Your Most Successful Swarm Trap Location

[Adam Foster Collins]

I'm just trying bait hives/swarm traps for the first time this year, and I'm wondering:

What has been your best bait hive location? Was it in a tree? In the open? In town? Country? Where?

I'm really having a hard time trusting a location, and I'm looking to get a sense of what others have found to be most successful.

Thanks,

Adam

[beyondthesidewalks]

My most prolific location is in the split of a two trunk tree in front of a friends cattle pasture. 3 seasons with 4 swarms. The trap is only 7 feet in the air and facing due south. Somewhere around his place there is a feral swarm that gets after it. Nice, gentle and prolific bees. I have had success there using new and used bait hives/swarm traps there. Other locations have only been successful with previously successful swarm traps (It's my theory that a swarm trap that has caught bees already, even in a previous season, is more attractive to scout bees.) or only two or three swarms caught since I've been trapping.

[Rube63]

I caught a swarm off a grocery cart at Walmart 2 years ago. The best part of it was watching the customers reaction as they realized what I was doing. Especially the assistant manager they sent out to help me. I wish I had done a viedo.

[Elwood]

My most successful location is where I store my extra brood boxes. I had a nice swarm fly in over my shoulder this morning.

[Grant]

Downtown Cape Girardeau, MO. Lots of old buildings, many of them vacant. Lots of tall trees, many of them hollow.

Second best location is along any country creek where the trees grow pretty thick providing shelter and shade next to an open field or pasture.

Grant
Jackson, MO

[odfrank]

Close to any other beekeeper's yard.

[dputnam]

I recently built five top bar bait hives. I strategically set them where I believed they would be most successful. The first few were in "choice" spots. The last one was an afterthought..I just screwed it to a palm tree facing down hill. That's the one that caught the swarm.

[Kelbor]

Is that down there to the left or right of that big rock?

Sorry, good question. I am planning on getting some boxes ready this year for next - shadded areas on the side of fields or open areas with good accesss to water seems key here. Does height off the ground seem to play a roll?

[yockey]

Stack some old bee boxes in your backyard, go away and forget about them. The bees will come.