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Your Most Successful Swarm Trap Location

6K views 8 replies 9 participants last post by  yockey 
#1 ·
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
 
#2 ·
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.
 
#7 ·
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.
 
#8 ·
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?
 
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