Golf Course – New Hazard in the Rough! (Video in link!)

The City of Allen owns a golf course – and it was reported by a patron that honeybees were in a knothole of a tree on the 14th hole.

The facilities manager was concerned both for the safety of their customers (the public) as well as having a humane and live removal of the honeybees performed.

After evaluating the tree and surrounding area, I offered 3 options

• Trapout
• Forced Abscond
• Cutout (chainsaw the tree)

My recommendation to them – when taking safety of the public into account, was to perform a trapout.  A 1-way exit would be placed over the bees’ entrance, and an alternative box be mounted to the tree for the bees to use until they all are out of the tree.  After 2 days, I added a frame of eggs and larvae for the bees to create a new queen with.  (getting the queen from a trapout is a tricky proposition – and when she finally absconds – it’s sketchy as to whether she will use the box provided)

Here is the timeframe of the trapout activity:

4/12/2017 – Inspection/Evaluation
4/14/2017 – Trapout Begins
4/16/2017 – Frames of eggs and brood added
4/21/2017 – (queen cells *should* be capped)
4/24/2017 – Trapout complete – all bees out of tree (and 5+ queen cells on the frame of eggs/brood) –  Box FULL of bees and nectar.  Tree hole screened over, and nuc box removed at dusk – and taken to one of the Harmony Hollow bee yards
4/28/2017 – (Queen cells *should* be hatching)
5/3-4/2017 – Appx Mating Flights dates

This trapout was VERY fast compared to others.  In many cases, it can take 6-8 weeks for all the bees to exit the hive.

Below is a fairly long video.  It may be a little dry for some folks… but for us bee geeks – it’s as golden as the contents of Marseillaises Wallace’s briefcase in Pulp Fiction.  😉  (Yes – there’s an Easter egg in the video)

Enjoy…

Link to my YouTube Channel for you to “like” and Subscribe to my videos:
Harmony Hollow – YouTube