# The awesome Beevac



## Curtis

Now that is outside the BOX.

Thanks for posting
Curtis


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## RayMarler

I see you have 2 of them there, you could maybe send the spare to me? I'd put it to good use! Thanks for the post, very nice beevacs!


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## Texas Bee

I like that model Blammer, How do you hook up the hose ? Need a few more pics with the hose set up.

Nice job !!!!


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## danno1800

*great job!*

thanks for the pics!!! -Danno


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## Curtis

I want to know what kind of a blower(vac) that is.
Curtis


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## Keith Benson

blammer said:


> Slam me if you want I don't care.


It would be silly to slam success.

Me, I am not particularly familiar with concrete tubes and such, I can see in the photos that the inner tube is 8 inch, how big is the outer tube? And what kind of vacuum is that.

Pretty neat!

Keith


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## iddee

It looks like it would work well in open areas. I wonder about on ladders, in small attics, or low crawl spaces.

How do you control the vacuum, or is it constant? How long and how big is the pickup hose?

Do you add the bees to the installed brood at the removal site, or when you get home? How do you control the temp. of the bees and the brood, if you combine them at home? When do you go back to retrieve the hive, if you combine them on site?

Will the tubes stay together after a few good washes to get the vacuumed honey and debris off them?

No, I'm not slamming. I am thinking of trying one for the more open spaces, especially where the colony is large enough to stock 2 or more hives, and double especially, "is that correct grammar?" when there are numerous queen cells present.


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## BULLSEYE BILL

If Iddee is thinking about it, then it must be a good idea. I don't think his design could be beat, time will tell. Different tools for different jobs, and I love tools.


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## iddee

I love mine, but it is expensive and a lot of work to make them. I just did a cut out that took all 3 boxes I have. His looks like it may be cheaper and easier to make the "refills" when there are 3 or 4 boxes of bees.They would likely be transportable for many miles in an air conditioned vehicle, but I'm afraid they may overheat in the back of a pickup. That and the other questions I asked would need to be answered in one way or the other before I could pass judgment one way or the other.


PS. I will not be retiring mine any time soon. Tom Sawyer made it originally, and who could argue with a man carrying that name?


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## notaclue

Hey if it sucks 'em up and minumizes or all but eliminates killing the bees, then I don't care what it looks like! I'll like it!


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## Ross

I can't see anything about it that is significantly different that makes it not kill bees. More information is needed.


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## Texas Bee

Blammer where ya at Son?.....


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## Ben Brewcat

As a data point, I made an Iddee-style vac with a slider (dump) tray. If the vacuum control is attended to, the only bees that die are the ones the got soaked in honey during a cutout. I don't have any large losses with either of my vacs, but I won't say a single bee has NEVER perished in them.

The big thing is to have the suction just right. I use the large corrugated vacuum hose with a concentrator nozzle and occasionally have to shake the tube to loosen accumulated bees if there's a low point in the tube.


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## bluegrass

I just upgraded my vacuum motor from a cheap little one out of a dirt devil to a monster out of a 30 year old electrolux that I found on the side of the road..... I highly recommend the upgrade, I was burning through the little ones every few cutouts.


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## BeeCurious

*Softer Landing?*



Ross said:


> I can't see anything about it that is significantly different that makes it not kill bees. More information is needed.


The trip through the vacuum hose must be the same (violent) but the landing may be softer with the larger screened surface. It seems that there would be fewer bees injured by the crush of bees being pulled into the screen.

I'm guessing that a non-corrugated hose is used. Smooth hose would improve air flow and eliminate a lot of impact/injury.


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## Ross

The larger screened area is actually one of the things that kills bees. They seem to do better when they can get out of the flow somewhere. The hose has nothing to do with the beevac not killing bees. Not said well, it has alot to do with not killing bees, but it's not unique to that beevac. You can put a smooth hose on any of them.


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## Curtis

I find that any suction hose over 6ft in length kills lots of bees. I have never had a problem with sucking honey into my vac.


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## blammer

Sorry I've been away! Had a bee removal to do!

To answer a few questions.

Here are the ones that I remember right away.

The hose is 8 feet long. It is SMOOTH in the inside. I have noticed a REAL difference in the "corrigated" or 'bumpy' tubes vs a smooth tube. SMOOTH all the way! 

The "control" for suction is on the top. It's a hole with a piece of wood that you can slide open or closed to control the suction. The more the hole is open the less suction.

The motor is from an Old Bissel dry/wet vac. I also have one from an old electrolux, the motor doesn't really matter.


