Beekeeping - How to Make a Battery Operated Bee Vac the Easy Way

[@anthfoxx6298]

Hi Rich, enjoying your KZbin videos from Melbourne, Australia where it is currently our winter. With my bee vac I used a honey gate at the bottom which can be closed off to keep in the bees after vacuuming. The other thing that I copied from Trev's bees, a New Zealand beekeeper was to add rolled chicken wire inside the drum for the bees to cling to. Both adaptions work extremely well and of course this system can also be used with a normal electric vacuum cleaner, regards Anton

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

Hi Anton, Yes my electric shopvac can also be used instead of the battery operated unit if I have access to electric. I like your idea about the chicken wire, but since I want to dump the bees out of the vac into a box, I’m not sure it’s something I would want to adapt. But others might. Beekeeping has room for a lot of ideas.

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

Oh, I also enjoy watching Trev’s bees videos and got a lot of good information from them. He was one of the inspirations for my hurricane hive.

[@swordfishkind2704]

Look good . Want to see how it works, in real time with swarms . Greetings from Belgium 🇧🇪

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

Belgium! We tried to use it during the meter box swarm removal (to be released soon) but I forgot to put in a new battery. Oh well! However, we plan to use again the next time we have a removal that we can film.

[@Aengus1385]

I’ve been watching your bee vac videos. Lots of useful information! Can you tell me where to find the foam you use? Or provide a link to purchase it?

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

The sheets of foam that I use for these purposes came out of an archery target! It’s called polyethylene closed cell foam. You can use EVA foam, which is a little softer. As I mentioned in the video you can put two holes in, run a piece of wire, and drape a piece of cloth over that. Anything to buffer the landing. Push come to shove, cut up an old yoga mat and that will also work.

[@hlyautey]

A good simple design. Obviously the longer the hose the more frictional losses and less cfm overall.

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

Thank you for understanding that, some folks don’t.

[@hlyautey]

@@southflbeekeepingwithrich What would be interesting is to make your inlet hose come into the bucket at a tangent so the bees would not impact the back of the bucket but spin around the inside of the bucket like a lot of the bagless vacuum cleaners do now .

[@garyRt23Bees]

You need to switch your hoses and put screen in bottom of bucket. That way the bees come in and go straight down not bang against something. Not only this but having the vac hose coming out of the top gives you more hose length to work with.

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

Seems like the bees would continue accelerating after they left the hose if I did it that way.

[@garyRt23Bees]

They fly!@@southflbeekeepingwithrich

[@Fredengle]

Hi Rich my project is a little different from yours I was hoping you could please answer a few questions for me please the manf of the bucket head will claim its only for a 5 gallon bucket but I am working on home improvment projects I wanted to ask you do you have evidence that a 6 or 7 gallon bucket will still work with a bucket head vac any ideas are appreicated please thank you I want to see if I can use it as a large capacity shop vac if you have any thoughts it would be greatly appreciated please thank you

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

I use a 7 gallon pool tablet bucket for mine. But that doesn't tell you anything. The pool tablet bucket uses a screw on lid. The bucket head uses a snap on lid. The rims of both buckets are the same diameter (I just checked ) but I don't know if there is enough clearance to the first thread to allow for the bucket head to snap on. You may have to trim off a bit of thread to make it work. I don't use a bucket head so I don't know. The pool tablet buckets are the only 7 gallon bucket I am familiar with. If you have some other 7 gallon bucket you will have to check it. You can also cut the bottom out of a 5 gallon bucket and nest it into another 5 gallon bucket and expand the bucket volume. Thinking outside the box.

[@Amethyst1919]

Not getting the reduction in suction based on volume... basic air pressure says that air out should equal air in... confused...

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

This is based on the diameter of the hose, you want a larger hose for a bee vac to have less suction than you would to suck up dirt. Or you want a smaller vacuum with a smaller air chamber in relation to the size of your bucket. If I use my large shop vac with a more powerful motor attached to that bucket, I would have to spill a whole lot more air out somewhere to keep from killing bees.

[@inspyma]

You know, I have fussed with strong bee vacuums, but it is only now that I realize I could just get a less powerful shop vac lol

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

Thanks Amanda, my wife thought it was very boring when I explained the relationship of the different volumes between the vacuum and the box, but I thought it was really important. Thanks for being on my side!

[@1Ggirl1959]

No real industrial construction workers used Milwaukee!!!

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

Well, I use Ryobi which is as far from industrial construction as you can get, But it works.

[@betohuanca1828]

9

[@southflbeekeepingwithrich]

9 out of 10? I’ll take it!