Bait hive

[Zante]

Ok, this is probably going to show how little I've understood of putting out a bait hive.

I have a poly nuc, dadant, it holds 6 frames. I was planning to use it as a bait hive. I don't have any drawn comb to add to it, so I'll have to make do with a frame of foundation.

Should I fill it with foundation (6 frames) or just put one in for the smell of wax and leave the rest empty? I don't want to deal with wild comb though, so if the ideal would be the empty box, can I leave empty frames with a strip of wax instead? Consider that here he frames are wired, not the wax, so there would be vertical wires in he empty, foundationless space.

 

[MartinL]

I wouldn't be bothered about foundation, just a strip on the top bar is all you need to get them building where you want.

However, they'll need to be interested in the first place. That's where the old/used comb comes in.

Most important factor in bait hives is HEIGHT, location & what you put inside is balanced equally with luck!

 

[Zante]

No worries. The old people who let me put the bees on their land have plenty of old equipment. I went today to sterilise it, to avoid my bees catching something from it.

It's all pre-varroa stuff, with solid, non-removable floors. Very much used, but hasn't had bees in it for at least 15 years, since the entrances were blocked. After they stopped keeping bees they occasionally got swarms in them and so the entrances were closed.

Once I sterilised all the wood, and locked all the frames with wax in plastic bags (will have to build myself a solar melter sooner than I expected), I set two of the brood boxes as bait, about 3m from the ground, each with a super frame (the only decent ones were super frames, all of the brood frames are only good to melt).

Let's see what happens.

They also said I could use their equipment. Not sure I'd use the brood boxes for anything else than bait hives, but I'll gladly use the supers. All together there are six brood boxes and five supers. Plus one brood box only good for the fire...