# How does catching swarm for beekeeping with lemongrass oil work?



## bugman2 (Apr 9, 2014)

The swarm comes with the old queen. The LGO just attracts the swarm to your trap.


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## Foxhound (Feb 19, 2015)

More specifically, the lemongrass oil attracts scout bees to the box. Your swarm box still needs to be a suitable place that the bees will want to move into. 

Could drop some lemongrass oil into an old shoe, but i'm not sure they would move in. They might, they are bees after all.

You can extend the life of the oil by dropping a couple drops onto a paper towel and placing it in a partially sealed zip-top bag. Then place that bag in your bait hive.


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## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Welcome to BeeSource! If you can get a frame of old comb, put it in your trap. The rest of the frames should be foundation less to give the scouts the impression of more room that the swarm can build into. An 8 frame deep is about optimum size for a trap.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

A queen by herself will die. A queen in a cage with some attendants will last a few days but that is not how you catch a swarm. The swarm will come with it's own queen. If you want to really stack the deck you can buy some "pseudoqueen" from Mann Lake (I don't remember who else has it) and use a 1/4" of one of those in addition to the lemongrass oil.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

I have a small hopefully related question that I hope is not stealing the thread from the origional poster. When I watch a jpthebeeman vidio, he spends a lot of time looking for the queen and always cages her when found. I have heard that lots of swarms don;t stay put after being hived. 

Does jp look for the queen just to know she is there and cage her so she doesn't get hurt during transfer? Is he keeping her caged for a short period till the bees start drawing comb and then releasing her after, hoping the hive is commited?

How is this to be handled for someone who has never did it and has no resources like brood or comb to add while hiving?

I hope I am not out of line and am on topic.
Thank you
gww


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

> I have a small hopefully related question that I hope is not stealing the thread from the origional poster. When I watch a jpthebeeman vidio, he spends a lot of time looking for the queen and always cages her when found. I have heard that lots of swarms don;t stay put after being hived.
> 
> Does jp look for the queen just to know she is there and cage her so she doesn't get hurt during transfer? Is he keeping her caged for a short period till the bees start drawing comb and then releasing her after, hoping the hive is commited?
> 
> How is this to be handled for someone who has never did it and has no resources like brood or comb to add while hiving?


I am really curious about handling the queen during a cut out or swarm catch.
Thank you 
gww


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## rkereid (Dec 20, 2009)

gww said:


> I am really curious about handling the queen during a cut out or swarm catch.
> Thank you
> gww


If you have the chance, cage the queen during a cutout. That way she can't run away. 

With a swarm, you just want to get her in the box with some bees. The rest of the bees will follow. Rarely, you will get a swarm that just wants to fly off. In that situation, caging the queen would help, or put a queen excluder on the bottom board.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

rke
Thanks for answering my question. At this time I won't have a queen excluder and I am going to try to trap. guess I will take my chances. I was just curious how it was handled. 
Again thanks
gww


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