trap out setup

Paul and I set up our first attempt at a trap out. This is the large cottonwood in south Price. The colony is about 4 or 5 feet off the ground. Very convenient. The first thing we did was seal off all the bottom entrances with spray foam. We then fashioned a cone out of hardware mesh and stapled it over the main entrance, tweaking it and adding screen until the girls couldn't find a way back in. There were hundreds of girls returning to the hive trying to find their way back inside. They were pooling up near the bottom of the cone but not one found the small hole at the end of the funnel. They were surprisingly docile bees. Even with me using a staple gun at the hive entrance, they did not get defensive. I even squished a girl or two and didn't receive as much as a head bump.

Once we had the entrance sealed off, we placed a nuc box in front of the entrance. Another mesh cone mounted to the side of the nuc box fit perfectly over the mesh cone on the tree. Any bees coming out of the tree are forced to go through the nuc box. We covered the mesh with a dark towel to make it as dark as possible.The nuc box was supplied with 3 frames of brood (all types - eggs, larva, capped, drone cells) and an empty drawn out frame. We secured the nuc to the tree, put a couple drops of lemon grass oil near the entrance for good measure and left. We'll check it periodically over the next few days and weeks to see if they girls start using the nuc box as home.

Update: Here is a video of the funnel in action after 1 day.
http://youtu.be/5fSoKMroEsQ

http://youtu.be/5fSoKMroEsQ