You can expand the number of bee colonies in an apiary in various ways (buying new families, creating layerings and breeding queens). In the spring, beekeepers catch swarms of no one. The easiest way is to make a bottle trap for bees. A small container will not be suitable for this purpose. It is advisable to use a bottle with a volume of at least 5 liters. A suitable option is a water cooler bottle.
Operating principle and design of a bee trap
A young bee family, separated from the mother one during the migration stage from the old hive to a new home, is called a swarm.To catch a swarm, they use special devices - swarmers. Standard version of the device: a lightweight plywood box in which 6-7 honeycomb frames are placed (volume 40-50 l). The box is equipped with a tap hole with a flap, straps for fastening, ventilation holes, and a removable lid.
Cylindrical designs are popular. The simplest option is to attach plywood guides to hoops (30-40 cm in diameter), which are then covered with canvas. It’s easy to make your own trap from a plastic bottle.
Preparatory work
When assembling any product, certain requirements must be met. Making a trap from a plastic bottle has many advantages: it is cheap, fast, and does not require special materials or tools.
Experienced beekeepers say that regardless of the type of trap design, frames must be placed inside. When assembling a plywood box, it is recommended to install frames inside that have “already been in use.” It is precisely these products that have darkened over time that bees react to.
To attract a swarm of bees, the inner surface of the bottle is smeared with wax or pine needles, fragrant plants (melissa, oregano). It is not recommended to use sugar syrup, honey, sugar or bee bread as bait. Because there is a possibility that the trap will attract wasps, ants, and flies.
Required tools and materials
It is not always possible to independently assemble a trap box to catch a swarm of bees due to the lack of necessary materials. The optimal solution to the problem is to use common available materials:
- plastic bottle with a capacity of 5-20 liters;
- knife;
- wire for securing the structure to a tree or any support.
To avoid missing a swarm, beekeepers advise using a plastic bottle of any size.
Because a small part of the bees will climb inside, and most insects will simply stick to the outside of the plastic container. But you need to keep in mind that this is a temporary means of catching a swarm of bees.
Choosing a place and time for installation
The boxes are fixed to a tree at a height of 4-10 m. The most suitable are considered to be separately growing spruce and pine. Traps on branches are firmly fixed using straps, rope or wire. You can mount the device on the roof of a house or barn. It is recommended to choose areas where honey plants grow and where there is a source of water nearby. Undesirable “neighbors” will be highways and power lines.
It is advisable to camouflage the structures. The easiest way is to paint the plywood in brown and green camouflage colors. More intricate options are to glue pieces of bark or moss patches to the surface of the structure. A properly designed trap box will help trap bee swarms for several seasons. Bees usually swarm from the last days of May to the first days of July. It is on these days that beekeepers catch “stray” bee families.
How to make a bee trap from a bottle with your own hands
The process of creating a plastic trap yourself does not take much time. There are several main stages:
- The top part of the bottle is cut off so that a kind of shallow funnel is obtained. Holes are made in the bottom element of the bottle (at a short distance from the cut line) for attaching the wire;
- the cut off upper part is turned upside down and inserted into the lower part of the bottle - a kind of “base”.In this case, you need to make sure that the bottom does not reach the bottom of the bottle;
- A piece of wire is threaded into the fastenings of the lower part of the improvised trap and a handle is formed for hanging the structure on a tree.
A little fragrant liquid bait is poured into the container to attract bees. The trap is then placed on a tree/support/roof that is close to areas with honey plants.
When setting up a trap for a swarm of bees, you need to take into account several nuances: the type of tree on which the structure is fixed, the proximity of areas with honey plants. It is important to securely fix the structure so that it does not fall/come off in case of strong wind.
