# Highest trap out done?



## Jayhawkpoke (Jun 19, 2012)

What is everybody height limit on doing trap outs? I have a a call from a lady that has bees in a tree, they are about 16-17 feet high and the tree is on a hill and the limb is at an angle that is hard to get too with a ladder. They want the bees gone because they have a pool right by. I asked them if i could cut the limb and they said no they would prefer not to do that. I will try and post some pictures.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Just offer them a variety of prices for the trapout. Make sure removing the limb is the most attractive price!


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## Jayhawkpoke (Jun 19, 2012)

Meaning the highest in a tree or what is everybody's height limit for doing trap outs in trees?


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## Patrick Cassidy (Apr 8, 2013)

I'm looking at one that is 30' up.


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## Birdman (May 8, 2009)

The bad thing about a trap out you don't get the queen, you just get foragers. What is going to happen when you remove your trap? The brood will hatch out the queen still laying, all you have done was slow them down.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

> The bad thing about a trap out you don't get the queen, you just get foragers.

Not necessarily true. Have you read Cleo Hogan's trapout guide? By adding a frame of brood to the trap, you can reasonably expect to get virtually all the bees, including the queen.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?265612-trap-out

You can send your email address to Cleo Hogan (see the above thread) for a copy of his trapout guide.


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## Jayhawkpoke (Jun 19, 2012)

How do you get 30 feet in the tree? Bucket truck?


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## Patrick Cassidy (Apr 8, 2013)

Jayhawkpoke said:


> How do you get 30 feet in the tree? Bucket truck?


Boot spikes.


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

Birdman said:


> The bad thing about a trap out you don't get the queen, you just get foragers.


Birdman, I must very respectfully disagree. This is just not true. If you use the trapout system that makes your trap an integral part of the feral colony, you will immediately get guard bees and cleaners. When you add the unsealed brood, you immediately get nurse bees, housekeepers, fanners, cleaners, drones, and you have an excellent chance of getting the queen. 

An average colony in a tree will give you three to eight pounds of bees in your trap in the first 24 hours of placing the unsealed brood in the trap. The bees you get are the right mix, i.e. (nurse bees, housekeepers, cleaners, guard bees, foragers, etc) to start a new colony. You have an excellent chance to get the queen as she comes into the trap to investigate the unsealed brood, expecting to find another queen that layed those eggs.

If you want to eliminate the colony you continue removing bees until you weaken the feral colony to the point that it cannot sustain itself and the feral colony dies. During a good honey flow the feral colony may make themselves a new queen if you catch the original queen, but, it takes approximately 40 days for any worker bees to emerge from a queen that the feral colony made. ( 1 or 2 days to realize they are queenless, 1-2 days to construct multiple queen cells from viable eggs, 16 days for the new queen to emerge, 1-3 days for the new queen to mate, 21 days for the first emergence of worker bees. Approximately 40- 45 days. During this period you are removing the bees and the colony will be so weakened that it cannot sustain itself. 

Additionally, if you wish to eliminate the colony and install a conical bee escape, or a screen funnel, any bees that leave the feral colony and enter the trap cannot go back to the feral colony. Over a period of just a few days all the bees will come out for cleansing flight, rest, etc. As they cannot get back to the feral colony, the population dwindles and the colony dies. During a good honey flow it may take 4 to 6 weeks. Later in the year it may be completed in a little as 3 to 4 weeks.

cchoganjr


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## Birdman (May 8, 2009)

Thanks Cleo, I'll have to try that.


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