# Bait Hives for Honey bees



## Myron Denny (Sep 27, 2009)

Bait Hives
for the Attraction of Honey Bee Swarms
Bait hives can be used in two basic ways, firstly and probably most commonly as a means of capturing swarms for populating your own hives. The second use is to capture swarms that might be from undesirable strains of bee, so that they can be eliminated from the environment. These bees may be undesirable by virtue of being 'Africanised' or it maybe that bees are alright in themselves, but of an unsuitable race to be compatible with breeding being conducted in the area. 
Captured honey bee swarms may simply be used by a hobby beekeeper for increasing colony numbers, but usually there are other reasons... 
Plumping up colonies that may not be large enough for the job in hand. However weak colonies should be investigated in order to establish why they are actually weak. 


I have put such captured or collected swarms to work drawing wax foundation, which is a task that they readily perform. (Particularly if fed sugar syrup.) 


They can be utilised to populate mating nucs, but I prefer to do this myself using bees that have been selected to contain a high percentage of nurse bees. 


they can be used to bolster numbers in queen raising and cell finishing colonies, but I personally like to do this with bees of known race as I have some suspicions that workers of different race to the larvae will not feed them as well as bees that are more closely related to the larvae concerned. 


From a simple practical sense that no beekeeper can control all swarming, it makes sense to have a few swarm attracting hives in any apiary. All that is needed is an empty box or an empty hive with 3 or 4 old drawn combs in it. This makes transfer of any captured swarms simple and the old comb can be worked to the side and eventually out completely. The old comb attracts attention because of a build up of pheromones. This method extends the life of old decaying equipment that is 'too far gone' for normal use. 

Information Bulletin No. 187 written by Tom Seeley and Roger Morse is available from Cornell University and has details on bait hives and capturing swarms. 

In USA bait hives are available commercially. They are available from Scentry Inc., PO Box 426, Buckeye, AZ 95326-0090. It is a flower pot shaped paper pulp container of 380 mm in diameter x 395 mm tall that can be suspended by wires or ties. It uses a pheromone lure of their own manufacture to attract honey bee swarms. 

Pheromone lures can be used as the attractant in bait hives that may be in position over a time scale that would see old honeycomb destroyed by waxmoth, however the pheromone lures themselves will need replacement from time to time. 

Various other aromatic substances have been used to render bait hives attractive to bees. Orange, lemon or lime peel can be rubbed on interior surfaces whereby the oil from the skin becomes impregnated in the wood. The molten wax from a burning beeswax candle can be dripped along top-bars or on the interior surfaces. Slum gum is also a useful attractant.


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## Brenda (Nov 23, 2006)

I put out 1 bait hive last May and a swarm moved in. 
This is in a location I own that had some wild bees in a tree a few years back. They had abandoned the tree a few years ago, but I knew they were still around somewhere because they were thick in the dutch clover last year.
I put in 2 frames of old brood comb, 2 frames of honey and the rest empty frames. I also used some swarm lure near the entrance. They were checking it out before I even got it out of my truck. 
I'm going to try another bait hive a little farther away from that one and see what happens.
Oh, these were mediums, set almost on the ground.


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

There's several threads in the archives. I love setting up swarm traps baited with commercially prepared pheremone lures. Just about every supplier carries them for around $5 (well worth the cost for one swarm). I use the swarms I catch to expand and repopulate my bee yards.

I've used a variety of trap designs. I've set them up in a variety of places. It's a lot like fishing. Some spots work better on different days.

If you have a backlog of old ABJ's, I wrote an article on my early attempts in 2002. In the March issue, Volume 142, number 3, pages 174-177 you can find some of my early work.

I later added a web site at: http://www.feralhoneybees.homestead.com

This site will show you a couple of the trap designs I've used. I've used the flower pot design but you need to empty that trap ASAP before they draw out too much comb. There was a nice box style but the company quit manufacturing that design.

More information is available. PM me for details.

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I caught 20 last year and 40 this year. My techniques:

Catch on standard frames only, no need to do a cutout of drawn combs. I use five frame nuc boxes for easy transportaton, larger boxes catch larger swarms. 
Bait with at least one black comb and a few drops of lemongrass oil. I have caught swarms on only new combs.
Placing baits high up is not required.
No honey, it attracts ants.
This year about ten percent came with no or bum queens, another ten percent failed quickly.


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## Fuzzy (Aug 4, 2005)

Od's Right on...
Use a 5 frame nuc box or a standard hive box. (with standard frames)
At least 1 frame of old brood comb
And a few drops of Lemon grass oil
Caught 5 swarms without ever leaving home this year.


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

I do the same as OD and Fuzzy. 

Here is one I set out in my back yard. This is a extra deep body I had so I made a swarm trap out of it. There is a feral colony in the park across the street. Swarm moved in less than 12 hours. 










This is a nuc I slaped together. Put it up about 12-15'. Rubber banded some comb in a frame. For now on my traps will be a waist level or lower. Much easier to handle.


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## DroneDawg (Nov 3, 2009)

How close do you set the traps to your existing hives? Will the traps pull your existing bees from there current hives?


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## charmd2 (May 25, 2008)

Drone Dog, I have a bait hive set up literally touching one of my other hives, rather unintentionally, and I probally will move it closer to spring, but it is a dead out, and I'm not moving it any further than i need to. 

It will not cause a hive to swarm. However, it may catch one of your swarms. Merely having a location nearby does not entice the bees to swarm, and yet, having a location nearby might not catch "my bees" they may up and choose to move miles away, I might catch a neighbors bees as easily as mine. 

I think I read somewhere 1/4 mile away and 12-14 feet in the air, near an identifiable landmark, blah blah blah.  I'm fairly sure I will never put a bait hive any higher than waist high.


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## Beethinking (Jun 2, 2008)

I put up 3 bait hives last year and caught 1 swarm. I'm just using the biodegradable flower pots screwed to a piece of plywood and hung about 7-10' in the air. As long as you get to them quickly they work quite well. This coming season I'll be using some 5 bar top bar nuc boxes that fit my standard horizontal top bar hives. 

Matt


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