Author Topic: Swarm traps made from garden pots  (Read 3210 times)

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Offline Bakersdozen

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Swarm traps made from garden pots
« on: March 15, 2017, 10:31:01 am »
Has anyone used pressed pulp flower pots for swarm traps?  This is the pot I am referring to.  http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/western-pulp-round-pots/paper-pots

A member of my local bee club swears by these.  He takes 2 6" or 7" pots and screws the openings together.  That's under $2 for the pots per trap. Then using insulation foam, he seals all the holes but one.  He then makes a hanger out of wire and washers. This seems small in cavity space.  Tom Seeley says that swarm scouts look for a volume of 40 liters, which is a Langstroth 10 frame brood box.
Mann Lake sells a swarm trap made out of the same material for $23.95 each.  I called Mann Lake and was told the dimensions are 13.5" x 15".  That's not enough info for me to determine volume. The young lady on the phone put me on hold to measure, but she misunderstood me and measured the wrong end.  I didn't want to put her out any more than I already had, so I thanked her and hung up.
So, has anyone made swarm traps from something similar? What was your results?  Did they attract swarms?

Offline neillsayers

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Re: Swarm traps made from garden pots
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2017, 11:05:40 am »
I have not used these but I have seen video of a successful swarm trap using them. The traps sold on Mann Lake and others seem wildly overpriced. One could build a box for a lot less.
Another concern would be the need to take the trap down soon after the catch as the bees would make a cut out mess of it once they start drawing comb.
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Offline Wandering Man

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Re: Swarm traps made from garden pots
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2017, 11:10:35 am »
I've not seen these, either.

However, I've heard that swarms will often end up in people's empty flower pots.  There must be something appealing about them.
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Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Swarm traps made from garden pots
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2017, 08:01:21 pm »
I had left a message with the beekeeper that swears by them and he finally called me back today.  He said those were 8" pots.  He thought he was ordering 12", but got those instead.  He swears he has been very successful with the 8", but others should order the 12".

Offline CBT

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Re: Swarm traps made from garden pots
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2017, 08:22:16 pm »
The smaller cavity may attract smaller volume of bees and hopefully no swarm will pass the 40 liter cavity.

Offline robo

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Re: Swarm traps made from garden pots
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2017, 09:29:04 pm »
I highly suggest not using swarm traps that require you to do a cut-out to get them into a Langstroth.    It just doesn't make sense to me.  It is added work for you and a lot of stress on the bees.   You can build a swarm trap that holds frames for less than $5.

You can see some videos here that show how easy and stress free it is to relocate a swarm when you have frames -> https://beevac.com/swarm-traps/

Free plans here -> https://beevac.com/downloads/

I find 30L is a manageable size and works quite well.  You can always scale it to 40L if you want.

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