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Boring bee trap


How To Make A Carpenter Bee Trap

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Bees are wonderful insects that help create healthy, abundant gardens. What’s not so wonderful is when carpenter bees decide to take up residence in your deck, house, or fence. Carpenter bees are known for burrowing into soft, weathered woods like pine or cedar. Removing them as soon as their telltale half-inch holes are spotted is important to prevent a major infestation that can destroy the integrity of your wood. You can always choose to get some professional assistance removing them if bees make you nervous; otherwise, keep reading to learn how to make a carpenter bee trap to remove them yourself.


Time required: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Beginner
Estimated cost: $5 to $15

Tools & Materials

Before You Begin…

Photo: istockphoto. com

“You may consider these insects intimidating because of their huge size and loud buzz, but they’re actually very gentle and important pollinators in our environment,” according to Rachael Freeman Long from the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Building a carpenter bee trap can be a fun DIY project if you already own the equipment and are familiar with using power tools. As with any project, there is a risk of accidents, so safety precautions should always be taken to avoid injury.

Tips for How to Make a Carpenter Bee Trap

Safety Considerations

Photo: depositphotos.com

STEP 1: Cut your piece of lumber.

Once you’ve selected your 4×4 piece of untreated pine or cedar, cut it down to a manageable size. Measure from one end of the block to the desired length between 5 and 8 inches. Make a cut mark, then use a circular saw or handsaw to cut the block. Any additional wood can be used to make extra traps.

STEP 2: Use a drill to create a base hole.

Next, create the first tunnel for the carpenter bees. On one of the cut ends of the wood, measure and mark the midpoint. Using a power drill with a ½-inch drill bit, drill all the way through. A visible hole should run all the way through the length of the wood.

Photo: depositphotos.com

STEP 3: Drill three side holes at 45-degree angles.

Once the center hole has been made, connecting side holes are needed to add multiple entry points for the carpenter bees. Choose three long sides of the block to drill holes. Using the same ½-inch drill bit, drill three separate holes at 45-degree angles that drive up toward the center hole and end there. This creates a connected tunnel system. Be sure to drill these side holes going at an upward angle so that sunlight cannot shine down into the trap.

STEP 4: Create the “roof” of the trap.

The 6-inch-wide plank of wood will become the roof of the carpenter bee trap. Measure and cut the length you need, ensuring that it’s long enough for 1 inch of overhang on each side. Position the roof on top of the block of wood, making sure the side holes are still angled upward, then nail it in place with a hammer.

Photo: depositphotos.com

STEP 5: Take a mason jar lid and make a hole at the center of it.

Remove the lid of the mason jar and set it on a piece of scrap wood or right over the hole on the bottom of your block. Mark the center of the lid. With the ½-inch drill bit, drill a hole in the center of the lid. This lid will act as the transition point for the bees to travel from the block to the mason jar.

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STEP 6: Attach the jar to the base.

Attach the mason jar lid to the base of the tunneled-out block by nailing it in place with a hammer. Ensure that the hole in the jar and the central hole of the block line up. Make sure that the lid is flush to the block to prevent any bees from slipping out. Once the lid is secure, screw the mason jar onto the lid. If you are adding honey or sugar water, do this before you screw on the jar.

STEP 7: Hang the trap.

Screw an eye hook into the roof of the bee trap. Measure to find the middle spot so the trap will hang straight. You may want to use a small drill bit to bore a pilot hole if you have a large hook. Once the eye hook is securely fastened into the roof, thread a small chain, wire, or cable through it and secure it to the roof or a post that’s closest to the infestation. The side without a hole should be against the house or post that you hang the trap from. This helps to stabilize the trap.

Photo: depositphotos.com

How Do Carpenter Bee Traps Work?

Carpenter bees prefer to burrow into soft woods where they can chew tunnels for the female bees to lay their eggs. If an existing hole is available, they often start there and dig deeper to suit their needs. The advantage of a carpenter bee trap is that it includes premade tunnel systems for them to naturally want to explore and utilize. Using a softer, untreated wood that carpenter bees would normally choose helps encourage them to investigate the trap.

Once the bees enter the side holes, they climb up and find the main channel as they explore the best place to lay their eggs. The clear mason jar at the bottom shines light up into the main hole of the block. Since the side holes are drilled at an upward angle, sunlight cannot shine down into them. Bees will think that the brighter light coming from the mason jar is their exit and make their way down toward the jar and end up trapped rather than outside as they expected.

