So what do you bait a swarm trap with, and where do you place them?

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With the weather warming up rapidly here in Southeast Louisiana, today it reached 82 degrees, and trees are flowering everywhere you look, my focus temporarily turns from building equipment to catching swarms. Even though I still have 80 screened bottom boards to build, I'm going swarm trap setting. I don't know how most of you feel about catching swarms in a trap, but for me, it's one of the most exciting aspects of keeping bees, and it is the closet thing there is to really FREE BEES.

As sad as the experience of losing about 20 hives over winter was, I plan on using those hives as my swarm traps. Basically, turning a bad into a good. They have all the necessary smells associated to attract a new swarm, and there is drawn out comb ready for use.Because the first swarms of the year will almost always contain the old queen, these swarms have the capability of exploding very quickly as there is no down time for the queen to get mated and start laying. By having drawn comb in the trap, our old queen can start laying within a few days, and within 3 weeks you will see orientation flights from your new swarm. I'd like to see that happen with a secondary swarm, you'd be lucky if you saw orientation flights 40 days after catching one of those. And as you all know, it's all about timing with bees. If there are enough bees in the hive when the nectar flow is on, you are going to have a wonderful honey crop. Have I ever mentioned that I really love honey.

Once again, Wreck it Ralph donates his time and talents in helping me clean our old dead outs, build the stands that will hold our swarm traps, and rides shotgun with me to set 11 traps. What an honor and privilege to have such a good friend. So follow along as Ralph and I prepare and then set Abbee Honey's swarm traps. God's peace to all.
Mr. Ed