# swarm commander in trap out



## SHAWHANBEEK (Feb 7, 2016)

I was curious if anyone has used swarm commander in trap out to draw the queen to the box. 

I have a friend with a hive in a big hollow catalpa tree. There looks to be three entrances. One in the side and two over hollow limbs. All 12' to 14' up.

I think it will be hard to block the entrances over the limbs. If I could draw the queen out that would force the rest to vacate I assume. I don't plan on attempting for atleast a month from now..


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

Swarm commander will not draw out the queen.
By sealing off the entrances and luring the nurse bees out to the trap you can hopefully get her majesty to come to the trap box, But even that is not 100%. I had one that took all spring and summer last year! Finally got her in October.


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## SHAWHANBEEK (Feb 7, 2016)

Wow. That's some patience. 
Were you having to move the trapped bees periodically.


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

A frame containing some unsealed brood is your best bet to draw the queen out. She will come out to investigate where those eggs came from. Quite often will lay a few eggs in open/cleaned cells before returning to the brood nest.

Screen wire and black plastic can seal off almost any opening. Use the one that is the easiest to work with. Seal all others off.

cchoganjr


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

I have read a few reports where junk caged queens stuck in a trapout box has a good success rate for pulling the queen out , but I have not tried it personally. I have often wondered if a sudo queen strip would do the same? Also read good results with a forced abscond where you basically find the very top of the cavity and drill a hole, Put your trapout cone here. drill a hole at the very bottom of the cavity to introduce heavy smoke and then followed up by bee quick. Plug all other entrances. Soaking a rag in bee quick and stuffing it in the dome of your smoker seems to be the best bet The forced abscond may not work if the colony goes in several directions like this one sounds or in a building where they can get away from it without exiting the cone.


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

SHAWHANBEEK said:


> Wow. That's some patience.
> Were you having to move the trapped bees periodically.


The entire trap out was an ordeal It was in a Pennsylvania department of transportation (PENNDOT) salt storage building the false wall to protect the building from damage while loading trucks ran 70 feet. and was accessible from one end to the other from the inside by the bees. It took almost a month to seal of every access point as the bees kept finding new ones. Then I placed a frame of brood in the trap once a week to hold the bees there, Mind you I had a one way gate on the hive entrance. Each week I would take the bees and comb from the trap, give then a frame of brood and a few empty frames. Nearly every time the brood frame I had supplied had a queen cell on it. So I would place them in nuc and start a new colony. There were a few times I destroyed the queen cell and added the bees to one of the other nucs. I got 16 nucs from that trap out. on October 18t I when to add check and there she was a big cordovan queen. Ordinarily I would have just left them alone come August, but the PENNDOT supervisor had informed me long before that if I did not get them out he was going to have them exterminated, so every bunch I got was to my advantage even if it was a handful used to bolster another nuc. 
As a side note. She made it through the winter thus far!
That was the second year I got a hive from that location first was an exposed hive cutout.
SO:
This year I am placing two baited swarm boxes there!


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## SHAWHANBEEK (Feb 7, 2016)

Tenbears said:


> The entire trap out was an ordeal It was in a Pennsylvania department of transportation (PENNDOT) salt storage building the false wall to protect the building from damage while loading trucks ran 70 feet. and was accessible from one end to the other from the inside by the bees. It took almost a month to seal of every access point as the bees kept finding new ones. Then I placed a frame of brood in the trap once a week to hold the bees there, Mind you I had a one way gate on the hive entrance. Each week I would take the bees and comb from the trap, give then a frame of brood and a few empty frames. Nearly every time the brood frame I had supplied had a queen cell on it. So I would place them in nuc and start a new colony. There were a few times I destroyed the queen cell and added the bees to one of the other nucs. I got 16 nucs from that trap out. on October 18t I when to add check and there she was a big cordovan queen. Ordinarily I would have just left them alone come August, but the PENNDOT supervisor had informed me long before that if I did not get them out he was going to have them exterminated, so every bunch I got was to my advantage even if it was a handful used to bolster another nuc.
> As a side note. She made it through the winter thus far!
> That was the second year I got a hive from that location first was an exposed hive cutout.
> SO:
> This year I am placing two baited swarm boxes there!


Dag! That was a bee factory.

I think its going to be a good swarm season. It's been mild here in Ohio. My few hives are still full of honey
and bees seem strong.


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