[odfrank]

I have proposed for years that good swarms are attracted to many size boxes. And that placing an attractive piece of wood on top enhances the bait hive's attractiveness to the bees. I have my pile of bait hives all ready to go out, but am held in at home by the Corona Virus.
There are 14 bait hives set up, from four frames to 12 frame jumbos, most in one pile but a few dead out baited hives nearby. Lo and behold, the first catch at the home yard went into the smallest box. Remember - a small swarm can be caught in a big box, but you can't catch a big swarm in a small box. Two videos I made after finding the first catch in my bait hives storage pile:

https://youtu.be/02orkU7EQL0

https://youtu.be/HISY6Owr2Vc



Picture of a huge baited swarm last week filling a 10 frame box with jumbo frames:

 

[kmcdaniel]

My bait boxes are 7.5" wide x 20" long x 18.5" deep. They hold five full size frames and leaves roughly 6-7" of empty space at the bottom of the frames. So far have caught one swarm this year.

 

[chiara]

I took your advice and added this to the trap. This is the 2nd swarm to move into this trap. The 2nd one only took 48 hours to move in once I rebaited it.

 

[Litsinger]

I took your advice and added this to the trap. This is the 2nd swarm to move into this trap. The 2nd one only took 48 hours to move in once I rebaited it.

Way to go, chiara.

Looks like you are well on your way to giving odfrank a run for his money!

 

[odfrank]

I am happy that my spreading the word about logs has improved your trapping success.

I took your advice and added this to the trap. This is the 2nd swarm to move into this trap. The 2nd one only took 48 hours to move in once I rebaited it.

 

[William Bagwell]

Any reason not to use logs on regular hives? Had read one of your old posts suggesting this many months ago and had forgotten the 'bait hive' aspect. Was cutting a deformed wild cherry for firewood and saved out a few burls and knots. Only one hive (so far!) and think 'logs' look so much better than bricks or concrete blocks.

 

[odfrank]

I would think it will be equally helpful on full hives.

Any reason not to use logs on regular hives? Had read one of your old posts suggesting this many months ago and had forgotten the 'bait hive' aspect. Was cutting a deformed wild cherry for firewood and saved out a few burls and knots. Only one hive (so far!) and think 'logs' look so much better than bricks or concrete blocks.