If you’re a DIY enthusiast, these steps for how to make a carpenter bee trap will help you remove burrowing carpenter bees from your property. Carpenter bees are the likely culprit of the grinding sound near any untreated or unpainted wood surfaces. However, if you’re unsure of what pest is present, or you don’t feel comfortable handling a potential bee problem in your yard, a local beekeeper or pest management professional can always come to take a look. A professional can help to safely relocate these helpful creatures to another location.

Pest problems?

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How to Make Carpenter Bee Traps [DIY Wood Bee Trap]

If you are a hands-on kind of person, building a carpenter bee trap might be the perfect project for you! In a few steps, you can create your own DIY version of a carpenter bee trap. We have provided step-by-step carpenter bee trap plans that you can follow along with.

But first, here is a helpful video: 

Make Your Own Wood Bee Trap 

First, you’ll want to gather all your materials. For this homemade carpenter bee catcher you will need:

DIY Carpenter Bee Trap Directions:

  1. Cut the post to the desired height. Anywhere between 5” – 8” will work.
  2. Drill a ½” hole through the center of the post length wise. 
  3. On three sides of the post, measure out a ½” hole that is 3” from the top and centered.
  4. Use the ½” drill bit to drill the holes into the post at a 45 degree angle. These holes should connect with the ½” hole drilled through the center of the post. This creates a tunnel system for the carpenter bees. 
  5. Take the soft cedar or pine plank wood and cut it so that it sits on top of the post and overhangs each side by about 1”. Nail it into place.  
  6. Take the lid of the mason jar and remove the flat cover. This will leave you with the metal treads. Nail this lid onto the bottom of the post. Have it centered around the bottom hole drilled through the post. Now you can screw the mason jar right into those threads. 
  7. Almost done! If you want to hang your trap you can screw the eye hook screw into the top of the trap and attach a metal or wire chain. If you want to mount your trap you can place brackets on the roof or the side of the post that doesn’t have a hole. But remember the trap needs to stay completely vertical for best results!

Now you’ve created your own makeshift carpenter bee trap! The whole process can take some time depending upon your skill level and tool quality. While it might not be picture-perfect, it will still catch wood bees!

What Sets Best Bee Brothers Wood Bee Traps Apart?

The main differences between DIY traps and our Best Bee Brothers traps are the receptacle containers. Our Best Bee Trap has a perfectly molded plastic funnel and container that is one piece. This whole piece acts as the bottom of the Best Bee Trap and guides the carpenter bees down into the container without the issue of clogging. Carpenter bees also can’t walk up plastic! So once in the trap, there’s no way out.

Another difference is that there are no aeration holes. This feature is seen on both the Best Bee Trap and the Pinewood Bee Box Trap. The aeration holes keep moisture out of the container and spread the pheromone smell of the dead carpenter bees (which is extremely attractive to other carpenter bees and keeps the trap active). The more potent the smell the more potent the trap. 

If you love to do things yourself, give this DIY project a go! Otherwise, save yourself the time and energy and give our proven professionally-made, high-quality traps a try! Remember they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Looking to try a different DIY carpenter bee trap variation? We also created a Pinewood Box Trap DIY tutorial video. The concept is similar but it can also be easier to make. Make sure to check out that video to see which carpenter bee trap plans you prefer!

Nikolai Nosov - Diary of Kolya Sinitsin Vitya Almazov brought a saw, Grisha Yakushkin an axe, Yura Kuskov a chisel, tongs and a hammer, Pavlik Grachev a planer and a hammer, and I also brought a hammer, so we ended up with three hammers at once.

– What is the beehive made of? Serezha asked. Then we all remembered that we do not have boards.

- That's the trouble! Yura said. - We need to look for boards.

- Where to look for them? we say.

- Well, we'll have to look, maybe someone in the barn will find some.

We all went looking for boards. They climbed all the sheds and attics, they were not found anywhere.

Yura says:

- Let's go to Galya. Maybe she can help us. We went to our senior Pioneer leader Galya and told her about everything. Galya said:

- I'll ask the director of the school. Maybe he will allow you to take those boards that remained after the repair.

She spoke to the director, and he allowed us to take four large boards for the hive. We dragged them into the shed, and then we began to boil. Who sawed, who planed, who hammered nails. And Tolya ordered and shouted at everyone. He imagines that if we work in his barn, he can yell at everyone. I almost got into a fight with him about it. He needed a hammer, he and let's shout:

– Where is the hammer? I just had a hammer in my hands, but now it's gone somewhere!

