that and can defend itself.
 
Yep,, bees doing fine.

I built a special box so that I could transfer the frames from the nuc and add some more frames. Had to lift it last week to add a second box and its very heavy.
 
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