# Don't worry too much about the location of a bait hive / swarm trap



## timsch (Apr 2, 2016)

I put together my five bait hives yesterday with a few old frames and a q-tip with lemongrass oil and some queen juice. I spent a bit of time perusing my area for the best places to put the traps, stressing over this or that little thing that wasn't quite to my liking. I found a couple of locations to put some, and left the other three stacked by my garage walkway for another day when I find some other "good" locations.

Lo and behold, this afternoon I have a bunch of activity around the hole of the bait hive stacked in the middle, about 4-5 feet off the ground. Tonight I see that many bees are staying in the hive for the night. Seems like that bait hive location was plenty good enough for some swarming bees.

LOL.

I love bees; they definitely teach you to take it as it comes.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

tim...
I had that happen before I moved a trap to a good location also. Now I always have a trap there.
Cheers
gww


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## Ferg (Aug 7, 2015)

Did the same thing last week, got down to the last trap and could not find the perfect place so just through it up and 1 week later I caught a swarm, go figure!


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Well, I would not say - "don't worry about the location".

I rather would say - for sure trap in your own backyard and every one of own bee yards.
Often enough your own yard is just it - THE LOCATION (especially if your yard and garage and a shed smell like bees, it's a no-brainer).
When you put up bee hives and stocked some used equipment, you just created a new location.
Locations do matter at that.


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

IME A swarm trap is also a swarm detector; If you have traps out and a swarm is looking they seem to find them all. 

More times than not they pick the traps with the preferences that T Seeley tested in his book.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

Flower planter


> IME A swarm trap is also a swarm detector; If you have traps out and a swarm is looking they seem to find them all.


This is how I found my first swarm from one of my hives cause I saw a bee looking at one of my traps. I walked down to my hives and sure enough there was a swarm in my cedar tree right by my hives. 

I like having my traps spread out by a mile but do have some places where I have up to four traps in flying distance from each other. I do find that bees look at all of them before moving in cause I have seen it. I do say on my place that the bees did not pick the trap that mostly fit seeleys ideal place and I had two others that would have fit better but that does not mean that there is not a fluke every so often but that they might mostly do so.

I will have to catch more then I have to figure that out.
Cheers
gww


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## amk (Dec 16, 2017)

I had the same kind of luck brand new to bees I just put a 10 frame deep in my yard where I planned to install a pack or nuc with a couple frames of old comb and a swarm moved in. Seemed almost to easy


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## yonderbob (Jan 27, 2017)

I'm new to beekeeping (1 year and change). I got a Swarm Trooper for Christmas and put it out with some old frames and lemon grass oil. My question is, I have the bait hive in a guava tree about 10 feet away from my only established hive. Is there such a thing as "too close" to an existing colony?


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## timsch (Apr 2, 2016)

I've read here that scout bees do tend to look further than that from the original hive for a new location. I don't know how far in general


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

yonderbob said:


> ..Is there such a thing as "too close" to an existing colony?


No.
Just search here on recent posts/pics by odfrank and see for yourself.


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## yonderbob (Jan 27, 2017)

Thanks, Tim. I'm not so much looking to trap a swarm coming out of my own hive as luring a swarm from a feral hive or another bee yard some distance away. I was thinking maybe they wouldn't be interested in having the "neighbors" so close by.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Location definitely matters. Some locations I never get swarms. Some locations I get multiple swarms. Year after year the good locations have remained good locations and the poor locations have remained poor locations...


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

timsch said:


> Lo and behold, this afternoon I have a bunch of activity around the hole of the bait hive stacked in the middle, about 4-5 feet off the ground. Tonight I see that many bees are staying in the hive for the night. Seems like that bait hive location was plenty good enough for some swarming bees.


I am not clear on this. Did you actually get a swarm in that trap or just a bunch of scouts? Attracting scouts with a baited trap is pretty easy. Getting a swarm to move in is a different matter.
I've had swarms move into unbaited equipment in all sorts of undesirable places. Last year one moved into a deadout in the bed of my pickup truck that had only been parked for about an hour. Having said that, those random occurrences are a small fraction of the swarms I catch. The baited, carefully placed traps generally collect 10 to 1 over the random ones.