“Wait,” Yura says, “I just hammered in a nail.

- Where did you put the hammer?

- Yes, I didn’t put it anywhere!

- Look now!

- And you are looking.

They looked for the hammer, but it was nowhere to be found. Then all the guys quit their jobs and started looking for a hammer. Finally found it in my hands.

- Why are you standing here like a scarecrow! - Tolya pounced on me. “Don’t you see that we are looking for a hammer?

- How do I know you're looking for this hammer? It looks like we have three hammers.

- "Three Hammers"! "Three Hammers"! Here, try to find them when you can’t find even one here!

- Well, there's nothing to shout about! I say. - I also have the right to hammer nails. Everyone wants to work.

We haven't had time to make a beehive yet because the day is over and it's dark in the barn.

June 5

Hooray! The hive is ready! Here it is - I purposely drew it here as a keepsake. At the bottom, the hive itself is drawn, and at the top, the roof. A hole is made at the bottom of the front wall of the hive so that the bees can crawl out. This hole is called a letok because the bees fly out of the hive through it. On top there is another small notch, so that if some bee wants to get out from above, so that she can get out. A board is nailed near the lower notch. It's called the landing board. The bees sit on it when they arrive. The roof is made separately so that it can be removed from the hive when you need to get the frames. In addition to the hive, we made twelve frames.

Yura went to Nina Sergeevna to ask about the bees, but Nina Sergeevna didn't find out anything yet, because she was very busy. What if Nina Sergeevna never finds out where to get bees, what to do then?

June 6

Today I asked everyone if anyone knew where to get bees, but no one knows. I was bored all morning. Then I returned home, and Uncle Alyosha came to us.

- Why are you so boring? Uncle Alyosha asks. I say:

- I'm boring because I don't know where to get bees.

– Why do you need bees? I said that our link had decided to set up an apiary, but we didn't know where to get the bees. Uncle Alyosha said:

- When I lived in the village, I had a beekeeper who used to catch bees in the forest with a trap.

– What trap?

- Make a box with a hole out of plywood, like a birdhouse, put some honey in it and hang it on a tree in the forest. Bees are attracted to the smell of honey. If a swarm flies out from somewhere, it can settle in such a box, and the beekeeper will take the box, take it to his apiary and put the bees in the hive. Here, make such a trap, and when you go with your mother to the dacha, hang it in the forest, maybe a swarm will fall into the trap.

I started asking my mother when we were going to the country house.

- Not soon, - says my mother, - I will have a vacation at the end of July, or maybe in August.

Then I went straight to Serezha and told him about the trap.

Serezha says:

- Let's make a trap and catch bees in our country house. We have a good forest and a river there.

– Where is your dacha?

- In Shishigin, five kilometers from here.

– Will they let us live there?

- Let me. The whole house is empty. One aunt Polya lives.

I immediately returned home and began to ask my mother to see Serezha at the dacha.

- What are you, what are you! Mom says. – How will you go there? You will also get under the train.

- Yes, there is no need to go there by train. It is not far. We'll get there on foot. Only five kilometers.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Mom says. How will you live there alone? One pampering!

“And there is no pampering,” I say. - And we will not live alone: ​​Aunt Polya is there.

- Well, Aunt Polya! Mom says. “Will you obey Aunt Polya?”

- Of course we will.

- No, no! Mom says. “I’ll have a vacation, we’ll go together, otherwise you will drown in the river there, and get lost in the forest, and I still don’t know what will happen. ”

I said that we won't swim at all, we won't even come close to the river, and we won't go to the forest, but my mother didn't even want to hear anything about it. Until the evening I begged and whimpered. Mom threatened to complain about me to dad. Then I stopped asking, but I didn’t want to eat anything at dinner. So I go to bed hungry. Well, let!

June 7

I woke up early in the morning and again began to pull yesterday's rigmarole. Mom told me not to bother her, and I kept annoying and annoying until she left for work. Then I went to Seryozha, and he said that he had already agreed with Pavlik and that tomorrow the two of them would go to the dacha if I could not take time off. I became envious that Seryozha and Pavlik would go without me. The whole day I sat bored, and as soon as my mother returned, I began to ask with a vengeance. Mom got angry and again said that she would complain to dad, but I didn’t let up, because now I didn’t care anymore. Finally dad came and mom complained to him. Dad said

- What's wrong with that? Let it go. The guy is already big. It is useful for him to learn to live independently.

