# Bait Hive



## mrjackcoleman (Dec 30, 2011)

If you don't have any Lang's and your new to beekeeping, what should one make or use as a bait hive? I assume a bait hive is also called a swarm hive...I've read that lemongrass oil is "the" choice of luring a swarm, but what do you put it on or in?


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## quevernick (Feb 22, 2011)

I made smaller Top Bar hives that hold about 12-15 bars. I made 10 of them last year but only got 3 put up before the swarm season hit. So far I haven't caught anything. This year I'll be putting up at least 8 of them and I've got about 8 Lang boxes to put up too. The first year I just used lemongrass oil but I'll be using some brood comb from a cutout I did last year in addition to the oil.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I put one old black comb and the rest foundationless frames.


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## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

I've made boxes with top bars that match the bars of my larger tbh's. If you can settle on which type of hive you plan to use, then you can make bait hives to match those interior dimensions. Personally, I want to avoid doing a cut-out on the bait hive. So that means more work on the bait hive to make ease of transfer easier.

Adam


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## Stanisr (Aug 25, 2010)

Look in the "Build it Here" section for the 5 frame Nuc plans by D. Cotes. I have found them to be very easy and cheap to build and work very well. I altered the plans and made some with 6 frames as well just in case the volumn wasn't adequate.


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## quevernick (Feb 22, 2011)

The Cotes nucs are cheap and easy. Unless his TBH has about the same dimensions of a Lang it would most likely require cutting out the comb to put it in the TBH. Do you already have your TBH? If not I'd suggest making it roughly the shape of a medium Lang so you could interchange frames from one to another. Its something I'd wish I'd done instead of going with Kenyan TBH for my first hives.


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## mrjackcoleman (Dec 30, 2011)

Is suspending it in the air the better choice? Or just leave it off the ground about 18" or so?


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## quevernick (Feb 22, 2011)

I strap mine to a tree about 7 feet up. The box has to holes on the backside that I can hook a ratchet strap to. Basically about as far as I can reach from the ground. There was a thread on here a while back about suspending the traps in the air but I dont recall what the consensus was.


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## SteveBee (Jul 15, 2010)

Jack,,,I built plywood boxes that hold about 7-8 of the same top bars that fit my hives. I took pill bottles and drilled a few small holes in them and stuck a piece of cotton inside with a couple of drops of lemongrass oil and laid them in the bottom of the box. This video is similar to what we use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRfEhAXaeyQ


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## Beethinking (Jun 2, 2008)

I build mine to hold 7 bars and 1 follower. That way I can easily get the bars out and transfer them without fear of breaking them off.










http://www.beethinking.com/top-bar-hive-nucleus-box


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