# How close to a Bee tree should you place a swarm trap?



## enchplant (Apr 10, 2011)

I can't get to the entrance on the tree. It is too high up to do a trap out. How near can I place a swarm trap? Can I put it at the base of the same tree? Any experience with this?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

For a trap out it needs to have the cone coming directly into the hive...


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## enchplant (Apr 10, 2011)

It is not a trap out. It is just placing a standard swarm trap with a lure near an existing bee tree. Some people say it is better to have the trap quite far from the bee tree in other words a swarm won't settle on the same tree it came from. Any experience with this?


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

You never really know how far bees are going to go when they swarm. I have seen them come out of one box and settle in a deadout box sitting right next to it. I have also seen them fly for several hundred yards until they are out of sight, with me chasing them.

I would put out about three traps. One about 25 yards, another 50 yards, and another 150 yards if possible. Use Lemon grass oil, and a frame or two of old brood, and one frame of foundation. Even if you do not catch your tree, you might catch a swarm from another tree. 

If you have a good population of feral bees, place as many traps as you can. The more the better.

cchoganjr


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## SRatcliff (Mar 19, 2011)

Cleo C. Hogan Jr said:


> I have also seen them fly for several hundred yards until they are out of sight, with me chasing them.
> 
> 
> cchoganjr



I chuckled a little.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

>:I have also seen them fly for several hundred yards until they are out of sight, with me chasing them.

Don't you know to bang pots and pans together to make them settle?


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

odfrank...SRatcliff... Unfortunately bees swarm at their whim, not mine. Don't always have anything to beat on, but I do try to see where they go. Most often you can see where they settle, but not always. 

cchoganjr


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

The ideal distance is a quarter mile. But I have lured swarms down from trees putting bait hives directly under the tree.


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

When a swarm leaves their tree/hive do they continue in the direction the hive opening is facing or does this make no difference or a slight difference? So a south facing hive opening will throw swarms to the SE, S and SW directions more the northern directions?

"put out about three traps. One about 25 yards, another 50 yards, and another 150"
Would it be best to put them in the direction that most of the foragers take when they leave the hive?


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

perhaps someone else can help you on this one. I have only witnessed, perhaps a dozen or so swarms, as they leave the hive. More often I have seen them in the air. Or, more correctly I heard them.

Of the swarms that I have seen leave the hive, they did not all go straight out. In fact, they often only go a few feet or yards, and ball around the queen. Probably has more to do with the ability of the queen to fly as she exits the hive. Then the scouts go to work and find a new location.

Maybe Michael Bush could help us here.

cchoganjr


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Bees almost always have a staging area. They get organized there and then the scouts find a place and then they mark a path and they finally fly to the new location.


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