Then mom said that dad always prevents her from raising a child properly (that’s me), and dad said that mom herself didn’t educate me correctly, and they almost quarreled because of this, and then reconciled, and then mother went to Serezha's mother, and they immediately agreed on everything. Serezha's mother said that we would not disturb anyone at the dacha, that Aunt Polya would look after us and cook dinner for us. We just need to take food with us. Mom calmed down and said that she would let me go for three days, and if I behaved well, she would let me go again. I said I'll be good.

All the guys were very happy when they found out that we were going to catch bees at the dacha. Yura gave us his compass so that we would not get lost in the forest; Tolya gave me a penknife; Fedya brought us a camping cauldron in case we ourselves want to cook dinner on a fire. Then we took out plywood and began to make a trap for bees.

The trap turned out well. We made a hole in the front and a door to close it when the bees are caught. And the roof was made, as in a beehive, separately, so that the trap could be opened and the bees could be taken out.

By evening, my mother bought various products - cereals, flour, butter, sugar, rolls, canned food - and put them all in a backpack, so my backpack turned out to be heavy. Serezha also got a big backpack. But Pavlik has the biggest backpack. He put a bowler hat and a flask in it, and I still don’t know what he stuffed into it. In a word, we are all set. Now evening would come as soon as possible, and tomorrow we will wake up - and immediately go on a hike to Shishigino.

June 8

Hooray! We are already in Shishigin. I thought about what kind of dacha it was, but it turned out to be just a wooden house, and there were trees around, not even a fence, only poles were dug. It must have not been done. The house is locked up and no one is in it. Aunt Polya has gone somewhere. We waited for her, waited, and then decided, so as not to waste time in vain, go into the forest and hang a trap. We went into the forest, put honey in a trap and hung it on a tree. Then we went to the river to swim. The water in the river was cold. We swam and swam until we were blue from the cold. Then we wanted to eat.

We got out of the water, lit a fire on the shore and began to cook dinner from canned food. After dinner we returned to the dacha, but Aunt Polya had not yet arrived. Pavlik said:

- What if we find a hollow with bees in the forest? We would immediately catch a whole bee colony.

- How to find a hollow? I say.

"Let's keep an eye on some bee," suggested Pavlik. - The bee will pick up honey and fly into its hollow, and we will run after it and find out where the bee colony lives.

We noticed a bee on a flower and began to follow it. The bee flew from flower to flower, and we crawled after it on all fours and did not let it out of our sight.

Nosov Nikolai Nikolaevich. Diary of Kolya Sinitsyn

Today I have a very happy day: school ended and I moved to the next class with only fives.
Vacation starts tomorrow. I decided to keep a diary during the holidays. Mom said she'd give me a pen forever if I kept my diary carefully. I bought a thick general notebook with a blue cover and decided to carefully write down various interesting cases in this notebook.
As soon as something interesting happens, I'll write it down right away.
In addition, I will write down my thoughts. I will think about different things and as soon as a good idea comes to mind, I will write it down too.
Nothing interesting happened today. There were no thoughts yet.

Nothing interesting happened today either.
There were no thoughts either. This is probably because I spent all my free time playing in the yard with the guys and I had no time to think.
Well, nothing. I'll wait until tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow there will be something interesting.

Nothing interesting happened again today. For some reason, there were no thoughts either. I don't really know what to write about! Maybe I just think of something and write? But it's not good to write fiction in a diary. Once a diary, it means that everything must be true.

Today we had a link collection. Our team leader Yura Kuskov said:
- Guys, summer has already begun, and we were released for the holidays. Some of you may think that in the summer there is nothing to do, just walk, but this is not correct. Pioneers do not stop their work even for the summer, so that time is not wasted. Let's come up with some interesting work for the summer and we will do everything with the whole link.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                . At first, no one could think of anything, then Vitya Almazov said:
- Guys, we have an experimental garden at the school. Maybe we should work in the garden? Yura says:
- We are late: the second link has already captured this work. They have already planted cucumbers and tomatoes and pumpkins.
"Then let's plant trees in the school garden," suggested Zhenya Shemyakin.
- I caught myself! Yura says. Trees should be planted in early spring. And besides, all the trees have already been planted. There is nowhere else to plant.
"Let's collect postage stamps as a whole," said Fedya Ovsyannikov. - I love collecting stamps.
"Everyone can collect stamps individually, but for a squad this is not a job," Yura replied.
- And then there is another job: to collect candy papers, - said Grisha Yakushkin.
- What else can you think of! - answered Pavlik Grachev. - You still say - to collect matchboxes! What is the use of this? You need to work like this to be useful.
We again began to think hard, but no one else came up with anything sensible. Yura said that we should think carefully at home, and then we would get together and discuss what proposals anyone would have.
At home, I did not immediately begin to think. First I walked in the yard with the guys, then I had lunch, then I walked a little more, then I had dinner and walked a little more. Then he returned home and began to write a diary.
Then my mother said that it was already time for bed, and only then did I remember that I had to think about working for the summer. I decided that it was not necessary to think while sitting. You can think while lying down. Now I'll undress, lie down in bed and start thinking.

