Bait Hive

[maddydog]

Lemon grass oil is rubbish and a money making scam IMO.

How much is a little bottle, couple of quid?

Selling queenless nucs for £150, now that's a money making scam!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

I didn't know that. I always thought the queen got swept along with the tide of bees.

Maybe maybe not.
When you see those grandstanding videos of people running swarms in they are always looking for the queen walking in. Maybe the same happens with a swarm arriving at a bait hive? The bees are usually all over the box before they march in

 

[Popparand]

How much is a little bottle, couple of quid?

£5 from Holland Barrett. Small bottle but it seems to go a long way.

 

[Popparand]

It's looking good for my bait hive which is a National brood box plus frames with starter strips (and one - one only - drop of lemongrass oil). It's on a pile of boxes so the entrance is about four feet off the ground.

Wednesday I saw one bee checking it over. Thursday she brought a friend. Friday a couple of dozen. Yesterday perhaps forty or fifty. Today must have been close on a hundred, very excited, circling the hive, running in and out, and doing little wiggles and body shaking in front of the entrance.

I've kept my fingers crossed because twice last year I had bees showing a lot of interest through the week, then come Sunday both times, nothing at all, which I interpreted as a vigilant beekeeper doing an AS on the Saturday.

So I'm hoping the keeper of these bees is not checking

Hope they were looking for a new home! I had a lot of interest around one of my bait hives but they were just scouting for freeman's honey - thieving rascals.

 

[Karsal]

Lemongrass oil works for me £1.59 off Fleabay.
Six bait hives out at the moment all with a cotton bud dipped in lemongrass oil poked inside the entrance.
Using Paynes poly nucleus hives as bait hives.
Everyone has dozens of bees visiting them all the time during the day.
Caught my first swarm yesterday in my back garden and watched them arrive about 11am.
Have used Swarm Commander form America last two seasons and got four swarms.
Just trying lemongrass oil only this year.

 

[mike99]

Sorry, I don’t understand your logic. Getting a swarm would require you have accommodation ready there and then not give you time to buy and assemble some.

I didn't expect to be trying a bait hive so soon in my new found hobby. It was just something that was raised at my course at the weekend. I thought that you needed to keep a swarm in the Nuc for a period of time but maybe I heard that wrong? my BKA has hives for sale that I just need to pick up and assemble. I know that last sentence is not the reality in terms of building a hive...
TBH I don't think I will be successful with the bait hive but we shall see.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I didn't expect to be trying a bait hive so soon in my new found hobby. It was just something that was raised at my course at the weekend. I thought that you needed to keep a swarm in the Nuc for a period of time but maybe I heard that wrong? my BKA has hives for sale that I just need to pick up and assemble. I know that last sentence is not the reality in terms of building a hive...
TBH I don't think I will be successful with the bait hive but we shall see.

Different strokes for different blokes.
I've had repeated success in swarms moving in to a full size national bait hive but I've never had a swarm voluntarily move into a nuc. However I regularly knock hanging swarms into a nuc and with one exception they've stayed there. I had one swarm too big to fit in the nuc so I had to go back for a full size brood box.
In my first season I had a swarm but fortunately I'd taken delivery of a flat pack hive an hour previously. Assembly was carried out, frames assembled and foundation fitted in double quick time and the swarm captured.
Taught me a lesson in being prepared I can tell you.

 

[Karsal]

Different strokes for different blokes.
I've had repeated success in swarms moving in to a full size national bait hive but I've never had a swarm voluntarily move into a nuc. However I regularly knock hanging swarms into a nuc and with one exception they've stayed there. I had one swarm too big to fit in the nuc so I had to go back for a full size brood box.
In my first season I had a swarm but fortunately I'd taken delivery of a flat pack hive an hour previously. Assembly was carried out, frames assembled and foundation fitted in double quick time and the swarm captured.
Taught me a lesson in being prepared I can tell you.

Just had my second swarm in two days move into a paynes poly nuc bait hive on an office fire escape 20 foot off the ground. I always put an old brood frame inside and a cotton bud in the entrance with lemongrass oil on one tip.
Quite a few of the office staff were able to stand and watch the spectacle of a swarm of bees arriving at a new home.
Last year they had them in their chimney and cavity and they came through lots of air vents in the offices and cleared them out of staff.
Thought it a good idea to put up bait hives around the site to hopefully avoid similar again this year. Worked so far!!

 

[Anduril]

Using a nuc you are more likely to catch a cast swarm, not a primary swarm. I have caught swarms in a brood box full of old brood frames, the bees will measure up inside.

 

[Ely]

How much is a little bottle, couple of quid?

£5 from Holland Barrett. Small bottle but it seems to go a long way.

It’ll likely last a lifetime unless used for other purposes as well