Beekeeping Tip: How to Make Swarm Lure

Linda demonstrates how to make a swarm lure. This can be incredibly useful in early spring. Rub it on bait hives - old hives that are currently unoccupied - to invite bees looking for a new home to take up residence. Rub it around the opening in the inner cover. Rub it on the upper edge of the entrance - not on the lower part of the entrance - you don't want the bees to get their feet stuck in it. And rub some on two or three frame tops inside the hive. This works almost 100% of the time on old equipment. Using this, I have captured a swarm in old equipment at least once a year for the last ten or so years.
Recipe: one inch cube of beeswax (approximately 23 g of beeswax), 1/4 cup olive oil, 20 - 30 drops of lemongrass oil
In the Catching a Swarm playlist, there's a video of how to apply swarm lure to old equipment.

If you catch a swarm with this bait, post a comment here and let me know!