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## yonderbob (Jan 27, 2017)

Guess i'll just have to keep it baited and wait. I'm in the middle of downtown Orlando so who knows what these "city bees" will do? I know there are other registered hives within half a mile of here and if one of those guys (or gal) gets a little lazy... maybe...


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## Fred Bee (May 5, 2007)

About 3 years ago, I brought a dead out hive home to clean up and take back to my remote bee yard. Clean up task soon accomplished but it was Easter weekend and we had lots of family activities so I decided I’d just stack the empty hive next to our back door by our garage with plans to return it to my out yard on Monday. As we drove home from Easter Sunday services my wife said “look at all the bees!” We sat in our car in the drive way and watched a big swarm move in and take up residence in that empty hive at our back door. My friends who are fond of the University of Tennessee Volunteers, nicked-named that hive our “Volunteer Bees.” It seemed to create quite a lot of interest and folks in the community would ask me, “How are the Vols doing?” They were talking about our bees not the ball team. We allowed the Volunteer Bees to stay at our backdoor through the honey flow before moving them away from the house. They made a fine crop of honey right there. Great memories...all this said, you just never know when and where a nice swarm may show up and Volunteer their services!


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## yonderbob (Jan 27, 2017)

I just wondered if there was any scientific or semi-scientific guidance as to whether swarming bees will take up residence in close proximity to an existing colony. I know I can get my neighbor's bees to "visit"... I found that out by open feeding. but is it futile to bait a trap just a few feet away from my healthy colony?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I just wondered if there was any scientific or semi-scientific guidance as to whether swarming bees will take up residence in close proximity to an existing colony.

I've had them move next door often enough... but what I have been told about the research shows a bell curve that peaks at about a quarter mile from the original colony and extends for several miles.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

There should be a clear distinction between 1)swarm-source colony and 2)some existing, unrelated colony.
Confusion keeps mixing in.

They will try to go *away *from the *source *colony (the younger the queen - the further away they will go normally).
They will totally move into an empty trap/hive just few feet away from some existing, *unrelated* colony (not the source colony).


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

GregV said:


> They will try to go *away *from the *source *colony (the younger the queen - the further away they will go normally).
> They will totally move into an empty trap/hive just few feet away from some existing, *unrelated* colony (not the source colony).


I've heard this repeated but never seen anything formal.
I have them move into swarm traps less than 200 feet from the donor hive regularly. I've seen it happen. I've seen my marked queens in my traps. I don't think bees follow any rules that we understand in this regard.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

beemandan said:


> I've heard this repeated but never seen anything formal.
> I have them move into swarm traps less than 200 feet from the donor hive regularly. I've seen it happen. I've seen my marked queens in my traps. I don't think bees follow any rules that we understand in this regard.


Whatever is the case, this year I am setting out all my previously used, empty equipment directly onto the yards.
Any swarm flying by is welcome to join my yard.

Got tired driving out to check my random traps - takes too much time.


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## yonderbob (Jan 27, 2017)

Excellent replies, all! Yes, i'm interested not in a swarm coming from my colony to a nearby baited trap, but the potential of a swarm coming from the bees i know are within a half mile of here (unrelated colony)and hoping they will take up residence in a trap set near my existing colony. Encouraging to hear that they are likely to seek a new home 1/4 mile or more away. The potential (source) colonies that I know of are within a half mile. So maybe I stand a chance... if those keepers get just a little lazy.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Granted someone's bees came en mass to rob left-out honey in my own backyard just another day - a couple of backyard swarm trap(s) is a must.
I even know the direction of their flight home.
My next yard nearby is also a good zone for trapping (for the same bees).
Hope for a relaxed or very busy keeper my vicinity. 

PS: but also must watch after my nucs - the flip-side.


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