Bee funnel for shaking frames into a Warré box
Left: Warré box with adapter and bee funnel for filling Warré hives from frame hives during artificial swarming.
Right: Funnel & adapter lifted to expose underside. This funnel projects about 60 mm into the box so as to make it difficult for bees to escape during the process of shaking down 11 frames.
This funnel was made from recyled aluminium from another job, but it can be made from a cardboard box with the help of scissors and adhesive tape, and then clad in pieces of plastic bags to make it slippery so that the bees fall down into the hive. Bees can be either brushed -- ideally with quill from a goose or other large bird -- or shaken into the funnel with a sharp downward jerk. Brushing tends to put far more bees in the air and is generally reserved for a frame whose queen cells are to be retained.