Honeybee Shake Box can be used for various tasks in the bee yard and is indispensable if you have a large number of colonies to manage.. Some of the main uses are:
- Shaking excess bees from large colonies to build package bees / nucs
- Catching swarms and using the screened box as a temporary holding cage
- Shaking entire colonies to locate “hard to find” queens
The honeybee shake box prep process is fairly straight forward and depending on your goals you can adapt the steps to meet your needs.
Honeybee Shake Preparation:
Start with a colony that has a large number of bees and is close to running out of room. Locate and place the queen in the bottom box and at the same time move 3 to 4 frames of open brood to the top box. Place a queen excluder on top of the bottom box followed by the top box. Close this box up with the top cover and let it sit overnight.
Honeybee Shake Box Process:
The overnight rest gives the colony time to reorganize and send a mixture of young bees to care for the brood and older bees into the top box. The next day you will “shake” each frame of bees from the top box into the honeybee shake box. Or, you can shake the entire box at once using a bee blower or by carefully shaking the entire box. Proceed with caution if shaking the entire box as it is easy to blow out frames and your back if the box is heavy. Once you have collected the bees you can move them to empty package bee boxes to be moved to another yard.
If you happen to slip up and release / spill some the bees they will drift back to their original colony.
Features:
- Lightweight tubular steel
- All welded and riveted construction
- Made of durable materials to stand up to beekeeper abuse
- Bottom cage compartment has spring loaded top door that opens under pressure of the frame funnel section and closes when removed
- Bottom cage has manual sliding door on the side for pouring the bees out of the cage compartment
- Screened on 5 sides of the cage box
- Optional queen excluder fits into the top frame honeybee shake box funnel
- Optional package bee funnels to streamline the package weighing & building process
** Custom shake box options available. Contact us for details.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you prevent bees from overheating inside the container?
Harvested worker bees generate significant body heat when confined. Keep the container in full shade and provide gentle cross-ventilation immediately after shaking frames. Lightly misting the screened sides with cool water helps lower the internal temperature during transport.
What is the best way to measure bees for individual packages?
Place an empty bee package box on a digital scale and zero out the weight. Use a wide-mouth funnel and the manual sliding door to pour bees smoothly until reaching the desired two or three pounds.
How can harvesting excess bees prevent spring swarming?
Large colonies naturally prepare to swarm when they outgrow their brood boxes. Removing a few pounds of young nurse bees relieves congestion and gives the colony more physical space to expand.
How do you avoid accidentally harvesting the queen during a shake?
Preparing the colony a day in advance guarantees the queen remains safe in the lower brood chamber. Place a queen excluder between the boxes to isolate her while allowing worker bees to move up into the frames you plan to harvest the next morning.
How should the screening be cleaned between different apiaries?
Biosecurity prevents pathogen spread across different geographic locations. Scrub the wire mesh and steel frame using a stiff brush and a mild bleach solution. Rinse the metal thoroughly and allow it to dry completely in direct sunlight before the next use.
