We've caught two separate swarms of honeybees in the backyard. We are novice beekeepers. I guarantee you we will mess this up, but that doesn't stop us from trying and learning. One of the swarms appears to be healthy, while the other is not. In fact, we've lost hive 2. Tricia thinks we accidentally injured/killed the queen. Maybe I'll report on that later.
We are putting out another swarm trap out to try to catch another swarm or two. We live in prime honeybee area. The nation's fifth largest honeybee producer lives less than a mile from us. As a result there are lots of bees in the area. While we haven't had tremendous success in KEEPING bees, we've been blessed to catch two swarms in less than 3 weeks. We're trying again.
Here's how we do it. It starts out with an attractant. We use lemongrass essential oil. There is another product called Swarm Commander. Either attractant is a pheromone that attempts to mimic the scent that scout bees emit when they've found a place that they want the colony to locate to as their new home. Swarm Commander is 3 times the cost of lemongrass essential oil, so we opt for the economy product.
We put three drops on a cotton ball. We've been told to be careful with this as the worker bees like the scent, but if you put too much, the queen doesn't like it. Since the object is to get the queen in the box, you want to have the right amount. It's trial and error. We've learned that every beekeeper has their own method for doing things, so you have to try things out to see what works best for you.
Our swarm trap is a 'deep box' on top of a bottom board, with a top board and a telescoping cover. We drop the lemongrass oil infused cotton ball in the trap next to a frame of drawn out comb.
And now, we just wait and check it every day.
Hopefully, we'll have some scout bees come check out the box and will want to move in. We will simply wait and check it every day. We'll let you know and post if we catch another swarm.
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