Are these scout bees and what will happen next?

[Luka22]

Hi all...

We have set up a small bait hive, just in case a homeless swarm is passing by. Since Monday we now have got between 10-20 bees going in and out, sitting at the entrance or indoors, others coming and flying off again. We had some small cotton in the hive with swarm lure, they pulled this out the first day.

Of course we could read all sort of stories into it, but what are they actually doing? Are these scout bees guarding the new home for the swarm to arrive or are we just dreaming of it? They sometimes just sit around the entrance and don't move at all, other times bees are coming and seem to feed them. I am sure they know what they are doing, but we don't .... anyone got an idea?

 

[Bosveldleeu]

I have had this happen three times this season - on one occasion a huge swarm moved in the next day, so keep your fingers crossed. If they like what they see they will move in.

Keep the lemon grass oil coming! That certainly helped with mine.

 

[Queens59]

They could well be scout bees - but they won't be the only ones sent out by the hive...so yes - you may be lucky and have the swarm move in - but only if it is better than anything else found by the bees.

Wait, leave them to it and see...Good Luck

 

[beeno]

Hi Luka,
You have not put some food in there, because if you have they are robbers with no intentions of moving in. If not, maybe they have moved in already?

 

[Luka22]

No food in it. There was some month ago, but that was robbed already. When I just checked again only few bees are now left. I don't understand this, nearly 3 days they stayed there and now only maybe 5 bees left. We just put a bit more lemon grass oil in it, but no idea if the others come back. How many days before a swarm leaves the scout bees would look around and would they stay over night as well?

 

[Tom Bick]

Up to six days in my experience and they should return to their hive at night.

The frustrating bit is you can get loads of activity increasing and then it all stops with no swarm arriving but great to watch all the same.

You can also get passing interest from time to time of a few bees.

Good luck.

 

[Luka22]

We have a small camera installed in front of the hive, so that we can check from indoors and we just noticed that there are about 2 bees left. They seem to be the night guards, if this job exists...

It's interesting to hear that it can go on for 6 days, which we never expected. Tomorrow morning the breakfast crew will probably come back and feed the night shift, at least this is what we watched the last 2 days happening.

Just surprised that they leave bees behind at night, because we also expected them to return home, but maybe they are scared they would lose their new place to someone else

 

[oliver90owner]

We have set up a small bait hive (my underlining)

Likely swarm will choose more spacious accommodation over a cramped apartment.

Possiby the swarm never materialised (colony A/sed?)

They will either arrive or not. You can't tell and neither can we.

 

[Tom Bick]

One summer I watched bees fighting at the entrance of a bait hive and put it down to two opposing sets of scout bees. It was this bait hive that had interest for six days before the swarm arrived.

If they are scout bees then you should see a gradual or rapid increase in activity. Gradual if the bees are thinking ahead about swarming and rapid if the bees have left the hive and just found your bait hive.

This year I set three bait hives and one had a very nice cast swarm move in a few weeks ago that now has filled the bb and has a super. The one I gave most hope for as I can observe it most days has had only passing interest but have noticed this year that when I add a couple of extra drops of lemon grass oil wrapped in a piece of foundation for slow release the hive attracts passing interest very soon after.

The camera sounds interesting bait hive watch.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

One summer I watched bees fighting at the entrance of a bait hive and put it down to two opposing sets of scout bees. It was this bait hive that had interest for six days before the swarm arrived.

If they are scout bees then you should see a gradual or rapid increase in activity. Gradual if the bees are thinking ahead about swarming and rapid if the bees have left the hive and just found your bait hive.

This year I set three bait hives and one had a very nice cast swarm move in a few weeks ago that now has filled the bb and has a super. The one I gave most hope for as I can observe it most days has had only passing interest but have noticed this year that when I add a couple of extra drops of lemon grass oil wrapped in a piece of foundation for slow release the hive attracts passing interest very soon after.

The camera sounds interesting bait hive watch.

I have been tempted more than once to extend our farm cctv system to cover the hives. We already have a camera in a new owl box which is waiting for a tenant to decide to move in