# Solution? bees sucked onto Bushkill vent.



## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Has anyone come up with a good solution to prevent those bees from getting sucked onto the vent of the Bushkill vac during removals?


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## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

odfrank... Would a smaller mesh screen wire, mounted flush with the wood (rather than recessed, as in the photo), so you could brush them off easily.

cchoganjr


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Turn it off occasionally. Haven't had this problem with mine. I use a fairly large vac so I have that hole partially closed.


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## Lburou (May 13, 2012)

Barry said:


> Turn it off occasionally. Haven't had this problem with mine. I use a fairly large vac so I have that hole partially closed.


I like to put the vacuum at least ten feet from the colony, how long is your hose Frank? This is how I did it and have not noticed any unwanted bees inside the top box. Of course, if a bee got sucked in there the vacuum could destroy the evidence 

Sorry for the poor focus. Here is another picture. Note the handles for easy carrying and tie down. This is a thread showing all the construction details if you are interested. Wasn't able to load the pictures here for some reason.


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## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

Barry... If you had this problem, wouldn't it work to leave the #8 mesh on as is, (recessed into underside of hole), and then, place a small mesh screen on the wood on top, that way you could take your hand and just brush them off if they were attracted (sucked) on to the screen.

cchoganjr


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Sorry, I'm backward thinking today! The more HP you have (6 is what mine is), the bigger you want the opening to cut down on suction, so I typically have mine fully open like the picture shows. Cleo, yes, that would work. Another thing to do would be to create a large mesh area, like a cylinder out of #5 hdwr cloth, 6" high, that would fit in the hole, thereby eliminating the bee's ability to clog up the hole. Think of downspouts on gutters, same problem of clogging.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Moving it farther away, a larger vent and window screen are good ideas but not perfect. I like it close so that I can turn it on and off a lot. And window screen would block the closure board which I also use for powerful suction when the hose gets clogged. A larger vent might be the solution. They are really attracted to that vent and the exhaust as soon as the queen has been sucked in.


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## Lburou (May 13, 2012)

I just deleted a dumb suggestion....involving bee quick near the exhaust.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

I have "dog screen" on the underside of the full top rim. The closest bees can get to the suction exit is the dog screen covering the full box dimension == very low suction. Dog screen is heavy weight fiber window screen to defeat dogs that claw at sliding doors.

I built the top and bottom frame rim pieces out of 2x4. They are very stable, better than a narrow 1x rim. Also allows either a 8 frame or 10 frame box to be used as the chamber.


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## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

odfrank... Put you an in-line, on/off switch near you, move the vacuum farther away.

cchoganjr


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Those robo vac style bee vacs must drive the bees crazy with the motor just mere inches from them. Anyone notice this or am I just full of blue mud?
The vac system I built has the canister vac 20 feet from the bee vac. SOOOOOO much quieter for the bees AND me! If the set up is ideal, I can set the vac in a different room altogether and all you hear is the air exchange into the bee vac.
That makes a real enjoyable extraction.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

It's blue mud.  The vac system uses hoses, so you can have the unit as far away as you want. I use several lengths of 3" hose so the unit doesn't have to be right next to me.


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## Spinner (Jun 2, 2013)

I was having bees getting stuck on my variant of the bushkill vac. I was simply experiencing too much pressure at the vent to the point that bees couldn't remove themselves from it.

The only way to lower the pressure per square inch of the vent is to increase the vent size. Changing the screen size won't help. By doubling the vent opening, you reduce the pressure to 1/4th the original level, and the bees can fly or walk away from the vent. I opted for a 50% increase in vent size and was able to throttle the vacuum hose pressure without having stuck bees.


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## DrumChuck (Jun 4, 2013)

I made a variation of a "Bushkill" vac using the motor from an old canister vac, mounted inside the top box. Both air intakes are in the bottom board, so any bees that get near the "extra" intake are sucked into the catch box.


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