Does anyone have experience with Brushy Mountain’s yellow
plastic pollen trap? I got one this spring and so far it’s been more trouble than it’s
worth.
It mounts in the front entrance, and the trap door is held
open by one small pin – which doesn’t do the job so I have to prop it open with
a stick when not trapping. When it’s closed, it’s agonizing to watch a
pollen-laden bee struggle for about a minute to get through; once she does, one
or both pollen balls are hanging on the entrance, then eventually fall down and
through a plastic screen across the front and into the basket. The problem is,
I think the screen holes are wide enough for bees to squeeze through, as I have
yet to pull out the trap without there being at least a dozen bees in there. I
have not actually seen one go through, but I’ve seen them with their heads
through trying to get out.
So my process is to dump the tray out into a colander to
sift the pollen from the bees, then again into a sieve to sift out the tiny
black ants.
The first hot day I trapped, there were several hundred bees
in the basket, so I thought maybe the plastic was softening along the front and
creating a gap. I now tape it in place just in case. But the other day I
trapped when the temps reached about 95F, and when I came home the bees were
bearded on all sides of the trap. They were not happy as I removed the tape and
pulled out the basket, which was chock full of bees, a couple hundred of which
were dead. Then, I couldn’t push the trap door back open without crushing some
more bees. We did not part on good terms.
The thing is, everything seems to fit tightly together, so I
don’t know where they’re getting in other than through the screen. I’m not a
small-cell beekeeper, either, but I must be doing something wrong, because
Brushy Mtn says nobody else has reported these problems.
Eugene Makovec
Missouri USA
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