Ready, Steady...
The flowering current is flowering, springtime is a-springing, and the bees are bringing home basketloads of pollen. Which means it’s time to set up the bait hive. I have a new location for it this year:
South facing water butt
It’s on top of a water butt that stands against the south(ish)-facing back wall of our house. This sunny, elevated position should make it attractive to swarms.
The hive volume is smaller than it looks - only the brood box is accessible from the entrance. There’s a solid crownboard on the brood box, then supers above, then the roof. This is my one Smith hive, and its boxes are slightly narrower than those of all my other hives (Nationals), so I generally keep it all stacked together.
I put some frames in the brood box ready for the swarm to build comb. They are empty frames rather than old combs of wax. The latter would perhaps be better because swarms are drawn to the scent of old comb, and empty frames invite the bees to build comb in freeform shapes…but empty frames are still better than no frames at all. I know from previous experience that it’s really quite inconvenient when bees hang their combs directly from the crownboard.
I’ve put this bait hive out simply to see if bees will show interest in it. It will be exciting if a swarm does move in, but the idea is more about monitoring when/whether bees are scouting for homes. If it attracts scout bees, it will be a sign that bees in the area are thinking of swarming…maybe my bees, who will therefore need to be kept an extra close eye on. Because although it would be wonderfully convenient if they would swarm into an empty hive that I set up for them, they’d probably instead fly off into the blue and set up home somewhere out of my knowledge or reach, so I’ll be aiming to prevent them swarming at all.
Foragers return to Queen Flora’s hive
Flowering current