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## blammer

iddee said:


> It looks like it would work well in open areas. I wonder about on ladders, in small attics, or low crawl spaces.


If you're on a ladder a small stand next to you or someone holding it up works.
Small crawl spaces? I use a longer tube.



iddee said:


> Do you add the bees to the installed brood at the removal site, or when you get home? How do you control the temp. of the bees and the brood, if you combine them at home? When do you go back to retrieve the hive, if you combine them on site?


I cut out the brood, and put in frames and put in hive. At the job site I will dump all the bees into the new "home" with the brood and cutout comb. I usually leave the new hive at the job site for 2 days to give the bees a chance to find the new home. I also put out some honey that was cut out infront of the hive or inside the hive. This gives em someting to do and gets them to go to the right place to store the honey. When all of the old hive is out and the place is scraped down and painted they will smell the new place and go there. On the second night I'll sneak in, strap together the hive and close off the entrance and move it. Just like you would move a hive for pollination.

I don't controll the temp of the bees they do that themselves.



iddee said:


> Will the tubes stay together after a few good washes to get the vacuumed honey and debris off them?


don't need to wash the tubes as the bees will clean it if left out. Give it a good brushing down with a dry brush and it's ready to go.


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## blammer

Ross said:


> I can't see anything about it that is significantly different that makes it not kill bees. More information is needed.




The LENGTH of the inner tube where the bees are trapped is LONGER.

and the air flow area is larger.

When you take a given volume of air flow and you spread it out you have a gentle breeze.
Take that same given volume of air flow and restrict it to a 1" opening and you have suction a lot of it!

the bees are sucked through the tube and when they are OUT of the tube they are immediatley in a light breeze, they don't wt much so their momentum is not that great and they can easily overcome the force of being thrown.

The extra lenght, 24" is enough for the bees to slow down, try to regain some "flight" before landing on the bottom of the vac.

Most bees after inside of the vac will cling to the side of the inner tube where the screen is NOT.

Controlling your suction speed it also important. I use just enough to get them off of what ever they are hanging on to.


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## blammer

Here are some more pics and some better descriptions I hope.

This pic was taken at a job I just completed Sat (yesterday)

The tan painted area was where the hive was. It was pretty big!
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Beekeeping/DSCN7035.jpg

After you pull up this pic click on it and you'll get a bigger one that you can read the writing in the boxes.
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g81/blammer8mm/Beekeeping/beevac.jpg


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## blammer

The sizes of the "sono" tubes or 'concrete' tubes.. hmmm

there is no industry standard, an 8" tube will come in 3 different sizes....

I'd get one that is the biggest probably 12" and then an 8" one. Just make sure when you are there that you have an inch or so around the inner one to the outer one maybe a bit more depending on how far you vac stick into the side of the outer one.


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## Ross

I built a quite large screened box for mine, all screen, foam pad at the end, etc. It killed plenty of bees. In fact, it killed bees until I rebuilt it to use very little screen. You see, the bees are stressed by the airflow. They can't cluster well. Give them large areas with no airflow and they will use it and stay away from the small screened area. I'm not buying that it kills no bees. I have too much experience with beevacs. Sorry, but that's my opinion. It may do better than average, but no bees, unh uh.


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## johnnybigfish

I just bought a bee vac from kellys..Used it this past saturday and not one dead bee. But, I definitely understand why people make their own.
This one cost over 230$ (with freight..without freight, $198.00) and I bet it can be made for less than 50$ if you dont count labor!
Regardless of whats ethical or not, I now have a model to copy from, even if the only difference to avoid copyright infringement is to put in all the screws in the main hinge instead of using only half of them, and to use a smooth hose instead of a crinkly one.
Well, there ya go...

your friend,
john


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## Ben Brewcat

I have a length of that white smooth tubing, but it's heavy and not very flexible. Actually I never used it after the first time, it was such a hassle getting it to point where I needed it.


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## blammer

Ross-there is more than one way to skin a cat. Got any pics to share?


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## Ross

I'll dig some up. I need to change hoses for sure. This was the first generation, and yes, it has a way to control the amount of vacuum. Notice the screened box. I modified it reduce the amount of screened area and it worked a lot better.
http://www.myoldtools.com/Bees/bee-vac.jpg


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## BeeCurious

*Blammer: what kind of a blower(vac) is that?*



Curtis said:


> I want to know what kind of a blower(vac) that is.
> Curtis


 
Blammer: I would also like to know what kind of a blower(vac) your using, and would you recommend the same to others?

Your design is great, and I hope you keep us updated on any alterations you may come up with.


