Swarm arrived in hive

[beeker]

I had set my hives up as bait hives as not got bees yet. Seemed the logical thing to try, and with lots of advice here put some really old brood comb in, and a drop of lemongrass oil. Sealed all the floor etc. And left it be. Last few days the odd bee visited, then the numbers grew, and you could hear them pinging about inside.
On Thursday there was nothing all day, I thought they'd found a better place to go, then at 1pm they arrived. Not the biggest swarm, though it seemed it when they were all around us.
I've witnessed some amazing things, but that's was up there with them all.
And so begins the steepest learning curve, hopefully they'll stay, just going to follow the advice and leave alone for a few days, then feed little and often as they are on new undrawn Foundation.
Thanks for all the help.View attachment VID_20210528_131528.mp4

 

[Murox]

Nice one. Lets hope they are easy to handle docile bees. Might be an idea to treat for varroa before HM starts to lay.

 

[Do224]

I had set my hives up as bait hives as not got bees yet. Seemed the logical thing to try, and with lots of advice here put some really old brood comb in, and a drop of lemongrass oil. Sealed all the floor etc. And left it be. Last few days the odd bee visited, then the numbers grew, and you could hear them pinging about inside.
On Thursday there was nothing all day, I thought they'd found a better place to go, then at 1pm they arrived. Not the biggest swarm, though it seemed it when they were all around us.
I've witnessed some amazing things, but that's was up there with them all.
And so begins the steepest learning curve, hopefully they'll stay, just going to follow the advice and leave alone for a few days, then feed little and often as they are on new undrawn Foundation.
Thanks for all the help.View attachment 26359

Well done! How many old brood frames did you use? I’ve only got one in each of my bait hives and left the remaining space as a void. But I’ve had a couple of people tell me I should really have more than one old brood frame in each bait hive

 

[Worker bee]

Well done I'd leave them for a week minimum, You just saved yourself nearly £200. I bet your chuffed

 

[beeker]

I'm over the moon. The old brood comb was literally just floor sweepings, squished onto the top bar of a frame, and held on with an elastic band.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I'm over the moon. The old brood comb was literally just floor sweepings, squished onto the top bar of a frame, and held on with an elastic band.

Free bees. I never say no even though I don’t want any more bees

 

[Worker bee]

I'm over the moon. The old brood comb was literally just floor sweepings, squished onto the top bar of a frame, and held on with an elastic band.

I tried to lure swarms into bait hives when I first started many times and failed. I caught my first swarms in empty supers I left out after extraction. They're a swarm magnet

 

[drex]

No they are not. They are a magnet for every passing, disease carrying robber bee. In my early years I would extract round at my beekeeping mates house. One of his jobs was to take outside and stack extracted boxes. After a couple of hours I got a call to go and collect a swarm and the address was my mates house. On going outside, the stack of supers, which had not been made bee secure, were surrounded in clouds of robbers

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

well, some beekeepers,

they don't think

 

[Worker bee]

No they are not. They are a magnet for every passing, disease carrying robber bee. In my early years I would extract round at my beekeeping mates house. One of his jobs was to take outside and stack extracted boxes. After a couple of hours I got a call to go and collect a swarm and the address was my mates house. On going outside, the stack of supers, which had not been made bee secure, were surrounded in clouds of robbers

Yes that's what I did not realising I'd left a small entry point. Had multiple swarms. Being a magnet for robbing bees doesn't mean they don't attract swarms but I've made sure I make them secure now for those reasons and I'd rather my own bees clean them