[Absinthe]

I have some traps I want to set out. They are essentially 5 frame nucs, if nucs were double deep height. I can put some junk in the hives, but the question is, I can put 5 frames in it, any best practices on what to put in besides old brood comb? Like if I put in an old brood comb should I fill the rest with empty frames, starter strips, or foundation or something else? I hate to put good usable spun out comb if it is just going to attract pests to eat it up but I would risk it if it would assure be a catch

 

[ncbeez]

I usually leave the two in the middle empty frames. They like to festoon from them. If not there,they will start building comb from the lid. I think they like the empty space that a couple of empty combs give them and probably makes your box seem bigger to them.

 

[gone2seed]

I use old, rotting, 8 frame boxes w/8 old frames and starter strips. I think the key,in my case,is the old,used stuff.

 

[JWPalmer]

I just set out one of my traps. I used two frames of old drawn worker brood comb and 4 empty foundationless frames with starter strips. Added a drop of LGO and it's good to go. Last year I only had one drawn frame and it worked just fine.

 

[Cobbler]

It sounds like I have the same style swarm traps as you. I use one frame of black comb and 4 frames with starter strips. I have not had any problem with moths or anything eating just the one drawn frame in a box.
I put 4 drops of LGO on a cotton pad and put that in a ziplock mostly zipped and put that in the box too.

 

[Absinthe]

It sounds like I have the same style swarm traps as you. I use one frame of black comb and 4 frames with starter strips. I have not had any problem with moths or anything eating just the one drawn frame in a box.
I put 4 drops of LGO on a cotton pad and put that in a ziplock mostly zipped and put that in the box too.

looks like this...

 

[Cobbler]

Yep. That’s what I have. I caught 10 swarms in 10 traps baited as I described above. I also had 5 other traps without the black comb and caught none in those. I’ll have 22 “honeybee rescue stations” out this year - set the first 6 today.

 

[hankstump]

in our club we have found that putting 2 dark combs together will attract wax moths, but if you put a yellow comb frame in-between them, or a frame with a starter strip, then we don't have a problem with wax moths. In general, I leave 1/2 of the box open with frames with just starter strips. If you are trapping in suburbia, you generally get bigger swarms, so a 10 frame box is better. (~42 Liters) But if you are collecting swarms from bee trees, a 5 frame box will be just fine. Certainly old boxes are good. You want a box that smells as much like an old hive as possible. Wax, propolis, brood comb, old wood, and of course some swarm lure. The three factors of swarm trapping are distilled down to Scent, Accommodation, and Location.

Cheers, Phil