# Oak Tree Trap out



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

Send me an e-mail [email protected] and I will send you info on a trapping system which should answer all your questions, and photos of actual traps in progress. Everything is free, no charge to beekeepers.

Also sugges you use the search engine in the upper right. Type in, trap outs. Lots and lots of great info there.

If I can help when you start, just e-mail me.

cchoganjr


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## shannonswyatt (May 7, 2012)

Tacobass, definitely get Mr. Hogan's instructions. They are easy to follow. You could go ahead and attach the hive adapter to the tree this fall so you are ready to go in the spring. Good luck on the height, if you had access to a lift, that would be the way to go on getting the adapter added to the trees and you could place platforms there for the trap hives to sit on in the spring. I personally wouldn't go over 10 foot on a ladder in a tree, but you may have more guts than me. 

The bad thing for you is that it is 90 minutes from your home. You will need to make a few trips to the site. The instructions will go into that. You need to see if you can get some comb and maybe some brood from a beek in the area. That will increase your success rate. As far as traveling with the bees, remove the hive from the trap at dusk and seal it up. I would ratchet strap the whole thing together. You may want to put it in the trunk or back of a truck, but other than that there isn't any special requirements. If you only have a hatchback you may want to cover the hive in a sheet in case some get out or you have an accident and they all get out!

You may want to purchase a queen and use the trees as a worker bee supply system that you can return to again and again. You could make a queen with eggs/brood, but if the queen isn't in there you will need to get that from another beek. Queens are cheap and you will know what kind of bees you have in that case. The workers only live 6 to 8 weeks, so after two months the hive is completely replenished with workers from the new queen. If they need to make a queen it takes time for the queen to be born and then mate and then start to lay. 

If you get stung once the other bees are attracted to the same spot due to the pheromones. I wouldn't stick my head in there as they seem a bit aggressive, at least not without a veil. Get a sting on your eye and you could lose your vision in that eye. I only have one good eye, so I'm particularly nervous about that one.

Not sure about the concrete stuff in there. Could it actually be concrete? I know that some people use that to seal up bee trees as it is cheap and quick. I wouldn't think there would be much sun inside of a bee tree. Propolis is made up from sticky stuff in the area and is usually a yellowish brown or dark brown, but maybe you have some kind of crazy gray making sticky stuff tree in TX that we don't get up here. 

Since you are in TX you may have to worry about Africanized bees. If you re-queen you won't have to worry about that after 6 to 8 weeks. I'm thinking they are not africanized as you were able to write this post after poking around there hive without protection.


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## Tacobass (Aug 16, 2012)

Thank you guys for the info and your willingness to take the time to help a noob.


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