Thanks, Jerry - that's great information.

"The KEY to success and to reducing problems is to put the trap in place at
night after everyone has come back home, but before anyone has left the hive
in the morning.  If you can, leave the screens out or open for a day or two
so that the bees get used to their new entrance - in essence, their hive
just got a lobby.  Then, when you want to collect pollen, insert or close
the screen before the bees leave in the morning to forage."

When I first installed the trap I waited 24 hours (dusk to dusk) before
closing it. Pollen collection was fine, I just had the bees getting into the
tray. Since that time (mid-May), with the exception of the two days I tried
the Sundance, the Brushy Mtn trap has been on the hive constantly.

"After a day or so with screens in place, the foragers will know what to do
if the screen is open or closed, and you won't have to do this a crack of
dawn - unless you've got long intervals (days/weeks) between collections.
In that case you will likely have new foragers who haven't learned about
pollen screens."

Every two weeks I close the door at dusk and leave it closed for one or two
days, depending on how much pollen it's catching. It sounds like maybe I
should trap at least once a week to make sure a good number of foragers
remember the inconvenience. The reason I haven't is it's also an
inconvenience for me given the problems I've had.

"The drone escapes soon become by pass points, so we tape them up."

Oddly enough, I've never noticed bees going out the drone escapes, so I've
never taped them closed.

Eugene

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