Yesterday I went to bed and began to think. But instead of thinking about work, for some reason I began to think about the seas and oceans: about what kind of whales and sharks are found in the seas; why whales are so big, and what would happen if whales lived on land and walked the streets, and where would we live if some whale destroyed our house.
Here I noticed that I was thinking about something else, and immediately forgot what I needed to think about, and for some reason began to think about horses and donkeys: why horses are big and donkeys are small, and that maybe horses are something the same as donkeys, only big ones; why horses and donkeys have four legs, while people only have two, and what would happen if a person had four legs, like a donkey, would he then be a man or then he would already be an ass; why the donkey is small, but its tail is large, and the elephant is large, but its tail is not so big; how many horses or at least donkeys can be made from one elephant, and why an elephant has a trunk, but a person does not, and what would happen if a person had a trunk.
Here again I noticed that again I was thinking not about this, but no matter how much I tried to think about the matter, only one nonsense came into my head. It turns out that I have some kind of stubborn head: when I need to think about one thing, it always thinks about another. I decided that with such a head it was better not to think at all, and quickly fell asleep.

Hooray! Mom gave me an eternal pen! Now I will write with this pen. Only here is the trouble: there is a pen, but there is nothing to write! For a whole hour I thought about what to write about, and came up with nothing.
But it's not my fault that there were no interesting adventures.

This morning I went outside and I saw Grisha Yakushkin coming. I ask him:
- Where are you going?
He says:
- I'm going to school to attend the youth club. I say:
- Take me with you. He says:
- Let's go.
We went together and on the way we met Yura Kuskov. He also went to the classes of the youth group. When all the young naturalists gathered, our teacher Nina Sergeevna, who leads the circle of young naturalists, took us to the garden and began to show how the flowers of plants are arranged. It turns out that there are stamens with pollen in the flower, and now, if this pollen falls from flower to flower, then a fruit is formed from such a pollinated flower, and if pollen does not fall on the flower, then no fruit will come of it. Different insects land on flowers, pollen sticks to them, and they carry it from flower to flower. This means that insects help increase the yield, because if they did not tolerate pollen, then the fruits would not work.
Most of all, bees increase the harvest, as they collect honey on flowers and fly from flower to flower for whole days. Therefore, everywhere you need to arrange apiaries.
After the class of young naturalists, Yura gathered a meeting of the link and began to ask who came up with what. It turned out that none of the guys came up with anything. Yura ordered us to think carefully, and was about to close the collection of the link, but then Grisha Yakushkin said:
- Let's make a hive and breed bees. We all rejoiced. We liked this offer.
- In my opinion, this is a good thing, - said Yura. - Bees are of great benefit - they not only make honey, but also help to increase the yield.
- Guys, - shouted Pavlik Grachev, - we will become famous throughout the school! Let's put a beehive in the garden, and we will have an apiary at the school. All our link will be glorified!
- Wait, - said Yura, - first you need to make a beehive, and then you can think about becoming famous!
- How to make a beehive? – began to ask all. We don't know how it works.
- You should ask Nina Sergeevna. She probably knows,” Yura answered.
We ran to the school, saw Nina Sergeevna and began to ask her about the beehive.
- Why are you interested in the hive? asked Nina Sergeevna.
- We said that we want to breed bees
- Where will you get bees?
- We'll catch it, - said Seryozha.
- How will you catch it?
- By hand. How else?
Nina Sergeevna began to laugh:
- If you start catching bees one at a time, then they will not live with you, because bees live only in large families, and each bee will fly away from your hive back to its family.
- How do they do it if someone wants to have bees? we asked.
- You need to buy a whole bee colony at once, or a swarm, - said Nina Sergeevna.
- Where are they sold?
- Can be issued by mail.
- How - by mail? we were surprised.
- You need to write to some beekeeping farm, and from there they can send bees in a parcel.
- And where is such a beekeeping farm?
"That's what I don't know," said Nina Sergeevna. But I will try to find out and tell you.
Nina Sergeevna told us how the hive works. It turned out that the hive is a very simple thing. It's like a big wooden box or box with a hole in it. If bees are planted in such a box, then the bees will live in it, build honeycombs from wax and bring honey. Only they will mold honeycombs directly to the walls of the box, and it will be difficult to get honey from there. In order to make it easy to get honey, beekeepers came up with the idea of ​​putting wooden frames with foundation, that is, with thin sheets of wax, into the hive. The bees build honeycombs on this foundation, and when honey is needed, the beekeeper takes out frames with finished combs.
We decided to start building the hive from tomorrow. Tolya Pesotsky said that it would be possible to work in his barn.
Yura said that each of us should bring what tools anyone has. Then I went home and started thinking about bees. What an interesting thing! It turns out that bees can be sent by mail. What people can't think of!

