Bait for a swarm - help please!

[johnmcc]

A friend has a swarm (possibly her own bees) 30 ft up an evergreen tree. Even with a cherry picker you couldn't get near them without cutting down the surrounding trees. We've put a bait hive on top of a platform ladder under the tree with some nice old black comb brood frames in. 24 hours on they haven't shifted. Any suggestions for making the hive more attractive? Haven't got any lemon grass oil and nowhere to buy any within 20 miles. Would a few drips of honey help?

 

[EDCHEF]

Strangely , we are in an almost identical position as of about 2 hours ago!
Had a quick look in the hive just now and we can't find a queen or any brood in any stage but a reasonable amount of stores
Also watching for suggestions !

 

[Phayze]

If you have a garden centre near by you could try Melissa officionalis (lemon balm) it will be with the herbs just take a few leaves rip them to release their scent put them in the hive my bees go crazy for it, I would not try the honey you never know if it is shop bought it could contain contaminants if it's your own it could bring other bees robbing

 

[johnmcc]

She's trying it as I type this - fingers crossed!

 

[YorkshireBees]

After reading about the use of old squished queens in a previous thread, I tried, more out of curiosity, the smell of a queen cell recently vacated in a bait hive when I was trying to lure a swarm out of a cavity wall.

It appeared to work or I was just extremely lucky!

 

[susbees]

PITA feisty large prime last week...cut them off an unpruned (ever!) 30 foot hawthorn twenty five foot up - took ages. Into bait box, fanning, half an hour then whoosh....queen shoots out then up the tree somewhere different. Same performance into a used WBC.

Sooo....with NO spare open brood on the apiary, attached an old black comb (from the pile I'd made for them to recycle) then using my thirty foot window cleaners' poles, put the comb in my large florists' bucket tied firmly on with elastic bungie (has useful handles and slim profile) and using a safely tethered ladder, pole and helpers retreived the whole swarm in ten minutes flat leaving about 2-300 bees up the tree where there were no more next day.

Thanks to whoever it was on here said this works with open brood - it works with old comb too . We did have a drop of lemongrass oil in the bucket but doubt it made the difference.