# Home Made Swarm Box



## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

Save yourself some money and build your own... And as it turns out, this is one made from 3/4 plywood (heavy)

I might have posted this once before, but in another thread I was reading this morning, discussion about swarm boxes prompted me to post it again. I'm a firm believer that when I can save money by building something vs buying it, I build it. Plus, the personal satisfaction of catching swarm in a box you built is a great feeling.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Wow! I wouldn't have made it nearly that nice nor would I have painted it. But it looks nice. One of my problems has been kids finding them and knocking them down with rocks, so I prefer them to be more camouflaged. Old unpainted boxes work great for that.


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

These are some of my options:

http://www.feralhoneybees.homestead.com

Grant
Jackson, MO http://www.25hives.homestead.com


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## jdpro5010 (Mar 22, 2007)

how is that being held up to the tree and how close to original location( if you know) was this located?


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## Brandy (Dec 3, 2005)

*Catcher Hives*

Here's a couple catcher hives. They have to look good to go into some of the "upscale neighborhoods" I put them in!!!!

img:http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n50/PurpleBrandy/th_DSCN1611.jpg
img:http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n50/PurpleBrandy/th_DSCN2021.jpg


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

jdpro5010 said:


> how is that being held up to the tree and how close to original location( if you know) was this located?


A picture is worth a thousand words....note the electric fence wire, fed from the inside out which you wrap around a tree. This was located no where near any of my yards. I gave it to my girlfriend who gave this one to a co-worker who hung it up in his back yard. We're not aware of any beekeepers in the area. It was 10 miles from my nearest hives.


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## Tomas (Jun 10, 2005)

*Top-bar trap hives in Honduras*

This is one of my home-made swarm traps. I work with mainly the trapezoidal top bar hive and my traps have the same shape and dimensions as the permanent boxes. The ends are solid wood but the sides are just aluminum plating from a printing plant or pieces of tin from a big can. This helps keep the weight down. They hold eight or nine top bars so the bees have enough space to keep working until I get them down (although some big swarms have filled it up in less than two weeks.) Two weeks is what I usually wait, just to make sure they are well established inside the box. 










A piece of plastic is stapled over the top to keep rain out--and to make it bee tight up there. Since I work with Africanized bees, I don’t like them to get out when I’m moving these to the apiary. I also had to put some half-inch mesh screen over the entrances because birds and mice also liked to move into my boxes. 

Strings criss-cross over the top with a main string tied to them. This helps me to lower them down when they’re full. Some can get pretty heavy. They were baited with some wax sprinkled inside and a really strong lemon grass tea painted on the outside.



















These boxes also work great for making splits.

Here my partner with the bees is moving a swarm we had caught into its permanent box. You can see how keeping the same dimensions for the traps and permanent boxes helps the combs to transfer easily into the new box.


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## dcross (Jan 20, 2003)

Tomas, care to do a thread on that smoker?

Love the tin siding on the swarm trap!


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

I like the "wire mesh" protecting the entrance.

And, please tell us (w/ pictures) about the "little" smoker.


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## Tomas (Jun 10, 2005)

The wire mesh became necessary for the entrance finally. I was filling almost a third of the swarm traps with something other than bees. It helps a lot with the birds and mice but I still get a quite a few leaf cutter ant nests in them. Don’t know what to do about them yet except for cleaning them out of the trap and hanging it back up.

As far as the smoker, give me a bit and I’ll start another thread with pictures about it and an explanation.

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Tom


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I had to go to 1/4" hardware cloth over the entrances or the finches would move into my boxes all the time.


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## BWrangler (Aug 14, 2002)

Hi Tomas,

Neat photos. What kind of tree/fruit is the trap in? Doesn't look quite right for jackfruit.

Regards
Dennis


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## Tomas (Jun 10, 2005)

*Honduran tree*

Howdy Dennis,

You're right, it's not a jackfruit. The tree's name down by me is "jicaro" or "moro". I never heard an English name for it and I don't have the scientific name on hand right now. It's kind of funky because of the way the fruit grows right out of the trunk and branches. It’s got a real dark pulp inside with a mess of seeds. People here separate them from the pulp, dry them and then grind them up with rice to make one of their traditional drinks here. It sort of has a grapish smell. Good stuff.

The outside of the fruit is woody and gets pretty hard when dried. People will cut them in half, sand them and make little cups or bowls with them. Sometimes they are painted and sold in the souvenir shops.

The cows also like to eat the pulp so farmers usually leave them growing in the pastures.

The bees love the flowers. The flowers give off a real strong smell that many people don’t like. You can smell it from yards away. I personally think it smells kind of nice. In the mornings and early evenings the bees really go after the flowers. You can hear the whole tree buzzing because of the numbers that visit it. But you don’t get a honey crop off it, probably because it has the very last flowers of the season, before the flowers shut down for the rains. And if they do make a bit, its usually left with them for the dearth.

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Tom


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