About two months back, I set up a swarm trap about 150 yards from a large hive of feral bees in a huge hollow tree. The trap is an eight frame deep with one frame of old comb, seven frames of open frames with a starter strip in the top of the frame. These frames had originally been used to produce comb honey. I added a few drops of lemongrass oil and set it on two concrete blocks, some eight inches above ground level. I checked the trap every couple of days and added fresh lemongrass oil until the Texas rains started. Yesterday, I remembered the trap and went over to check on it. My wife went with me. The trap had grass and weeds grown up around it. I parked the Gator about 12 feet away and just looked at it for a minute or so, and then one solitary bee flew down through the weeds and into the hive trap. I watched a few minutes and the bee did not come out, not did another bee fly into the hive. We left and went home.
Today, I drove the gator back over and found much more traffic. Every several seconds one of two and sometimes three bees are seen coming and going from the hive. I watched for a bit and left them. These bees are about 600 yards from my home apiary. What would you suggest? I would like to mash the weeds down in front of the hive and feed them some sugar water, but I had another colony of bees move into a trap earlier in the year, and they moved out the next day. I had not done anything to them. They were several miles from this trap. My first thought is to leave them alone for a couple of days and then feed them one-to-one sugar water for a bit.
lazy
