»Swarm trapping and swarm trap design«
Before laying out a swarm trap, the design of the trap and the how you lay the trap out determines on wether or not you will succeed in catching the swarms.
Many people just use a five frame box to trap swarms because its convenient for them but to increase the chances of catching swarms, you need to provide enough space to the swarms. Swarms prefer an average swarm trap of 40 litres in volume. You can achieve this by having 2 five frame boxes stack together. After stacking them together, you need to fasten them together before hanging them onto a tree.
Other tips
The 10 frame swarm trap needs to be sited on a bottom board and covered before hanging it up to catch bees.
It is better that you use equipment that has had bees before because these have the scent of bees and can easily attract bees.
You can also buy specific swarm traps for example a big round basket that is hang on a tree. The problem with it is that once the swarm is inside and has built a comb, you will have to cut the combs from the basket into the frames in the bee hive.
When using bee traps with frames, include one frame with old brood comb because old brood comb has a lot of pheromone scents that attract bees.
In addition to the above, you also need to use an attractant to attract the bees.
The entrance to the swarm trap should be between 1.5 to 2.5 square inch.
