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  7: swarm traps o  7.1: Step one 

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  7.1.1.1.1: Step four 

swarm traps

If you would like to be a beekeeper and would like bees for free (freebees) you can make asimple cheap swarm trap from some discarded dresser drawers.

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Many people ask me things like how many bees do you need to catch, how many bees do youhave, how many bees are in a swarm, there's bees in my wall would you like them ... etc. Whell

Why don't we first talk about what a swarm is and why it would give you a complete hive thatwould produce honey.

You should probably know about the three kinds of bees in a hive as well as why bees swarm.Should you want to see a whole lot more specific bee info I'd go to bushfarms.com and

beesource.com. Below is a brief overview of bees and why they swarm. Otherwise you can go

to Step one 

Most people know about the one (or sometimes 2) special bee(s) called the queen.

Queen bees  Lay all the eggs for worker bees Lay all the eggs for drone bees

Secrete chemical signals that are fanned throughout the hive

One chemical called queen factor tells the other bees whether or not to beginraising a new queen

Worker bees 

When the female worker first comes out of the cell her first job is to raise young bees.She does this with secretions from her mandibles called royal jelly. Also she gathers

honey and pollen from near by cells to feed bees.

  If a bee receives royal jelly it’s entire larvahood it will become a queen 

New workers also tidy up the hive As they get older, workers are then sent away to get nectar and honey.

As their wings get weathered and worn the workers end up staying at the hive to fan

and evaporate moisture from the nectar and maintain hive temperature

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The older workers also guard the entrance

o This makes sense because a bee will die after its sting

Drone bees  Drones hatch from unfertilized eggs and are usually found in larger cells

The main job of a drone is to search for a new queen and mate Drones hang out somewhere outside of the hive in a place called a drone congregation

area. Using their eyes and sense of smell they search the skies for a young queen. Once

they find one they mate and die.

o  Since drones don’t really do anything honey wise, workers kill them and throw

them out in the fall.

Swarming Why do bees swarm?

o  If they didn’t there would only be one hive in the world!! 

o  Seriously though, it’s the way a bee colony reproduces 

What is a swarm then?

o A swarm of bees is usually composed of an older queen and most of the older

worker bees from the hive.

o A young queen is usually due to hatch in the hive right after a swarm leaves.

o The reduction of the queen factor pheromone makes the other bees raise a new

queen and prepare to swarm.

o Hives can produce multiple swarms

Mating – after a swarm has left newly hatched queen will mate with several drones and return to

the hive. She will then get really fat and swell up with eggs and begin laying.

Catching a swarm!!!Our goal is to get a queen and her bees to decide that we’ve got a nice place to live and move in.It's kind of like fishing for bees.

Where do bees like to live?? Beehives (yes you can use an old beehive and there has been success by lazy

beekeepers keeping an old hive in their yard with bees just moving in)

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  Dark wooden/wood like places (like in a tree where they would naturally live)

Places that smell like bees have lived there before (old comb smell)

Places that are marked by bee chemical signals (lemongrass oil has 2 of the beeorientation signals that they use for swarming)

Overview of a good swarm trap1. Dark and usually but doesn’t have to be wood 

2. Has a chunk of old comb

3. 12 feet off the ground4. A little bit of lemon grass oil (orientation pheromones)

5. Is 5 gallon size or bigger

When do you catch swarms?A swarm in May is worth a cow and a bushel of hay

A swarm in June is worth a silver spoonA swarm in July is worth a fly

A swarm in April is the shizzle (for rizzle)

Why do they say this?Because if you catch the bees before July they just might make a surplus of honey that

you can harvest. During July or after, you will have to feed your bees to make sure that they

stand a chance to survive the winter.

Would you want to get bees out of the walls of a house?

Not unless you are getting paid for construction in my opinion. Think about fixing

someone’s dry wall, or roof, while a whole mess of bees are rather upset that you are wrecking

their house with honey and young.

Swarms on the other hand have no young or honey to defend so most of the time they arereally gentle. If anyone you know sees a swarm in their trees, go and get it. All you need to do

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is shake them in a box and take them to their new hive. They rarely will sting you. I also

suggest you spritz them with some sugar water to keep them full and happy.

Step one 

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(consisting mostly of royal jelly) that produces larvae that will develop over the next two weeks into a queen.

Prior to the new queens emerging from their cells, the old queen gathers together a retinue of workers, normally half of the hive workers

which can be in the region of 25,000 bees. These bees then eat as much honey as they can carry before leaving for their new home

sometime around midday as a 'prime swarm'. Within 20 minutes the swarm should have landed on a tree branch or a post in the vicinity

of the apiary. The cluster, which can be quite large, has the queen in its centre and is at this stage normally, but not always, quite placidin its behaviour, probably due to the fact that most of the bees are stuffed full of honey and they have no home to defend. Scout bees

fly off to confirm that the potential new home is still available, and establish the best route to it.

The swarm may stay in this area for 1-2 hours, or sometimes for a day. Some have even stayed in this initial position, exposed to the

weather until they have all died several days later. Hopefully, the swarm will find its way into the desired new home or be captured by a

beekeeper and will continue to thrive.

 A swarm of bees enter a hive. Look out for worker bees 'fanning' (as 

discussed below). 

The Original Hive  

In the original hive the remaining workers look after the queen cells. Within a day or so the first queen cell will hatch and the emerging

queen will do one of two things. She will either take half of the remaining workers and fly off with her secondary or 'cast' swarm, to find

a new home, or she will go to each of the remaining queen cells and kill the growing or emerging queens with her own sting and remain

in the original hive.

If the cast swarm emerges, leaving the queen cells intact, new queens will go on hatching and making the choice of either flying with

half of the remaining workers until there are nearly none left, or killing their potential competitors and remaining in the original hive with

the remaining workers.

The 'Swarm Trap' or 'Bait Hive'  

This equipment is used to lure swarms to occupy it rather than other

homes. It is in fact a small scale hive, containing frames with

foundation both drawn and undrawn. The entrance is small and

therefore defensible, and it should ideally be positioned at least 6-10

feet above ground level with the entrance facing away from the

prevailing weather and towards the sun. It will probably have beeen

'scorched' by a blowtorch inside to kill any parasites on a seasonal

basis, and this creates the odour of charred wood. The foundation in

the frames will give off the smell of wax and an old, smelly, drawn

frame is usually included for maximum effect.

To increase the chance of catching a swarm, several products are

available which can be added, all of which claim to attract bees byodour. Some products are based on artificial pheromones and others

using a spray of extract of lemon balm, a bee favourite.

Fanning  

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When the swarm of honey bees arrive at their new home, the workers will perform a ritual known

as fanning, in order to entice the other workers into their new home. In this process, the workers

raise their abdomen into the air and wiggle it - the bees look very bizarre when doing it!

By raising their abdomen into the air, the workers expose a white-tip called a Nasonov gland. Thisgland releases pheromones into the air and the other workers detect the pheromone and interpret

this as a message saying "This is our new home - hurry up and move in!!!". So the process of 

fanning is the worker bees method of speeding up the move into their new hive.

This unique instinctive behaviour can be seen in the video half-way up this page, particularly from

7 minutes into the video. Simply click on the video to play!

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