# Active swarm capture help request, 40 ft up.



## wwfoste (Jul 19, 2014)

I've got a swarm 40 ft up in an old oak tree. I've managed to get a rope up there with a bow and arrow. I tried shaking the limb to drop them but that didn't work. So I hoisted a nuc box up there with old comb and LGO but they still won't go in. I've tried with and without the top on. Suggestions?


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## Bkwoodsbees (Feb 8, 2014)

Put a frame of empty brood comb on a.long pole or 2 pvc sections and get on a step ladder. You may need another pole with a broom to sweep them to comb. Good luck


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## Eikel (Mar 12, 2014)

> I've got


 I believe the statement is a misnomer, more correctly "There's a " swarm 40 ft .... Personally that's a "swarm too far" and likely not worth the risk and time to do much more; can't catch them all.


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## wwfoste (Jul 19, 2014)

I meant I've got as in my situation is. My last attempt was putting a frame of open brood in the box and pulled it back up there.


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## Eikel (Mar 12, 2014)

Sorry, I was being a SA there. Sometimes you do what you can do and let it go at that, you've made a valiant attempt to capture them.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Vacuum with 40' of pipe. we did one at 25+' yesterday.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

I don't recommend this but, last summer I had a swarm 35+ feet up. I extended an extension ladder vertically (not _leaning _on) against a small building, rammed my tractor bucket against it to keep the butt from kicking out and climbed straight up. I attached a large cardboard box, lined with a sheet to the opposite side of the ladder from my body, and then used my extended pole pruner saw to cut the branch off above the swarm and drop it down into the box. 

I had already rigged the pole pruner with a rope so I could safely just drop it and quickly cover the (slightly alarmed) bees on their branch with the sheet. 

I had not thought out how I was going to detach the box from the other side of the ladder and climb down with it, so that took a few minutes to work out. But once I had it it loose, I just climbed down holding it. I had a destination hive already set up with an empty box above the one with frames to act as a funnel. I opened to the box, moved the sheet away and grabbed the branch that most of them were still on and banged it down on to the frames within the box. They fell in, mostly, and then I set the sheet in front hive Taranov-style to let the rest of them find their own way in. Removed the empty funnel box, stuck a frame of open brood in with them, banged the lid down and collapsed in the grass. It was half an hour before I could get the energy to even sit up, having worked on capturing that swarm for six hours before I undertook the extreme risk of that particular ladder set.

My husband was really, really angry when he heard what I had done to get those bees back.

I just inspected that hive yesterday after the winter and saw that marked queen waddling around, happy as you please, amid her vast brood. I think it was worth it, but only because I got very lucky and escaped the consequences of such foolish risks. 

BTW, it is NOT true that bees in a swarm will not sting. They can, and do, when things aren't going the way they want.

Enj.


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## wwfoste (Jul 19, 2014)

The open brood didn't work. I stepped away for a minute and when I came back they gone. Maybe next time.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

odfrank said:


> Vacuum with 40' of pipe. we did one at 25+' yesterday.


Who is your assistant?


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Charlie B said:


> Who is your assistant?


Norma!


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## Gilli_in_TN (Feb 23, 2016)

Depending on how brave you are, look up how to do a steeple raise with a ladder. Fire depts use them for different reasons. Also contact your local fire dept and see if they'll bring out a ladder truck with a bucket. You never know, unless you ask...


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

I think the club has some hilarious video of one of our avid swarm catchers with boxes on very long poles. My understanding is that with the very tall attempts, it doesn't work capturing swarms, but it makes a lot of great stories. And that alone may justify the attempt.

He is a firefighter ... don't recall him mentioning any fancy ladder tricks.

Watch out for power lines, though.


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## crmauch (Mar 3, 2016)

wwfoste said:


> The open brood didn't work. I stepped away for a minute and when I came back they gone. Maybe next time.


Maybe next time set up a true bait hive and hope that they vote your box the winner?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

This is the kind of situation where queen juice or QMP really pays off. If you set an old used box with some old brood comb at the base of the tree with some lemongrass essential oil and some QMP (or queen juice) you can often lure them down. Without the queen juice the odds drop significantly.


