I had no idea that you guys had been discussing Swarm Traps until yesterday when someone kindly tipped me off.
I don't know if it's relevant to you, but on another forum I had posted:
I went on to suggest that if repeated A/S's were proving unsatisfactory, that the beek concerned might want to consider allowing the bees to swarm, but into a swarm arrester/ re-hiver. But as there's precious little info on such devices around, I put together a new thread with some examples, including one of my own efforts (very much a work-in-progress !).It seems to me that the underlying premise behind Artificial Swarming is flawed, for the bees clearly do not experience some vital component of the natural swarming process.
In an A/S the older foragers will continue to 'return from whence they came', but following a genuine swarm they will not return. Now that's quite a difference.
I have no idea what it is that causes the bees to have their 'hive auto-locator' re-set, but it might be something quite simple, such as stocking-up with honey before 'the off' - for that is another difference between Artificial and Genuine Swarming.
If it's of any interest, the thread is over at:
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/sho...d.php?p=341508
Hope giving that link is ok, it'll save me uploading stuff here which is already 'out there'.
Hope it'll be of some interest.
LJ
It will undoubtedly be of interest to many members here. I have considerable interest myself and look forward to perusing in detail what you have written. It was the Brice swarm trap that was the source of interest here - have you seen one?
Very good article Little_John interesting theory as well
There's a lot of thought and woodwork skill gone into your design
Thanks for the link
I have now had the pleasure of reading your post to which you linked. Heuvel, it is likely he identified an essential component of any swarm arresting device when he decided to separate incoming and outgoing "traffic" and devised a means of so doing.
Is there a reason why the QX in your Mk1 is fixed with the bars vertical and not horizontal ?
In what way do you think your design is an improvement on Heuvels ?
In my own very modest and altogether insignificant experiments I used two nuc. boxes ( one above the other) instead of a brood box. It worked and with donations of brood, the nucs built up very well.
Going to have another look your design now, the pollen traps are confusing me, incidentally what is the floor to roof measurement?
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