In the morning, all of our unit gathered at Tolya Pesotsky's in the barn. Vitya Almazov brought a saw, Grisha Yakushkin an axe, Yura Kuskov a chisel, tongs and a hammer, Pavlik Grachev a planer and a hammer, and I also brought a hammer, so we ended up with three hammers at once.
- And what is the beehive made of? Serezha asked. Then we all remembered that we do not have boards.
- That's the trouble! Yura said. - We need to look for boards.
- Where to look for them? we say.
- Well, we'll have to see if someone has some in the barn.
We all went looking for boards. They climbed all the sheds and attics, they were not found anywhere.
Yura says:
- Let's go to Galya. Maybe she can help us. We went to our senior Pioneer leader Galya and told her about everything. Galya said:
- I'll ask the director of the school. Maybe he will allow you to take those boards that remained after the repair.
She spoke to the director, and he allowed us to take four large boards for the hive. We dragged them into the shed, and then we began to boil. Who sawed, who planed, who hammered nails. And Tolya ordered and shouted at everyone. He imagines that if we work in his barn, he can yell at everyone. I almost got into a fight with him about it. He needed a hammer, he and let's shout:
- Where is the hammer? I just had a hammer in my hands, but now it's gone somewhere!
- Wait, - says Yura, - I just hammered in a nail.
- Where did you put the hammer?
- I didn't put it anywhere!
- Look now!
- And you are looking.
They started looking for the hammer, but it was nowhere to be found. Then all the guys quit their jobs and started looking for a hammer. Finally found it in my hands.
- Why are you standing here like a scarecrow! - Tolya pounced on me. “Don’t you see that we are looking for a hammer?
- How do I know that you are looking for this hammer? It looks like we have three hammers.
- "Three Hammers"! "Three Hammers"! Here, try to find them when you can’t find even one here!
- Well, there's nothing to shout about! I say. - I also have the right to hammer nails. Everyone wants to work.
Today we have not yet had time to make a beehive, because the day is over and it has become dark in the barn.

Hooray! The hive is ready! Here it is - I purposely drew it here as a keepsake. At the bottom, the hive itself is drawn, and at the top, the roof. A hole is made at the bottom of the front wall of the hive so that the bees can crawl out. This hole is called a letok because the bees fly out of the hive through it. On top there is another small notch, so that if some bee wants to get out from above, so that she can get out. A board is nailed near the lower notch. It's called the landing board. The bees sit on it when they arrive. The roof is made separately so that it can be removed from the hive when you need to get the frames. In addition to the hive, we made twelve frames.
Yura went to Nina Sergeevna to ask about the bees, but Nina Sergeevna didn't find out anything yet, because she was very busy. What if Nina Sergeevna never finds out where to get bees, what to do then?

