2 Traps Getting Attention

[Greg Lowe]

I got home yesterday and looked out at a swarm trap I have had up for 2 months. It hadn't had a sniff from a bee as far as I could tell. However, when I looked there were 20-30 scouts checking things out. I pulled up a seat to observe them a while and decided that the bees checking it out were not coming from my other hives, as they were clearly coming and going from a different direction than my hives. I had one of those 'wooo hooo' moments . It has been a month or longer since I put any LGO on it, so I was thinking that there may be some action there in the next couple of days.

Then this morning my son and I looked at it and once again it is being checked out. As we were talking, I mentioned that I saw several posts in this forum about people catching multiple swarms simultaneously or swarms fighting over possession of a trap. So we decided we should bring out another trap that we had stored under our deck and double our chances and provide the bees with another option. When we got to the stored trap, there were some bees already in there. So, we had another 'wooo hooo' moment. We watched that trap a couple of minutes and decided that there are a fair number of bees in there. Not a huge swarm but we guessed at least 50-100. You can hear them on the inside humming nicely if you put your ear up to the box. I looked at the top of the box (which is attached with screws) and it looked like glue was showing in the seam. I'm know we didn't glue the lid on, since that would defeat the purpose of having a removable top. So now I'm thinking that we may have a small colony in there. If so, then I probably have a little bit of 'wonky' comb inside it since the box was not sitting nice and level. If there is a small colony there, I have no idea how long they have been there. My question about this is "How likely is it that bees would propolize the cracks in a hive before moving in?" If the bees in there are just scouts, then I'm feeling prety good about the potential for this trap. If it is a colony already in there, then hopefully they will build straight comb now that the box is sitting level. I have 8 top bars in each trap with wooden guide strips glued into grooves on the bars.

I had planned to move any swarms I caught in swarm traps into a TBH, so maybe in the next few days I will have that chance. If I do catch a swarm, how long should I leave them there before moving? I have read that I need to leave them there until I see them bringing in pollen.

Hopefully things get a little interesting in the next day or two. Any suggestions on what to do would be appreciated.

[Luterra]

I read some interesting research the other day about how swarms decide on a home:

http://www2.ece.ohio-state.edu/~pass...Bees-AmSci.pdf

One of the more practical findings is that the number of scouts increases over time at the most promising sites, and when about 15 scouts are visible outside a decision has been made and the swarm is about to move in. So with 20-30 bees either they have already moved in or it is imminent.

[Greg Lowe]

@Luterra, Thanks for the info. That is encouraging.

I went home at lunch to check on things. My son shot a short video of the stored trap with his iphone. It probably won't win an award, but it shows what was going on.

http://s980.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_0091.mp4

[sfisher]

I'm glad to see you caught a swarm in Alabama this time of the year. I have also just about gave up on my swarm traps, thinking that I didnt get them out in time. And that I missed swarm season altogether, here in South Carolina. Maybe its not to late. I did check the Qtip in the ziplock, and it still had a strong smell of LGO after a month.

[Rick 1456]

I posted a movie of my trap and the activity looks like that. Went on for three days with more bees each day. I put up a second box because I saw them "fighting". Only got one swarm though. Guess they were arguing over where to put the deck Looks good.