[JSneed]

I’m getting my first bees in April,3 nucs. I was advised to go ahead and setup my hives and put a qtip with lgo in them to attract scouts. My question is...is the lgo at Walmart what I need?

Thanks.

 

[gww]

It should work just fine. If you are buying nucs to fill all your equipment, you should not need lemon grass oil. If you have extra equipment that you are also setting up, then using them as traps is how I do it also.
Cheers
gww

 

[JSneed]

I have enough equipment to set up 6 single deep hives.

 

[AstroBee]

I’m getting my first bees in April,3 nucs. I was advised to go ahead and setup my hives and put a qtip with lgo in them to attract scouts. My question is...is the lgo at Walmart what I need?

Thanks.

Seems totally unnecessary. It is helpful in a swarm trap, but a nuc "should" be a well established colony and not need any additional attractants to become established.

 

[Fivej]

What Astro said. Never heard of using LGO except for luring a swarm. I think you misunderstood as it could be a negative for an established nuc. J

 

[JSneed]

My bad for being vague. I was told that I should do the lgo in case scout bees were out scouting. I set up 4 hives so far and put lgo in 1 of them. There was a bee flying around and landing on the boxes but I never saw it enter one. That was around 3:00 when the temp here was around 58 degrees. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[JSneed]

Here’s what I’ve done so far.

 

[Fivej]

Ok, I see what you mean now. Yes, you can do that but you might have better luck if you put any boxes you don't need for your nucs on the edge of a field and woods up as far as you choose on a tree. Some have good success putting their "swarm trap" at a comfortable height. LGO works good, just don't add too much or it will actually deter them. Most put a drop on a cotton ball inside the hive and maybe a drop on the entrance area. What do you have inside them? Drawn comb works best, but assume you don't have any. You could do frames with a starter strip or just foundation if that's all you have. J

 

[JSneed]

I only have new frames with waxed foundation.

 

[squarepeg]

peak swarming in north alabama is usually during the months of april and may.

at this point in the season the colonies are just now producing their first rounds of brood coming out of winter and have quite a bit of building up to do before they can swarm.

do you have a pick up date for your nucs j?

 

[JSneed]

I’m standing southeast of the hives in that pic. The pines on the left are on the edge of a 3-4 acre hayfield a creek and then about 400 acres of crop field. Directly behind me is a 10 acre horse pasture with a 120+\- crop field beyond that. Behind the hives past the pond is a 40 acre hayfield, the same creek and more crop land.

 

[JSneed]

I was told second or third week in April.

 

[squarepeg]

how far are you from bankhead forest?

around the outskirts of that wooded land would be a good place to place swarm traps.

 

[JSneed]

Less than a ten minute drive.

If you saw my post in the swarm trapping forum, along the edge of there is where I was talking about.

 

[squarepeg]

i would try to set traps within a mile of the forest if you can.

if there is a bee club over there in lawrence county chances are someone might be willing to spot you a frame or two of brood comb.

brood comb would be the best 'lure' you could possibly put in the traps.

to be attractive to the bees it would be better if the remaining frames didn't have foundation in them.

 

[JSneed]

There is a club here but we haven’t joined yet.

I’m gonna try to get some old comb from the guy selling me the nucs.

I know a couple folks whose land is adjacent to the BNF, so getting close to it shouldn’t be a problem.