Today I asked everyone if anyone knew where to get bees, but no one knows. I was bored all morning. Then I returned home, and Uncle Alyosha came to us.
- Why are you so boring? Uncle Alyosha asks. I say:
- I'm boring because I don't know where to get bees.
- Why do you need bees? I said that our link had decided to set up an apiary, but we didn't know where to get the bees. Uncle Alyosha said:
- When I lived in the village, I had a beekeeper who used to catch bees in the forest with a trap.
- What trap?
- Make a box with a hole out of plywood, like a birdhouse, put some honey in it and hang it on a tree in the forest. Bees are attracted to the smell of honey. If a swarm flies out from somewhere, it can settle in such a box, and the beekeeper will take the box, take it to his apiary and put the bees in the hive. Here, make such a trap, and when you go with your mother to the dacha, hang it in the forest, maybe a swarm will fall into the trap.
I began to ask my mother when we would go to the dacha.
- Not soon, - says my mother, - I will have a vacation at the end of July, or maybe in August.
Then I went straight to Seryozha and told him about the trap.
Seryozha says:
- Let's make a trap and catch bees in our country house. We have a good forest and a river there.
- And where is your dacha?
- In Shishigin, five kilometers from here.
- Will they let us live there?
- They will. The whole house is empty. One aunt Polya lives.
I immediately returned home and began to ask my mother to see Seryozha at the dacha.
- What are you, what are you! Mom says. – How will you go there? You will also get under the train.
- Yes, there is no need to go there by train. It is not far. We'll get there on foot. Only five kilometers.
"Well, it doesn't matter," Mom says. How will you live there alone? One pampering!
“And there is no pampering,” I say. - And we will not live alone: ​​Aunt Polya is there.
- Well, Aunt Polya! Mom says. “Will you obey Aunt Polya?”
- Of course we will.
- No, no! Mom says. “I’ll have a vacation, we’ll go together, otherwise you will drown in the river there, and get lost in the forest, and I still don’t know what will happen.”
I said that we would not swim at all, we would not even come close to the river, and we would not go into the forest, but mother did not even want to hear anything about it. Until the evening I begged and whimpered. Mom threatened to complain about me to dad. Then I stopped asking, but I didn’t want to eat anything at dinner. So I go to bed hungry. Well, let!

In the morning I woke up early and again began to pull yesterday's rigmarole. Mom told me not to bother her, and I kept annoying and annoying until she left for work. Then I went to Seryozha, and he said that he had already agreed with Pavlik and that tomorrow the two of them would go to the dacha if I could not take time off. I became envious that Seryozha and Pavlik would go without me. The whole day I sat bored, and as soon as my mother returned, I began to ask with a vengeance. Mom got angry and again said that she would complain to dad, but I didn’t let up, because now I didn’t care anymore. Finally dad came and mom complained to him. Dad said
- What's wrong with that? Let it go. The guy is already big. It is useful for him to learn to live independently.
Then mom said that dad always prevents her from raising a child properly (that’s me), and dad said that mom herself didn’t raise me correctly, and they almost quarreled because of this, and then reconciled, and then mom I went to Serezha's mother, and they immediately agreed on everything. Serezha's mother said that we would not disturb anyone at the dacha, that Aunt Polya would look after us and cook dinner for us. We just need to take food with us. Mom calmed down and said that she would let me go for three days, and if I behaved well, she would let me go again. I said I'll be good.
All the guys were very happy when they found out that we were going to catch bees in the country. Yura gave us his compass so that we would not get lost in the forest; Tolya gave me a penknife; Fedya brought us a camping cauldron in case we ourselves want to cook dinner on a fire. Then we took out plywood and began to make a trap for bees.
The trap turned out good. We made a hole in the front and a door to close it when the bees are caught. And the roof was made, as in a beehive, separately, so that the trap could be opened and the bees could be taken out.
By evening, my mother bought various products - cereals, flour, butter, sugar, rolls, canned food - and put it all in a backpack, so my backpack turned out to be heavy. Serezha also got a big backpack. But Pavlik has the biggest backpack. He put a bowler hat and a flask in it, and I still don’t know what he stuffed into it. In a word, we are all set. Now evening would come as soon as possible, and tomorrow we will wake up - and immediately go on a hike to Shishigino.