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## bluegrass

I have central vac hosing on mine, 40 ft of it..... it was exspensive but worth every penny and is as smooth as glass on the inside.

I don't worry about a few hundred dead bees though as long as most survive.


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## Ross

I have a spare one of those. I'll check it.


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## BeeCurious

*Ditto*



BeeCurious said:


> Blammer: I would also like to know what kind of a blower(vac) your using, and would you recommend the same to others?
> 
> Your design is great, and I hope you keep us updated on any alterations you may come up with.


Ditto


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## blammer

the vac/blower I got was an old Bissel Green Clean machine. I took it apart and took the motor out of it.

The other motor I have came out of an upright vacuum cleaner, don't know the brand sorry.

Pretty much any old vacuum cleaner motor will work.


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## blammer

Here are some more pics (per request) of the inner tube of the beevac.

This is a pic of the inner tube upsidedown.










here is a pic from the bottom of the inner tube looking up towards the top where the hose connects.









the top of the tube close up, shows the coupling joints I used the top and the suction control.










Here are just pics of the joints I used .


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## Texas Bee

Thanks Blammer, Now I got it....


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## blammer

Here is a link to a video of me using the bee vac on my last job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOh-1iaYgSo


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## JordanM

great video blammer, to bad people have to spray bees like that and kill them. I might make a bee-vac in the future if i ever need one.


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## notaclue

That was neat! I know folks who have them and I'm in the middle of building one, but that was neat! Thanks!


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## wayacoyote

Ross,

What would you say would be the ideal amout of screen-area? 
How much screen-area do you have?

I'm trying to figure out if we're looking at a couple square inches or a square foot or so.


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## Keith Benson

I made one, it worked really well, with only a small handful of dead bees. And that was probably more my rough handling then the vacuum itself. I made mine little different, but it is essentially the same. I used the smallest of the shop vacs to provide the section.

Someday I probably will build one like Iddee's so I can just suck the bugs straight into a hive, but until very recently I lacked the tools to do so. I now have the tools, I just need to work on the skills.


Keith


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## Texas Bee

Hey blammer, I got mine done, tried it out last weekend. It worked just fine
It was a small hive, took about 2 hours, got the Queen. And was home at 
1:00pm. 

Oh I did kill some bees, just about a tablespoon full, when i pulled the bottom cover off. 

Got another one to go do sat. We'll see how this one goes, from the last one.

Thanks for the help.


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## blammer

Outstanding!

Got any pics of the vac and the job to share?


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## Texas Bee

Not on the last one, hard to do when your by yourself.

Next one ..........


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## blammer

Oh how well I know!


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## Texas Bee

Bee vac at work yesterday.




http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk23/mikemcvey/0802081444a1.jpg


Here's the cut out... 25lbs. honey,pollen, and I got 7 frames of brood.



http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk23/mikemcvey/0802081444c1.jpg




http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk23/mikemcvey/08020814441.jpg




http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk23/mikemcvey/08020815201.jpg


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## blammer

Nice!


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## catfishbill

*great machime*

thanks for putting the pics of the vac on blammer,built one last week,did cut out last night in and old barn and it worked great!thanks again.
bill


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## papa bear

thanks blamer. i put one together one day and used it the next. worked good. had more bees than it could hold. will try to get more tubes ready. that's one of the things i like about this. might be able to get the pics 

http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e137/heyrakes/?action=view&current=6f5d2175.pbw


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## Batman

Have a hive I am trying to get out of a pillar right now with a nuc placed on top. However got a call for another hive thats taken up residence in a stucco wall outside a bar. I think I will attempt to make one of these tubular style vacs, tomorrow. I have to agree that with the length of the tube compared to the small vacs has to make a huge difference in casualties.


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## honeybees

Hi all, this is my first time here and also a newbee at this honeybee hobby. First, I would like to give blammer the credit for the idea of using concrete tubes. Not knowing any sizes, went to Lowe's picked up the tubes and went to work. The following is the link with picture of what I came up with 
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af113/mbsl55amg/DSCN3299.jpg
If anyone is interested in details and more pictures let me know will be glad to share.


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## usaairforceeod

*The awesome Beevac construction question.*

This question can be for anyone who has built one of these. I am going to try and put one of these together and I was wondering what size people made their tubes. Did you use the full length of the tubes or did you shorten them? I was thinking about halfing them so it would be more manageable and I could make two "cartridges" out of each 8" tube. 

Also, what seemed to work best to attach the plywood to the tubes? I'm assuming just some caulk. Thanks in advance for the help!


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