Swarm Trap complete!

[Keth Comollo]

Seely just put pieces of comb in the trap and didn't adjust sizes of the trap to account for it.

The question about location is very valid as most of Seely's work was done in Ithaca, NY and on Appledore Island off the coast of New Hampshire. The lucky part for me is that I live on basically the same latitude and experience almost identical winters to those locations. I do not know if a Florida bee prefers a smaller hive but since I am not in Florida I don't really care.

Another point that Seely brings up is that most people believe traps should be placed nearer the ground. His reasoning is that it is because most people see swarms at eye level and often walk past swarms higher up in bee trees. By bee lining he found that the average height of a hive in a tree was actually 21 feet. Much more protection from bears, skunks etc. at that level. We just don't look up enough I guess!!

[odfrank]

he found that the average height of a hive in a tree was actually 21 feet.

Bees are opportunists and choose a cavity where they find it. I see swarms in our local oak trees at all heights, where a limb has broken and formed a cavity. I see the same in hives in structures. I know of a swarm entering at the bottom of a sealed garage door and swarms in the top of churches. I set my bait hives where I can easily retrieve them and a large percentage get filled. My friend set one of my baits on top of an arbor, I made him climb the ladder and get it down in the dark with bees clustered on the outside.

[Jaseemtp]

I set out alot of traps last spring and did not have much luck. I was using a 5 frame medium nuc baited with lemon grass oil, I did have several of them check out but no one moved in. Good think I am on the swarm call list!

[Charlie B]

What was the "furniture" inside? Old combs, new combs, other?
My eight medium frame wine boxes with broken yellow extracting combs were no where as successful as my five deep frame traps with black brood combs.

I placed two frames of old black brood comb, one against each side wall to open up the middle to give a roomy appearance. Used a little lemongrass oil on a piece of paper towel and placed that inside a half opened sandwich bag inside the box. Set the box on my hive stand near my other hives.

As far as I can tell, bees are attracted to other colony activity. They love to be around other bees. I really think that had a big part of attracting them. (Just my opinion). In early spring, I had tried setting them out in trees and other places and didn't have any luck. I put the box on my hive stand with everything still inside because I didn't know what else to do with it.

The next thing I knew I was getting a swarm a week there consistently most of the spring and summer. I even ran out of frames to hive them and had to borrow some. I should say that my beeyard is on a four story roof across from Golden Gate Park so that obviously helped as well.

[sqkcrk]

I'm sure others have done research on the best heigh, the best distance away from hives, the best direction, amount of sunlight, distance to water, ect., for placing bait hives, but I am not aware of it.

I imagine that swarms don't necassarily decide on the place to hang out for a time the way they do their preference for a new home, but, 15ft off of the ground on the south side of a tree, ekectric/telephone pole or building is generally prefered by bees when choosing their new home. Besides that, cavity size comes into play. But that has been written about already. I hope that helps answer your question.

I don't really know if that answer really pertains to where swarms temporarily light before going to a new home though. Swarms I experience may light just about anywhere, from down near the ground at the edge of an apiary to way 30ft up in a tree aways from the yard. I'm not sure of the placement of the average.

[BeeGhost]

This coming spring will be my first time setting swarm traps, and I will be placing them along a creek that is well used by the bees (berry blossom) in the spring. I have also located bee trees in the area. The funny thing is this, almost all the bee trees I have found, the hive entrance is less than 6' from the ground, one was about 1' from the ground, the one by my house is about 6' from the ground, another in the creek is about 2' off the ground and then my irrigation box hive that was under ground!! Then again, while dropping off a jar of honey to a "customer" that called me to collect a swarm out of her rose bush I looked at the rose bush and then looked straight up at a eucalyptus tree and seen where my "swarm" came from, a nice healthy population of bees using an entrance no less than 30' up from the ground!! Guess where a swram trap will be going next year!!

And like what was mentioned, setting swarm traps is going to be like fishing, you may limit out, or get skunked...........but that one time that I check a trap and its active, it will make it all worth the while!!

[LetMBee]

BeeGhots: It sounds like you live in an area with a lot of feral bees. You probably won't have any trouble catching several swarms. I always get excited when I walk up on a trap that's hummin'. Each time I take a loaded box off a tree it's like I picked up a $100 bill off the ground.
The year before last I had noticed a lot of bee trees WAY less than 10 feet off the ground. I wonder though if I just miss the ones that are up higher? After taking loaded traps down while on a ladder, I agree as stated earlier in this thread, hang your trap where you can handle it from the ground.