Bee Vacuum

One of the problems with urban beekeeping is that the bees do really well.  What I mean by that is that a new beekeeper who gets a package in the Spring is almost assuredly going to have a hive that is so strong it will swarm in the Summer.

This nice spruce tree is in the back yard of one of the boys I'm mentoring this year.  It's a healthy tree and you can tell that... wait.. something doesn't look quite right with that tree.  Lets take a closer look.

The tree is full of bees!  Well, that's nothing I haven't dealt with before.  Not having the benefit of seeing the particulars we can now see in these photos I instructed them to place a box under the branch the swarm was on and shake them into the box.  When they replied that it wasn't possible to do that I suggested trimming the branch or branches the bees were on and taking the branches to the boxes.  I didn't realize the tree was so small and removing the branches with the bees on them would so horribly disfigure such a nice little tree.

After attempting to brush the swarm into boxes, gather bees by the bucket full and bail them into the box, and after getting stung more than a few times they gave up as the sun was setting.  I assured them that the swarm wouldn't leave until the sun was up and they responded that it sure would be nice to have one of those bee vacuums they heard about on the internet.

I had also heard about bee vacuums and I had almost built one last year.  Beesource has an excellent discussion forum and I've found it to be a great resource for build-it-yourself plans, including this bee vacuum.  When I say I "almost built" a bee vacuum I mean that I looked at the plans and thought about making one but hadn't actually done anything.  By this point it was around 8pm and I had decided to make that vacuum.



The first step was to find material to use.  I saw half of an old green ping pong table that was serving as a workbench and some wood paneling leaning against the wall in the garage.  Perfect!  I didn't have the various hinges and latches that I would need but I figured that would work itself out after I started getting things together. I got out a circular saw and a drywall T square and started making rectangles.  Once I had my 16 rectangles of various sizes I drilled and sawed out two of them and put #8 hardware cloth over the opening.  I then proceeded to assemble the rectangles as the plans showed.

I didn't have handles for the inner box so I attached some twine in their place.  I didn't have hinges for the lid so I just used some ten year old "100 mile an hour" tape that I still had sitting around in place of the hinge and it seemed to work good enough.  I then proceeded to disassemble my vacuum and stick it to the top of the lid, drilling a total of four big holes in the boxes.  By 2am I was ready for a test of the newly assembled bee vacuum!  I nervously switched the vacuum on and checked the suction at the end of the hose.  It really sucked.  Success!  I reinforced a few of the seams with some more tape and went to bed around 3am, planning to drive over to this swarm in the morning before they flew off.

I was so excited to give this curiosity a try I had no trouble getting up in time for a 7:30 meetup at the swarm.  I exercised amazing restraint in calmly handing over my precious creation to my student for its first field test.  Even I was surprised at how calm the bees remained as they were sucked up the hose!

We had a total of four people watching the bee vacuum in action (three of them with cameras) and everyone felt quite safe despite the thousands of venomous insects being forced through a vacuum nearby.

It was hard to believe that these were the same bees that had delivered a total of seven stings only a handful of hours before.  As my student worked his way around the tree I adjusted the vacuum throttle (a very necessary part of the vacuum) and before long there weren't many bees left in the tree.  It soon became apparent that the queen had been sucked away because the few workers who were left began taking to the air in search of their now missing swarm.  The vacuuming of the swarm went quite well, the only problem came after the vacuum was shut off and some of my 10 year old tape started to come loose.  A few bees began to emerge from the box but I was able to re-stick the tape and only a few bees were lost as a result.

Once the bees were safely stowed in the recently assembled bee vacuum box my student had time to assemble the equipment they recently purchased to hive the swarm.  Two days later the bees were taken out of the basement and some of the tape was removed to allow the bees to exit the holding box and enter their new home.  The original plan calls for a sliding rail to hold the box together but again I compromised in the interest of speed and used tape that had reached the end of its lifespan.


I wasn't present for the re-boxing of the bees but from the pictures they shared it looks like it didn't go perfectly but eventually all of the bees moved from the holding box into the hive.  SUCCESS!

UPDATE:  Unfortunately the bees didn't stay in the new hive and instead flew away not long after the transfer.  My diagnosis is that the hive was disturbed too much after being transferred to the hive.  The box was opened frequently as the hive was adjusted to make a perfect home for the swarm but unfortunately what they really needed was peace and quiet after a long journey involving a bee vacuum.