Building A Bee Vac

[Jamaica Glenn]

I have been looking online at various styles of bee vacs and I was wondering if any members had their own methods or plans they would be willing to share with me so I can build one of my own. 

Thank you all!

[Gerald Przybylski]

I was asked about this a couple of weeks ago. Here is a rehash...

Bee-vacs are good for sucking bees out of a fence, or out dense shrubbery,
off of a tree-trunk, or from a flat surface.
A Bee-Vac is almost essential when doing a cut-out.
Handling bee-free comb is much, much easier and kills fewer bees.

Most of the time, for swarm collection, other techniques work better.

Pool vacuum hose, 1-1/2" hose, works pretty well.
Bees don't jam up in it on the way to the accumulator.
A smaller nozzle on a relatively large hose gets you the good suction needed
to pick up bees hanging onto a surface, and still gives them a pretty safe trip to the accumulator.
Pool hose is available in lengths to 45 feet!
With a long hose, you don't have to drag the bee-vac into the crawl space under the floor to
vacuume the colony out from between the joists.
You don't have to shove the vac up through the access hole in the ceiling to get the
bees between the rafters at the edge of the roof.
(Telescoping hose like Woodstock D4203 always wants to shrink back; that's inconvenient when using the vac)

Build-It-Yourself Bee-Vacs projects are usually based on a modest shop-vac.
Start with a shop-vac with a fan assembly that can be detached and remounted on
custom apparatus. (bucket-head discussed below)
Build a Langstroth-hive-dimension plenum "bottom board"
with a floor sloping upward from the hose-inlet end.
The plenum bottom board, which stacks under a standard Langstroth box,
has only an inlet hole which is sized for the hose used to vacuum up the bees.
The top-plenum/vacuum-chamber sits atop the hive-box.
It has a #8 mesh screen barrier between the hive-box and the fan assembly that's installed into the top.
An air-bleeder hole drilled in the top-plenum has a shutter used to control the suction.
The kind of closures you find on a steamer trunk hold the whole thing together if you don't trust gravity.
Akin to https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71C1dMh7nvL._SL1001_.jpg lock the sections together.

See http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Bee-Vacuum-that-Really-Sucks/
makes good reading. Plenty of ideas there to riff off of.

Here is another version with detailed plans.
http://beesource.com/build-it-yourself/bee-vac/

An OTC product: https://beevac.com/ is somewhat similar.

http://www.beehacker.com/wp/?p=1106 It's based on a "Bucket-Head" shop-vac.
Bees accumulate in a 5-gallon bucket, and on the filter.
It's a cheap, simple, attractive design, but it's much rougher on the bees.
The size of the hose entrance in the head is pretty small.
If bees are sticky, the hose clogs up.
The input connection on the bucket head has an "elbow" or right-angle where the hose plugs in.
When bees exit the hose they immediately "slam into" the inlet port.
For the bees it's like you or I zoom down a water-park slide and bump into a right-angle at the end
instead of a shallow pool. Ouch!
Air velocity also needs to be controlled so bees smash less-hard into the vac.

(In my tiny shop, I adapted a large diameter hose to a port on the side of a 5-gallon bucket.
The entrance is angled so the bees swirl around the bucket wall upon entry. Vacuum is provided
by a bucket-head shop-vac from home depot. Bee mortality is very low.)

There are commercial bee-vacs advertised on the web or in the magazines, and maybe some of the catalogs.
Prices are usually $$hundreds.

As far as usage is concerned...
It's pretty common to run a bee-vac for an hour or more while trying to get all the
bees or while doing a cut-out.
Battery vacuums with sufficient CFM air-flow to make a bee-vac work have
short battery life. So I can't see building a bee-vac around a battery Dysan.
If the vacuum head doesn't consume too much power or have too high of
a "starting surge", you can run it off of a cheapie 2-cycle gas powered one-kilowatt class
generator from Harbor Freight to go virtually cordless.
I've never seen a bee-vac built around a gas-powered yard-vacuum or a
leaf-blower fan. There's a project for someone with a shop, creativity, and some extra time.


jerry

[Phil Stob]

I too am building a bee vacuum.   Spent a lot of time looking at all the different options and configurations out there.  Lots of good ideas, and even more half baked ideas.  They will all work, if you keep all the seals good.  Some just take more time to setup and use.  

I'm following the basic idea of the Colorado Bee Vacuum  The simplest design I have seen. Less moving parts to loose, or assembly when you have bees flying. 

http://coloradobeerescue.com/vacuum/

some of the same principles as other vacuums, but differs in that:

- uses one dedicated box, and only one box.  so its a bit smaller.  But should have enough capacity for most jobs.

- has a false bottom to empty the bees.  Great if you do a cut out.  Set the vacuumed bees on top of the box of frames you just cut out, pull out the floor, and let them walk down onto their old comb.

- the top with the vacuum is simple placed on, and when the vacuum is running, you can lift the whole box from the lid.  No sliding boards, which get fussy, and loose a lot of vacuum pressure.  Foam sealing tape is essential, and easy to put in place, and repair. Pick up truck camper shell sealing foam tape is about $8, for a 20 feet long roll.

- This design kinda infers that you won't be putting frames in the vacuum, only bees, then transferring them soon there after. 

I'm doing mine from a BeeMax box, which is polystyrene foam, so its light and tough, and doesn't warp in the rain.   It already has a hole in the bottom.  I just ripped out the screen that was there and used some plasticore sheet for the floor.  (corrugated plastic used for signs)  If I get fancy, I'll used some corrugated polycarbonate sheet which is stiffer. 

I also opted for some 2.5" Blast Gates for the intake port, and the vent port.  $10 plastic gates made for vacuum.  They work great. Don't really like the silly spare chunk of wood as a gate.

I also opted for the 1.5" hose, which I got at my local hardware store, along with some accessory tubes.  Found a 2.5" to 1.5" rubber adapter at the hardware store that I siliconed onto the hose, so it never gets lost. 

All of the kit and bits fits into the box itself, so it's all ready to go when the call comes.  Just grab and go, or leave in your trunk. 

I haven't fitted the vacuum head on it just yet.   Looking for something cheap.   Admittedly, I have spent $100 on it so far, so in hindsight, buying the Colorado Bee Vac outright is a pretty good deal at $285 or so.  You get all the kit already sorted.  Also admittedly, I have spent a lot of time looking at different designs, and piecing this one together.  So if you don't spend a lot of time in the garage tinkering, or aren't that particularly handy, just buy one.

If we do a gadget night, I'll bring it along. 

Phil in Pfremont. 

[Ron C]

Reviving an old thread to see who has a bee vac.
I may want to borrow one in next few days if one is available.

Also, what is password for the “resource list” on ACBA website that lists which members may have equipment to borrow/lend? I joined but do not recall seeing a welcome email with that info...

Thanks!
Ron

[Scott Kelly]

I have one you are welcome to borrow.

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