»How to catch swarms of honeybees«
Trapping swarms allows you to catch bees freely but there are things that you need to do to increase your chances of catching the bees.
Trapping bees can help you get good genetics for your apiary. A swarm trap will have a wooden bottom, a hole at the corner which is the entrance which has a nail in the middle to prevent entry of birds. The bee trap should have a handle at the top that aids in fastening of the hive up. Inside the swarm traps are frames and these make it easy to transfer the bees from the trap to the main hive.
Hanging a swarm trap
Before hanging up the swarm trap, bait the bees with a bee attractant. Most people use lemon grass oil but an old frame with combs that has been got from a bee hive can do the same thing.
After baiting the hive, fasten the swarm trap onto a tree. Hang the swarm trap on significant land marks for example ends of tree lines, inside corners of fields edges, independent trees or even distinctive buildings.
After catching swarm
After your trap has caught bees, wait until it gets dark before you can remove and transport the bees. This allows all the bees including the forage bees to come back so that you can have a complete colony at night.
When its dark, cover the entrance to the trap and pull the trap off the tree, do a quick check to ensure that the trap has bees by quickly opening and closing.
After transporting the bees, leave the bees in the trap for 3 days so that the bees can begin building combs and the queen has started laying eggs.
Open the trap box and carefully transfer the frames from the trap box into the hive. Use a bee brush and brush off the remaining bees in the trap. These will find their way into the hive.
