# How to get bees from irrigation box into nuc...



## bison (Apr 27, 2011)

Hi - yesterday a friend and I were called out to remove a feral hive from an irrigation box. There was no electrical outlet available so we couldn't use a vacuum. We cut all the comb out of the box and used rubber bands to fasten some brood comb and honey comb to frames in a nuc box. We removed virtually all of the comb from the box, but couldn't get the bees out without a vacuum. No sign of the queen. We left the nuc propped on top of the open irrigation box as in the picture hoping the hive would move in over night.

This morning it looks like most of the bees are still in the irrigation box rather than the nuc. Some bees were going back and forth in the nuc entrance though.

Should I leave it as is and hope they move in soon, or find a generator and vacuum them up?

thanks!


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

I'd borrow or rent a generator and run the bee vacuum.

Incidentally, a 5 hp shop vac kills bees. I get good results with a 1.5 hp shop vac with a 1.5" hose to a 5 gallon bucket fitted with PVC to the hose, a basket for the bees inside, a foam pad for the bees to crash into and not die, a coffee can lid to the bee basket and #8 hardware cloth around the plywood discs, and a 2.5" bee hose mounted through the lid. The speed reduction is just right. They live.

Also, to get cut-out bees to stay in a box, I put a newspaper over an established colony (far from the cut-out, hopefully), place a box of drawn comb over the newspaper, and introduce the cutout bees into the drawn comb. I feed the honey back to the colony, piece-by-piece over several days.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

If you have removed all comb, and put an open bottomed box directly on top with some brood in it, the bees will move into it in fairly short order.


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## bison (Apr 27, 2011)

I went back this afternoon and took a look - most of the bees had moved into the nuc. Problem solved by doing nothing!


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## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Congratulations on the cut out!


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## hvacrich0 (Aug 25, 2014)

Has anyone else ever used a little BeeGo on a rag in the old cut out location to drive out the last of the bees? It works for me.


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## bison (Apr 27, 2011)

I've seen JP the Beeman do that on his videos. In this case I didn't want to do it as the entrance to the nuc was right on top of the irrigation box and I didn't want to drive bees too far from the area.


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