Bait hive

[mystil]

How do you go about making a bait hive?

We have been told to use lemon grass oil but how much and where?
On the inside or on the outside ? or both and how much?

Also we have ordered some Bait hive lure from Th*rnes but still awaiting its delivery (now into the second week).

Also should we just have the brood box on the hive for the bait hive?
cheers
liza

 

[hedgerow pete]

bait hives have very few rules and guide lines so here they are.

it wants to be 25 litre in size or more and to have a small enterance hole and to be about six feet in the air, now all of these rules have been broken by almost every single swarm i have ever delt with but it gives you the best chances.

translated into beek skeap we want to set up a standard brood box and floor and roof and a couple of frames, with wax is best but any thing will do, leamon oil if you are going to use it can be any were from two small drops or like me i splash it all over like "Ar Arry, in the brutt adverts) if your to younge to know what that means ask your dad!

on the inside the oil goes on the top of the frames and may a single drop inside near the opening

you can stand this lot any where , on the floor to on the shed roof, but it all relies on a single passing bee going in and having a look and thinking, i will go and tell mum about this place!!

 

[mystil]

So basically, no supers just the brood box.

A couple of frames of drawn out comb and the rest of the frames have wax foundation? or empty?

Lemon grass oil on top of the frames and at the entrance and anywhere else we like?

 

[hedgerow pete]

righty ho lets have another go,
now from looking at your details to the left you dont have any old hives or frames so we will base every thing on that prinsible, ok?

go out and buy/build you hive. i take it you have one?
if not knock up a box about 18" cube out of ply wood

if you have some new frames and wax foundation fittind fill the whole brood box up with them and install your enterance closuers to make the main hole about 50mm wide and 10mm high

or bosh a hole into you ply box about 25mm in diameter and buy a 4 oz block of bees wax from a hardware store or some proper wax furniture polish and rub the day lights out of the inside of the box.

then we add our shop brought swarm lure towards the front entrence of the hive say in the middle centre line and about 100mm in from the enterence,
or instead of using a swarm lure we can use one of several essential oils, do a search as there are hundreds of posts about them here, but to keep it simple i will use one of two

thyme oil or leamon grass oil

we now put a single drop onto the top bar of every other frame once they have been put in the hive, you can use just one oil or use two by dropping each oil on every other top bar, no need to put any on the floor or walls or inside the roof or under the floor or out side the hive or on the outside walls of the hives.

or we open our ply wood bodge box and shake like mad 20 drops all over the place inside and out up the walls on the floor all over yourself and generaly slap it every where untill we have used a quarter of the bottle up

is there enough details in that for you now mate

 

[Rosti]

So basically, no supers just the brood box.

A couple of frames of drawn out comb and the rest of the frames have wax foundation? or empty?

Lemon grass oil on top of the frames and at the entrance and anywhere else we like?

I find the following works reliably with regard stocking a bait hive. Mine are based on 14x12 brood boxes. Old Manky solid floor. 1 x central drawn frame already used for brood rearing (rather than storage). Ideally 2 further frames at the extreme side locations (ideally drawn), leave the rest as free space. lemon grass dobbed on the top of the central frame, a couple of drops per week, optional swarm lure pinned to central frame.

 

[mystil]

Cheers for the info. Sorry I should have explanined what we had/havent got.

Nope dont have any exsisting hives but do have an new empty National Hive. Have gone out and bought some Lemon grass oil today and now have put the hive on top of our shed roof with the entrance block on.

Thank you Pete and Rosti.

 

[keithgrimes]

Worth adding a frame of drawn comb if you can get your hands on one

 

[blodwen]

I don't want to rob this thread, but I have had a bait hive set up in a similar way to the above for a month or so with no takers. A swarm issued from one of my hives and stopped in a bush, so I did the 'ramp to the entrance' bit and the swarm just crawled under the hive and stayed there for 4 days!! (May have been the cold wind & 1 day of rain didn't help) so I gathered them up and put them directly into the hive. The next day they had vanished :-(
I then caught another swarm from a freind's garden (some 10 miles away) put them straight into the hive - peeped in 2 days later and they've gone too ..... what am I doing wrong?

 

[mystil]

Hoping to get some drawn comb as soon as we can.

 

[Rosti]

Blodwen, you dont give location info on the bait hive with respect to the hives from which the swarm originated. If within 200m then probably too close. A bait hive in your own apiary may get someone elses swarm but the chances of it recaapturing one of your own is pretty low tending to zero I think.
R

 

[SixFooter]

I set up a 15"x15"x15" plywood box containing some black, smelly comb placed 10' off the ground with a 1" dia entrance.
This has had a lot of interest from scouts and captured one swarm already. Last year, I tried lures and lemongrass oil, but without success. From my experience then, get some old comb.

 

[blodwen]

Thanks Rosti, I didn't realise. That'd be why the first swarm just sat there under the hive (just 10ft away from thier original hive, - waiting to get out of the apiary! Doesn't explain the second lot tho' .... my only thought would be maybe I didn't get the queen in the bunch - would that make them drift off?
Thanks sixfooter too - there are 2 old combs in there, but there are still some remains of brood in them - would that put them off?