Bee swarms attracted to apiary sites?

[omnimirage]

This year, I've had numerous bee swarms come to my home. I can't tell if they've absconded out of my own hives and I can't tell, or if bee swarms are somehow attracted to apiary sites for whatever reason.

Last year I had a swarm land in my front garden. This year,  I've had two at one of my sites, and five at the other, too much to simply be a coincidence.

It makes me wonder if I should be setting up bait/trap hives at my apiary sites.

[Perry]

I had an apiary that had 10 hives I was going through with a friends help. He noticed a small swarm hanging on a shrub just 10 feet outside my fence. I asked him to collect it and as he was, he noticed it was getting bigger by the minute. It was a swarm moving into the apiary.
We collected it and went through all my hives, no swarm had issued from any of them. As we were loading my truck my friend said he could still hear bees, so we looked around some more and found another swarm up in the air about 30 feet in a branch. I caught them the next day.
So I guess my answer to your question would be yes, swarms can be attracted to another persons apiary site.

[omnimirage]

Did you set up bait hives? These experiences seem too unlikely to be coincidental. I wonder if they can smell something they like, or feel safe by the presence of other healthy bees.

[Wandering Man]

When I told my neighbor I was going to start keeping bees, he told me he'd heard they attracted other bees.  I told him I didn't think they would.  Maybe I was wrong?

[Knucs]

I've heard this before as well.
Here is an interesting read about ley lines, http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/leylines.html

And here is another interesting read about orientating your hives with magnetic lines, http://www.landandspirit.net/html/beehive-location.html

[Perry]

Did you set up bait hives? These experiences seem too unlikely to be coincidental. I wonder if they can smell something they like, or feel safe by the presence of other healthy bees.

I didn't set up bait hives. I have tried placing swarm traps in yards trying to catch any of my own swarms and it has never happened.

[omnimirage]

I've heard this before as well.
Here is an interesting read about ley lines, http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/leylines.html

And here is another interesting read about orientating your hives with magnetic lines, http://www.landandspirit.net/html/beehive-location.html

are those valid sources of information?

[Knucs]

Omnimirage, not sure but I still found it interesting, I ran across the ley line one quite some time ago. They are pehaps a bit out there but not as bad as crystals or the power of pyramids, 

[neillsayers]

knucs,

I found those articles quite interesting. I have always been curious about the concept of ley lines and Sweet Wife is much more knowledgeable about it than I. Thanks for those, I will share them with the boss lady and see what she thinks.

[Mikey N.C.]

Very interesting .

[Barbarian]

I believe that scout bees and swarms are attracted by the smell of hives and beekeeping equipment.
I think that a swarm has an urge to relocate a distance away from the parent hive.

Each year, I use bait hives. With a bait hive, it is easier to add frames of foundation or move the swarm to a new location.
In my suburban location, swarms often end up in building cavities and have to be destroyed. I hope that bait hives help to prevent colony destruction.

[Gypsi]

They seem to be attracted to the smell of bees and healthy hives.  I keep bait hives out. I do catch my own swarms, in past years I have caught a couple of unexpected ones

[LazyBkpr]

  Catching a swarm from your own hives depends a lot on available "homes" that the bees will choose...
  Apparently, we do not have many available sites nearby...   My bee shed is about twenty steps from my main yard. I have had bees move into both Nucs and assembled hives in that shed, and once into a hive I had in the back of my truck about 40 yards away...
   Like Perry, the first time it happened, I searched my hives like a fanatic to see which one had queen cells and no queen, and could not find which hive they came from, so assumed they wre not mine.. since then, I quit worrying if they were mine. I do regular inspections and HOPE I will spot a problem when I need to.
   this year I split pretty hard two diffeerent times, and still had a swarm move into a hive in my shed...
   As I see it...
   I am either getting free bees with 0 work, or my bees are splitting themselves for me... Now I just run with it!