Trap-out Honey Bee hive removals – Require time and lots of miles for site visits.
A Trap-out is very time consuming and can take 6 – 8 weeks depending on the size of the colony and the amount of resources and brood in the hive.
A trap-out is a not-very-satisfactory way of removing a colony of bees from a structure, a tree, or a wall.
With a trap-out there is always the possibility you may not get the queen bee to move from her hiv into the trp-hive.
You will not get the brood, comb, honey and/or nectar stores from inside the cavity.
Why You Need to Remove Abandoned Honeycomb
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A Trap-out works like this:
Observe where the entrance of the beehive location is:
try to find all the entrances and exits.
seals them off, except for on
installs a one-way bee escape (cone)This allows the bees to leave the nest but prevents them from returning
Now some will tell you to set up a new hive complete with small brood, honey, pollen, a queen, and just enough workers to care for the brood and the queen but it may be best to have the exit to the cone enter into the new trap hive or even pass all the way through it. This way the foragers that pass out of the comb will return and hopefully enter the trap hive and make it their new home.
The Trap-out system is not perfect for a number of reasons.
The process will consume a lot of time, possibly up to 6 weeks. Many home and business owners with a bee nest don’t want to wait this long to get rid of it. A faster way would be in the form of a cut-out http://www.tennesseeshoneybees.com/index.php?main_page=page_4
Only foragers and drones that are leaving the original hive are caught by the one-way trap.The nurse bees won’t be caught until they become foragers. The brood won’t be caught until it hatches and goes through all the stages that precede foraging.
The queen usually dies within the structure along with any unattended brood. Rotting brood may smell bad.
Honey stores, if any, are left inside. These have been known to leak and drip down inside walls.
Combs and honey left inside my attract vermin.
Although the technique provides a bunch of “free” bees for the beekeeper, it has many drawbacks.
The beekeeper must already have a mated queen inside hive to use for the trapped bees.
The forager bees the beekeeper collects are at the end of their lives (i.e. they are young bees like nurses or comb-builders).
The structure owner is left with a mess.
The entire process can take uo to and possibly over a month.
Trap-outs seem to be more common in southern areas of the United States. In the northern U.S. areas, the length of time required for a trap-out is more of an issue.
To find out more about the Honey Bee removal services offered by Tennessee's Honey Bees check out:
http://www.tennesseeshoneybees.com/index.php?main_page=page_1
Honey Bee Removal Services
