Bait hive - poly nuc?

[Rob55]

Is a poly nuc any use as a bait hive? I have one which has over wintered my bees and is nicely stained with pollen etc, but wasn't sure if the scout bees would find the tiny entrance hole and open floor along with the reduced brood size a problem? Bare in mind it is a 14x12 poly nuc so a fair bit larger than a national nuc. I also have a brand new full size 14x12 wooden hive but it has no bee smells. Which would you say is the better bait hive?

 

[Erichalfbee]

A 14 x 12 nuc is smaller than the recommended but I have 2 out with a manky brood frame in each.
Put both out?

 

[enrico]

I have had a swarm arrive in a poly nuc but they didn't stay for long! I think they decided it was too small, and yet if you house one in a poly nuc from where they swarmed they do seem to stay!
E

 

[For want of a better word]

A nuc may be too small... and a polly would probably get nicked!

Use the tattiest old brood roof, and solid floor you have... and old comb.

Get the hive well off the ground.

The price of the ingredients for Grandad's bait sausage recipe have gone up so much, due to the tripple dip, I am now using lemongrass oil purchased of fleaBuy for a couple of quid!

 

[oliver90owner]

Some of my bait hives were Dartington carry boxes with a Dartington 1/2 honey super above. I hung 14 x 12 frames in the top and hoped I would shift them before they built too much wild comb. They worked very well.

 

[itma]

A national nuc would be a bit small, but a 6-frame 14x12 should be fine.

A bit of 'entrance signposting' in blue and yellow paint shouldn't do any harm, as would a daylight shade over the omf - perhaps a simple sheet of cardboard inside the floor would darken the inside nicely.
Some really old frames inside would be pretty helpful.

 

[stephenpug]

I put a wooden nuc box out last year with one old frame and a little lemongrass oil and caught a swarm within a week and it was my first attempt the are now one of my best and friendliest hives

 

[Rob55]

Sounds good - will get some lemon grass oil and give it a go, good idea re cardboard in floor!

There is another colony about 250m from my hive and our horses paddock is right in the middle of the two, I was thinking of mounting the bait hive in a tree to keep it up from the horse about 10ft off the ground, would this be ok? Hoping it will cover both colonies in case either loses a swarm

 

[Sean.]

Sounds good - will get some lemon grass oil and give it a go, good idea re cardboard in floor!

There is another colony about 250m from my hive and our horses paddock is right in the middle of the two, I was thinking of mounting the bait hive in a tree to keep it up from the horse about 10ft off the ground, would this be ok? Hoping it will cover both colonies in case either loses a swarm

I've put mine on the garage roof, facing south with lemon grass oil in them. I ended up with two swarms last year.

 

[Mint Bee]

handle with care

take care to avoid direct contact of any essential oils with the poly nuc itself. I put a vial of swarm attractant from a 14 x 12 big P poly nuc onto the lid whilst I re homed a swarm last year. In the time it took to sort out the new hive, a drop from the vial had started to dissolve the surface of the lid. Not a lot, but contact was only short term.

 

[m100]

I've had numerous swarms arrive in 6 frame plywood national nucs deployed as bait hives. Their success rate is a bit lower than that of a full size national but not by much.

I don't use poly nucs for bait hives but I've had them sat around with used comb in them on quite a few occasions throughout the swarming season and they have never been chosen in preference to a wood hive.

 

[Rob55]

My main concern with the poly hive is the tiny entrance hole versus the big full size entrance on a wooden hive, I just wasn't sure if the scouts would notice it just as well?

 

[m100]

The hole on a poly nuc from Pains is from memory about 20mm diameter although most of mine are the early type with the wrap around cutway entrance on the corner between the front and floor of the hive.

My plywood nucs that have attracted a number of swarms have an entrance of 16mm diameter.

 

[user 6228]

My main concern with the poly hive is the tiny entrance hole versus the big full size entrance on a wooden hive, I just wasn't sure if the scouts would notice it just as well?

5 sq cm to 20 sq cms is fine above 30 sq cm bad IRC

 

[itma]

My main concern with the poly hive is the tiny entrance hole versus the big full size entrance on a wooden hive, I just wasn't sure if the scouts would notice it just as well?

I think they'd notice it first by the smell - another good reason for obstructing the OMF, so the smell mainly emanates from the actual entrance.
Additionally, anything you can do to assist in entrance-finding (like a painted pattern, centred on the entrance hole) is going to help.

The big and obvious entrance closure disc is itself the sort of feature that would be investigated. But a feature-within-the-feature would do no harm.

 

[Mike a]

Poly nucs work fine, been using them for the last few years with success every year. Two years ago I put four out (bs national and deep langstroth) and caught five passing swarms over the course of the season.

For the larger swarms which barely fit into the hive they will need to be moved into a full size hive quickly or they will abscond a day or so later.

Bait
Lemon grass oil and an old comb or two works very well.
Height makes little to no difference, if the scout bee can get in and out thats all that matters.

Video of a small prime swarm which liked a 5 frame wooden nuc in my back garden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-A70HQVTo8

 

[Erichalfbee]

9th April.........sigh
On that date this year most of my bees were still asleep........sigh