Laurence Edwards demonstrates the cordless Easy Bee Vac at a beekeeping exhibition. The portable device uses a Makita battery, runs three hours per charge, and costs £295. It collects bees alive with variable-speed suction and a ventilated cap, then releases them unharmed.
I'm at the Beekeeping Show and I have come across probably the coolest product in this entire building, and that is a cordless Easy Bee Vac. In this video, I'm going to show you around it. I'm going to talk to the inventor, the manufacturer, and the UK reseller. They're all one and the same person, Richard. And we're going to have a real deep dive into the product, show you how it works, and tell you why I think it is the coolest product in the entire Beekeeping Show. So now I just, I cut to me filming it. Yeah. So I'll just do like slow-mos, me filming it.
So what would you like me to do?
So as I was walking around the bee show, this one here really caught my eye. Absolutely loved the simple design, designed around a solid plastic bucket. But this isn't any plastic bucket, this is really heavy-duty plastic. And then I didn't even realize at that point, this is a fully cordless bee vac. If you've got bees in the chimney, you've got bees in the cavity of a building, you don't want to be messing around with cables. You want to be able to go there with a fully cordless option. And the EasyB-Vac is that. So if you take all of the gubbins out of the box, you've got a nice little storage place there to keep your hose. We'll get that hose out now, build it back up, and show you all of the components inside. So you can see the hose there just clips on really nice, good airtight seal. Got a 2.5-meter extension on that hose, but it doesn't matter. This is a fully cordless option, so you take the B-Vac around with you. Right, so then when we start building it back up, you can see there you've got this rubber grommeted inner ring sits completely in there like that, and then you've got your mesh down in the middle. So then once you've got your inner ring in, you place your motor back in the top, and this is a fully cordless option. So you can see there, you've got your little controller, you've got your motor over to the side, and then you've got your battery connection piece there. So I'm really happy with this. This is a Makita 6 amp-hour battery. All of my kit's Makita, so that works really well for me. Good that they've chosen a nice reputable brand. Gives you about 3 hours collection time at normal run speed, which is a really good amount of time, I think. You're not going to be doing too many more extractions that last longer than 3 hours, and you can always bring along a spare battery. Even better than that, the owners just said that you get 2 batteries with the unit when you purchase it from easybeevac.co.uk, and a charger as well. It's a gift that keeps on giving.
Inside the bucket, you have an inner ring. There's mesh in here, so when the bees are collected in the bottom, They're retained inside. The motorboard fits into the top, battery pack snaps onto the adapter, and here you've got a variable speed control which will give you the required amount of suction to collect the bees safely. It can be increased if you add extension tubes on to collect bees from height. Easy, easily maintainable, a 6 amp-hour battery which will give you about 3 hours runtime. It comes complete with 2 batteries, so you've got the option to change them over if you're doing a longer cutout job. Simple design, nice and easy to clean. The hose fits in the bottom, all self-contained. Once you've collected the bees and they're in the bottom, maintain the suction speed. The hose comes off and this ventilated travel cap fits on the bottom, which keeps the bees ventilated while you take them back to your apiary.
I just spoke to Richard there about how much this cost, and I have to say I was expecting a much bigger number. £295 at the moment, and that includes both the Makita batteries, 6 amp-hour with the charger, and then you pay the carriage on top of that. Really, really good price. I can't believe how he's managed to keep that so low. And I'm so excited to maybe have a go on one of these later on in the year. I need to find some time first before I go doing cutouts in chimneys. But without a doubt, I think this is the coolest new product that I've seen at the Beekeeping Show, and I'm so glad that Richard's come along, brought his gear, and shown it to everyone at the Beekeeping Show.
Thank you.
