Phase 3:
A little over 3 hours' work. Made the cone, and used a hole saw for recessed lighting to cut the hole in last section of plywood sheathing. Kept the cone long so they'd have air. Whoever said HOT GLUE for #8 cloth was absolutely right, it was fast and helped with sharp edges.
In adding some brood from my hive, I found a new swarm cell I did not see 4 days ago. It's been warm and rainy; maybe with all bees inside it's crowded, and the TBH got an itch to swarm even though there's a nearly-empty super on it. So I used the bar with the open (not ragged cut) swarm cell. Away to the bee tree!
I'd trimmed the azaleas in front, but they were still in the way. I tried putting the catchbox in front of the cone, but it was just too crowded. It's 3 feet away from the end of the cone. It doesn't look level in the pic, but I did level the shelf holding the catchbox, and the adjustable shelves helped compensate for the uneven soil grade. The shelf was handy for resting tools, too.
The moment of truth when the plywood & cone went on:
Sure wish there would have been 2 people to wrangle that big contraption.
Sure wish I would have remembered to check for the right size staples in the staple gun.
Sure wish I wouldn't have had to drive back home to get long staples right then.
The bees were furious by this point, and I got popped a couple of times though gloves & jeans. I tried to bribe them with a sugar brick on the rim of the catchbox. No takers. I propped the cone in place. A few chased me back and forth down the street, but thankfully, they didn't understand the Car Door.
By the time I returned, although it wasn't a tight trap out, they'd reached the Threshold of Futility, and were calmer.
Some were drifting into the catchbox.
Update posted tomorrow!