Swarm trap ?

[Green bee]

Lburou, have you always used swarm commander or is this you first time using it?

[Lburou]

Lburou, have you always used swarm commander or is this you first time using it?

My second year.  Have used brood comb, LGO and queen dope (gathered from placing dead queens in rubbing alcohol, then, taking a few drops of that as an essence of the queen pheromone).

[neillsayers]

Lee,

That looks like a perfect location. Easy to get to and a solid surface for a ladder.

[Lburou]

Lee,

That looks like a perfect location. Easy to get to and a solid surface for a ladder.

I drive right up to it and stand in my pickup bed...

[newpaltz99]

I don't have the carpentry tools or skills to build an actual hive box.

I think I might be able to build something like this:

http://www.horizontalhive.com/how-to-build/swarm-trap-free-plans.shtml

I have seen coroplast nuc boxes.  Maybe that would work?

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[Wandering Man]

Welcome to the forum Newpalzt99.

And thanks for the suggestion. I had originally thought I'd just use a nuc until I started reading the research. The ideal size for a swarm trap is closer to the size of a 10 frame hive.

That, by itself wouldn't have stopped me. But I've also read that Africanized bees prefer smaller spaces. Since I live in an area with AHBees, I might be increasing my chances of catching a hot swarm with a nuc.

99, please take a moment to introduce yourself in the Welcome section.

[CBT]

This is an experiment unscientific but the result could be noteworthy. Washed hands between baiting each.

[Wandering Man]

Cool!  I like what you're doing.

And if none of the hives catches a swarm?  Then we assume that swarming behavior doesn't really happen?

  

Actually, though, I wonder if the house the swarm traps are sitting on would be the control.

I've got my swarm trap in a pittosporum shrub that has been groomed to resemble a tree.  The opening is at eye level.  I'm worried that while it is convenient for me, it is too low for the bees.

I didn't want to put it too close to my house, because I didn't want to encourage the bees to look for an opening in my soffit.

[Lburou]

This is an experiment unscientific but the result could be noteworthy. Washed hands between baiting each.

I want to hear more about this experiment. 

[robo]

This is an experiment unscientific but the result could be noteworthy. Washed hands between baiting each.

Hard yo tell from the photo,  but I hope they are solid bottom boards.  Swarms dislike screen bottom boards.   If you don't have entrance reducers in place, you might want to consider adding them to increase your chances.  They like smaller entrances too.

Best of luck 

[neillsayers]

All this talk about swarm traps and the trees blooming like crazy got me inspired so went to the woods with my ladder and baited my two swarm traps. Fingers crossed!

[Green bee]

This is an experiment unscientific but the result could be noteworthy. Washed hands between baiting each.

this is something I was wanting to do CBT, keep us posted on your results. Looks like you have all the bases covered. 

[CBT]

They are solid bottom boards. Was out of 10 frame reducers. Cut some soon.

[vvand111]

I have 4 flower pot traps up and baited.  Bees have been around and in and out of all 4 on a daily basis. 

Neighbor posted on face book on Wednesday they had a swarm in back of house. Before I found out about it they took a guys advice to spray with wasp killer.

Missed opportunity but I have put the word out.  At least tells me somebody else around has bees and they are swarming in my area

[Green bee]

  this is some activity around one of my traps today.

[efmesch]

Over the past week I've received well over 100 "WattsUp" messages about available swarms.  Someone set up a group dedicated to  collecting information about swarms around the country.  Whenever a call comes in, the word is sent out to all the signed up members of the group and whoever is in the vicinity and wants to, can post his/her interest in collecting it.  After expressing the desire to collect it, other members of the group respect the "first come-first served " reservation.  Some members who couldn't handle the job (no equipment left or too difficult for them etc.) reported back to the group and others who were interested stepped in. 
A lot of pictures have been posted with the notifications so as to give an idea about size and position of the swarm so that you can know what you're getting into before volunteering.
I think it's a great idea for beekeepers in a region to help each other---and those who want the swarms removed from their property.