Any scouts at your swarm trap?

[JamezF]

Have a look at Beebase you might be surprised at how many there are.

Beebase claims there are 188 apiaries within 10km, but I don't see how to get any more information than that. I know two people about a mile and a half away who have bees, but that seems like quite a long way for a swarm to go.

James

 

[Susan1]

Never had a swarm in a trap. Tried putting a trap on a shed roof and nothing. Never even seen a swarm.

 

[JamezF]

Never had a swarm in a trap. Tried putting a trap on a shed roof and nothing. Never even seen a swarm.

I've made them before and never had any success, but I didn't really understand what I was trying to achieve and gave up in the end. This year I've possibly gone a bit overboard, but following suggestions posted here I've used a brood chamber (or in some cases a double super) with a brood frame of old comb at one end, the rest filled with frames and starter strips about 3cm deep. I put a couple of drops of lemon grass oil on the top bar of the frame with the old comb and sat the lot on a solid floor with walls about 5cm high. In the wall opposite the frame with the old comb is an entrance that I cut with a 38mm diameter hole saw (because I happened to have one that size), though I'd have quite happily gone for anything between about 35mm and 40mm.

Last night I removed the hive that the swarm arrived in yesterday, and replaced it with another which doesn't have any old comb in (because I had no more). It's a double super version whereas my first was a single brood. Today there are bees looking like they're investigating it. It could be that they're foraging bees that have found their way back from the moved hive as the other sites I have are not as much as three miles away so I just have to do the best I can, but their behaviour is kind of vaguely similar to that of the scouts that were showing interest before the first swarm arrived and there are plenty of bees flying back into the moved hive, so perhaps I might get another in the next few days.

If you have everything you need then maybe it's worth another go. I'm half-tempted to leave mine out until my supers come off, but at that stage I might be uniting late swarms rather than trying to get them through the winter by themselves. I've not really through that through fully yet.

James

 

[Sutty]

Never had a swarm in a trap. Tried putting a trap on a shed roof and nothing. Never even seen a swarm.

I suspect you are more likely to get a swarm in your trap than actually see it happen! Very impressive when you do see it!
Equally impressive, but with less to celebrate, is seeing a swarm issue from one of your own hives!

 

[JamezF]

Equally impressive, but with less to celebrate, is seeing a swarm issue from one of your own hives!

Usually I get to see that about the time they start swirling around looking for somewhere to settle whilst they sort out a new home

James

 

[Susan1]

I have left out a brood box and two supers with old comb and lemon grass oil in them. Fingers crossed.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

My 2 swarm traps have suddenly become very busy. One swarm trying to make it's collective mind up or 2 swarms. Who can tell.
If anything like last year (4th June 2021), they arrive tomorrow.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

My 2 swarm traps have suddenly become very busy. One swarm trying to make it's collective mind up or 2 swarms. Who can tell.
If anything like last year (4th June 2021), they arrive tomorrow.

No. Quiet today because yesterday a large swarm arrived 300m away in the garden of a fellow beekeeper. (Strange how that happens.) I was probably seeing scouts from this swarm.
Hived and moved to another apiary.

 

[Sutty]

No. Quiet today because yesterday a large swarm arrived 300m away in the garden of a fellow beekeeper. (Strange how that happens.) I was probably seeing scouts from this swarm.
Hived and moved to another apiary.

You need to make your bait hive more des res!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

No. Quiet today because yesterday a large swarm arrived 300m away in the garden of a fellow beekeeper. (Strange how that happens.) I was probably seeing scouts from this swarm.
Hived and moved to another apiary.

Agree

You need to make your bait hive more des res!!

Paint the inside with propolis.
It’s a tip I picked up from @pargyle
Save every bit of scraped propolis and add to a jar of meths.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Still a bit of interest in one bait hive. Opened it up and there are a couple of hundred bees, . . . cleaning up the old combs, maybe. Perhaps they got left behind when the majority of the swarm got taken away.

Here's a secondary question.
Do scouts defend a prospective site? Seen something like this near both of my bait boxes.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

You need to make your bait hive more des res!!

I think they would have arrived if they hadn't bivouacked in the hedge next to a local swarm collector's garden. He never seems to need to put out bait hives, they just arrive.
. . . . . Ben

 

[Sutty]

Still a bit of interest in one bait hive. Opened it up and there are a couple of hundred bees, . . . cleaning up the old combs, maybe. Perhaps they got left behind when the majority of the swarm got taken away.

Here's a secondary question.
Do scouts defend a prospective site? Seen something like this near both of my bait boxes.

Sounds like some bees that were orientated to the bait hive returning to it after you hived them.
Probably a good idea to remove/relocate a bait hive for a few days after a successful swarm capture to hopefully reduce this. I always get a few returning to a swarm location after collecting one - I suspect they are scouts put out of a job as I watched steady traffic between a bait hive they had been scouting and the bush the swarm had been on recently.

 

[JamezF]

Checked on the bait hives at my new site (set up on Sunday afternoon) on the way back from my swim after lunch. Looks like a swarm may have moved in already, or at worst there are a large number of scouts checking it over. I'll nip back in a couple of days to see what's happening.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Scouts, but not many, outside for a couple of days. Missed them again.
That’s two on the potting shed.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Scouts, but not many, outside for a couple of days. Missed them again.
That’s two on the potting shed.
View attachment 32435

I was out on my requeening rounds late morning and SWMBO called to say that a swarm had just passed through the garden, not one of ours, so goodness knows where they came from

 

[Erichalfbee]

I was out on my requeening rounds late morning and SWMBO called to say that a swarm had just passed through the garden, not one of ours, so goodness knows where they came from

Not me thank heavens !

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not me thank heavens !

well I know where the swarm I collected Monday came from, they poured out of the oak tree and camped up in a clump of rubbish and brambles five yards away!

 

[Erichalfbee]

well I know where the swarm I collected Monday came from, they poured out of the oak tree and camped up in a clump of rubbish and brambles five yards away!

That colony has been going for years hasn’t it?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That colony has been going for years hasn’t it?

no - you're thinking of the Tŷ Uchaf tree colony - they died out last spring after five/six years (at least) this one is on Glynmeirch farm (my stepfather's cousin's holding) only a few fields away, according to Meidwen his wife, they colonised the tree for the first time last year