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

enjambres said:


> I don't recommend this but, last summer I had a swarm 35+ feet up. I extended an extension ladder vertically (not _leaning _on) against a small building, rammed my tractor bucket against it to keep the butt from kicking out and climbed straight up. I attached a large cardboard box, lined with a sheet to the opposite side of the ladder from my body, and then used my extended pole pruner saw to cut the branch off above the swarm and drop it down into the box.
> 
> I had already rigged the pole pruner with a rope so I could safely just drop it and quickly cover the (slightly alarmed) bees on their branch with the sheet.
> 
> ...


Were your folks circus people or something? That is crazy. Don't do that again. Listen to your husband.


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## wwfoste (Jul 19, 2014)

crmauch said:


> Maybe next time set up a true bait hive and hope that they vote your box the winner?


I tried that too. Had one set up in a tree house a little ways away. No luck.


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

40 feet is past my limit. having said that I spent years washing windows 60 feet up with a 55 foot pole. stay on the ground or let them go.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

If you can get a frame with some open brood close to it by hoisting it up there, they'll jump to it........... at least they did for me...

Sorry, I see this has already been tried for you and did not work.........


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

ODFrank,

I'm thinking about the physics of a beevac drawing from that sort of height. Never having tried it, I'd be worried that the bees will essentially fall with much less air resistance than they would normally, making them hit harder in the collection box than they would normally.

I'm guessing you have the vacuum partly bypassed. I can't make out just what the collection box looks like on this. Is it behind the ladder?

How is the survival rate with this sort of height?


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## Lburou (May 13, 2012)

Phoebee, when I was involved in a 30 ft swarm removal using a BeeVac, it is more a physical challenge to lift all the PVC for the time it takes to get the bees. But then, you may be young and strong.


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## challenger (May 27, 2009)

LET IT GO!


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## DerTiefster (Oct 27, 2016)

Phoebee said:


> I'm thinking about the physics of a beevac drawing from that sort of height. Never having tried it, I'd be worried that the bees will essentially fall with much less air resistance than they would normally, making them hit harder in the collection box than they would normally.


My take on that is: the air is always in the viscous flow regime and you can treat the air around each bee as if it were a box of air which you were moving around along the hose traveling to the filter box (which I presume is before the air pump!). Sort of like being in one of the pneumatic transfer tubes like you see at bank drive-in lanes. The biggest issue for the bees would be rubbing against the sides of the hose/tube along the way, because they're not _inside_ a cannister. For narrow tubes and long runs, the bees might lose orientation and simply tumble along the tube sides. Abrasion damage, scuffs, torn wings, etc., could result. So hoist a 5 gallon trap bucket up with a short length of hose to the bees and a long hose to the suction pump. Bees stay in the 5 gallon trap and don't go through 50 ft. of hose. Just my take on it, but it ought to work. Of course, the bees might tolerate 50 ft of hose as well as they do getting caught out in a storm. [That might not be well.]


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## Troy (Feb 9, 2006)

DerTiefster said:


> My take on that is: ... The biggest issue for the bees would be rubbing against the sides of the hose/tube along the way, ... the bees might lose orientation and simply tumble along the tube sides. Abrasion damage, scuffs, torn wings, etc., could result.


I have used a bee vac a number of times and in my experience the tumble down the hose is not too much trouble for them, it's the sudden stop at the end. If they are coming down the hose real fast and just bash into the box it is bad news. I set mine up so they tumble into a large screened box. I have The done large removals and only had a dozen of so dead bees.

The main reason I try not to use the vac is that I almost always lose the queen and end up with a queenless swarm that I have to do something else with.


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## baiz (Mar 26, 2015)

I know this an older post, on swarm removals i cant always use a beevac with extensions. If i can i put a 12 foot ladder in the bed of the truck. i use 20ft paint roller extension with a 5 gallon bucket wired to it. Put the bucket under em and give a good shake. as i swing the bucket down to my helper he slows the decent and grabs the bucket and pours em into the catch box. I have had a nearly 100% success rate getting the swarm first shot.


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