OK, our swarming season is here and now.
I will be running 7 locations.
Potentially, I will go rogue and sneak in a couple more into the near fishing and trapping area just because I can.
Within a couple of hours I put up a scented bait onto my back porch, I got scouts checking my used equipment already.
Was setting up a trap nearby - curious bees came before I was even done.
Was interesting to observe how the bees from clearly two different locations came - two different groups of the scouts were markedly different.
Though at other places nobody showed up yet, for as long as I was working there.
This year I am doing experimentation - self-made queen pheromone scent, recycling the queens.
As far as I can tell - it does not hurt and maybe helps - bees are coming for sure.
Also regarding putting up bait hives up - by a large part, the highly placed bait simply helps to distribute the scent better.
Instead of struggling the box high up, I put up a ziplock bag with a scent source as high as I can reach - this is to help the scent distribution by wind.
The trap hive simply sits on the ground level just below the bait - once the bees zero onto the location, nicely primed and well used hive is impossible to miss.