Hooray! We are already in Shishigin. I thought about what kind of dacha it was, but it turned out to be just a wooden house, and there were trees around, not even a fence, only poles were dug. It must have not been done. The house is locked up and no one is in it. Aunt Polya has gone somewhere. We waited for her, waited, and then decided, so as not to waste time in vain, go into the forest and hang a trap. We went into the forest, put honey in a trap and hung it on a tree. Then we went to the river to swim. The water in the river was cold. We swam and swam until we were blue from the cold. Then we wanted to eat.
We got out of the water, kindled a fire on the shore and began to cook dinner from canned food. After dinner we returned to the dacha, but Aunt Polya had not yet arrived. Pavlik said:
- What if we find a hollow with bees in the forest? We would immediately catch a whole bee colony.
- How to find a hollow? I say.
"Let's keep an eye on some bee," suggested Pavlik. - The bee will pick up honey and fly into its hollow, and we will run after it and find out where the bee colony lives.
We noticed a bee on a flower and began to follow it. The bee flew from flower to flower, and we crawled after it on all fours and did not let it out of our sight.
From crawling, my arms and legs, and my back, and neck ached, but the bee kept working and did not think to fly anywhere. Finally, Seryozha said:
- Probably, the bees will later fly into their hollow. Let's go for another swim, and then we'll watch the bees again.
We again went to the river and began to swim. They swam, swam, and then they saw that the day would soon end. Then we returned to the dacha, and Aunt Poly was still not there.
- Maybe she went somewhere and won't come back today? I say.
- He'll be back, - says Seryozha. Where could she have gone?
- What if he doesn't come back? Let's go home.
"My legs already hurt," says Pavlik. - I'm not going anywhere.
- Where are you going to spend the night?
- You can go to the neighboring dacha and ask to be allowed to spend the night, - said Seryozha,
- Why go to the neighboring dacha? Pavlik says. “We’ll build a hut and spend the night here.
- That's right! - Serezha was delighted. - It's even more interesting in a hut. I have never slept in a hut before.
We immediately set about building a hut. Pavlik ordered us to break green branches, and he himself took four poles, put the tops to each other so that they stood in a pyramid, and began to wrap branches around. When the hut was ready, we dragged dry moss into it, and put backpacks with groceries under our heads. The hut turned out to be cramped, but very comfortable.
We decided not to go anywhere else because we were very tired. Just think how much we walked today: we walked from the city, went to the forest, walked to the river, went back from the river to the dacha, then again to the forest, again to the river, again back to the dacha. Then another hut was built. Some normal, simple person does not walk as much in a month as we do in one day!
Now we are sitting on the porch and relaxing. I am writing a diary with my eternal pen, and Seryozha and Pavlik are admiring the hut. The evening is so quiet, good! There is no wind. Trees do not wave their branches. Only on the aspen the leaves tremble with a slight shiver. They look like silver. The sky is clear. The red sun sets behind the forest. Here the shepherds are already driving the collective farm herd home. The cows are slowly walking along the road. There are a lot of them: about fifty, probably. Black, brown, red, piebald and even some pink, or rather, flesh-colored, but there are also spotted ones. There are all kinds! The sun is already half hidden. Now we will climb into the hut and sleep. It's still light, but it's going to get dark soon. We can’t sit until dark in the open air, if we have our own hut!

Now I will write down what happened last night. Pavlik turned out to be cunning: he was the first to climb into the hut and took a place in the middle, while Serezha and I got places at the edges. As soon as Serezha lay down, he immediately fell asleep, but for some reason I could not fall asleep for a long time. At first I was very comfortable, and I even wondered why people come up with different mattresses and pillows, when you can do without it just fine. Then something started to press on the back of my head. I decided to find out what I was lying on, on cereal or on pasta, and began to feel the backpack under my head. But there was not cereal or pasta at all, but a bowler hat.
“Yeah, so I got Pavlik’s backpack,” I realized and turned the backpack over to the other side. But now a tin can got under my head, and I couldn’t sleep again. Then I began to turn the backpack in different directions to find a bun or something else, softer...
- What are you looking for there? - asks Pavlik.
- - Bulka.
- - Are you really hungry so soon?
- No!
- - Why did you need a bun? , otherwise it is very firm.0135 - Just think, tenderness! Pavlik says.
"Here, try it, sleep on a tin can, so you will know what tenderness," I say.
I never found the rolls, but I came across some kind of package, probably with sugar. I somehow settled down on the sugar and was about to fall asleep, but then my back began to hurt. Apparently, I lay her down. Then I began to roll over on my side.
- It's spinning like it's in a frying pan! Pavlik muttered.
- What about you?
- You keep pushing me!
- Just think, don't push him!
I rolled over on my side, but soon my side started to hurt too. For some time I silently endured and tried my best to fall asleep. Finally, I could not stand it and began to roll over on my stomach.
- Will you finally let me sleep! hissed Pavlik.
"Wait, you'll fall asleep now," I said and... caught my foot on the pole.
The pole collapsed, and the whole hut collapsed right on us.
- Here's to you! Trusted! shouted Pavlik. Seryozha woke up, leaned out from under the branches and looked around in a dazed way.
- What are these jokes? he shouted.
- No jokes! Pavlik says. - It's just that this hippopotamus brought down the hut! Well, get up, or something, we'll fix it.
We crawled out from under the rubble of the hut and at dusk began to restore the destroyed building. The night was approaching quickly, and we barely had time to somehow make a hut. As soon as everything was ready, I climbed into it first and lay down in the middle.
- And why did you climb into my place? Peacock was surprised.
“These places are not numbered,” I say. This is not theater for you.

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