# Moving swarm trap with bees



## MelanieWoosley (Nov 11, 2012)

One of my swarm traps had a swarm to move in on Sunday. Woohoo! It is sitting in the crook of a nectarine tree about 5 feet off the ground. This weekend I planned to move it, only from the tree to the ground below onto some cinder blocks. A move of five feet at once should be ok, right? 

Once moved I plan to leave them in this box (an 8 frame trap) for another week and then transfer them to their permanent setup. 

Does this sound good to you all?

The only concern I have is that when the trap was out, it only had 6 frames (was running short and robbing Peter to pay Paul)...so I was worried about them building comb. Sure enough, overnight, they had built comb in the two vacant slots, which I removed and replaced with frames. I hope this doesn't make them abscond! Lesson learned: they can build comb quick!


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## yblocker (May 15, 2009)

Why not just leave the box in the tree until you are ready to move them permanently?


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## danno (Dec 17, 2007)

a move of 5 ft will confuse them. If you can avoid that I would. When you say "tranfer to perminent equipment" What do you mean and will the location change? I always move swarms to a different yard. If you want them to stay under the nectarine tree What I would do is seal the trap and move it a couple of miles. Maybe to a friends or family members house. Then after a week move it back to the perminent equipment under the tree.


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

that is what I would do, you trapped them, don't mess with them so much they feel endangered and look for better acomodations. let her majesty get laying before you put the pressure on.


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## MelanieWoosley (Nov 11, 2012)

yblocker said:


> Why not just leave the box in the tree until you are ready to move them permanently?


I only plan to move them down from the tree. Can't take them to another yard.


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## MelanieWoosley (Nov 11, 2012)

danno said:


> a move of 5 ft will confuse them. If you can avoid that I would. When you say "tranfer to perminent equipment" What do you mean and will the location change? I always move swarms to a different yard. If you want them to stay under the nectarine tree What I would do is seal the trap and move it a couple of miles. Maybe to a friends or family members house. Then after a week move it back to the perminent equipment under the tree.


It's in an eight frame swarm trap, permanent equipment will be a ten frame deep. It's in a tree and the per,aren't location is five feet below on the ground.


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## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

What I would do is allow the bees to remain exactly where they are for at least two weeks. This will give them time to settle in and start brood. I would then close them up at dusk and bring them to their permanent location. Three days later set them up in their permanent hive.


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## jadebees (May 9, 2013)

Consider using 8 frame hives. They are both, lure boxes, and hive bodies for me. I also use 2 box warre sets as lures. Same thing, just put it in the permanent place. A box or 2 on a stand instead of a tree seems to work as well. Usually they stay if yoou just move them to a stand, but best is to just wait 3 weeks, then do all at once. Less absconding by far if you keep frames in the same order and way they were in the lure.


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## shannonswyatt (May 7, 2012)

Bees get very confused by moves. A couple months ago I removed an empty brood box from a hive. They had been using a hole in the corner of a box as an upper entrance, so doing this move the hole down 6 inches. They were very confused for the rest of the day. The old adage is two feet or two miles. 

If you are just moving them out of the tree and the final location is going to be at the bottom of the tree could you put the box on a ladder and each day take it down a rung?


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## Cleo C. Hogan Jr (Feb 27, 2010)

Melanie... It is a little late for this advice, but, I would have moved it the first day I found it. I have never had any problems with bees absconding if they are opened, moved, frames added, etc. I believe this is greatly overstated. 

I check my trap lines about once a week during swarm season and the first thing I do when I find one occupied is place the frames from the swarm trap into a good deep hive body and move them to one of my yards. Place the trap back where it was and wait for an afterswarm to move into it. I never place my swarm traps higher than the top of a barrel. 

I normally use two frames of old dark brood comb and one frame of foundation in the trap. Brood comb against the side of the box and the foundation toward the middle. In one weeks time, the bees rarely drop comb, instead, they start drawing the two sides of the foundation. If they do drop some comb, scrape it off and melt it for pretty white wax.

cchoganjr


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