How often to check swarm traps?

[rgennaro]

Hi everybody
I am in the process of placing some swarm traps. Some I will put them around my property and I can check them regularly. But I am going to put a few over at a friend's property in the hope of catching a swarm from a colony that lives in his barn and seems very strong and healthy (discussed in a previous post). It's a 10-15 minutes drive to his property. How often should I go check the traps? The swarms (if caught) may or may not have to be relocated.
Thanks
Rosario

[Nock]

I check mine usually once a week. Sometimes every other week.

[JurassicApiary]

Similar to Nock, I usually check them once a week for ones close by my property and every other week for distant ones.


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[Bob Wilson]

I agree too. Once a week.
The reason I do that is if a colony moves in the day after I check, that gives them only a week of building in the swarm box, before I return for another check. That is short enough to remove them before they build too much in the swarm box and make a mess of things.

If they have just moved in, then I transfer them to a hive immediately.
If they are building but have no brood, then I know to come back in a few days when they have brood.
If they have already set up brood, then I move them to a permanent hive.

I recently helpd a guy with a swarm trap that had been occupied for 4 weeks. It was a two man job moving the colony into a hive box. Every single frame was filled with comb, but then had more comb hanging from the bottom of it. Fortunately, it was mostly cutting out and rubber banding brood comb into additional frames, and even that was mostly straight built. If it had been cross comb, or if there had been a lot of nectar, it would have been a royal mess.

[Ben Framed]

If you were to use (traps) as those used by Jeff Horchoff Bees of Saint Francis Abby it would not be a worry.  Jeff uses regular 10 frame deeps with frames included. Never a worry about a mess. I suppose you could wait 2 weeks or longer, depending on your schedule. Jeff catches some years 40 or more swarms.

[Bob Wilson]

Ben Framed.
I agree. Just starting out, I copied Leo Sharashkin's swarm box on his site, horizontalhives.com. Knowing what I do now, I will be building standard deep 8 frame hive boxes for bait hives in the future.

[Ben Framed]

Thanks Bob. I have not been one to purposely set out to trap bees. I hope what I have to say may be a help to you. I have done a few cutouts. One thing I have found true is, almost every one the person tells me the bees (came back again). They might not be in the exact same location if the last cutout was properly sealed, but some place close, in the same house. If the previous cutout was not properly sealed the new bees 🐝 will almost always go to the exact location of the previous bees. Personally I believe it is because of the imprinted scent that a hive leaves behind even for a very long time after a cutout has been done, maybe even years? I am thinking the reason, or a great part of the reason why Jeff is so successful is because he uses old bee boxes and frames and usually at a house etc where he has done a cutout.

Personally I caught a swarm very early this year, actually late winter. In a stored hive in my garage. The swarm had to go the extra effort to reach this old stored hive. I had several stacked. It was several feet away from an opening meaning they preferred this over much easier to reach locations. I hope this information may help you in the future with your swarm catching.

Phillip




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[Ben Framed]

I am posting this from a couple years ago that may be interesting to you trappers!  RoBo is a Moderator here and the inventor of The RoBo Vac.



Quote from: Robo on March 29, 2018, 10:55:24 am
I run 4 foundationless frames with wires and 1 drawn brood comb.   I leave them at least a week to settle before I move them.   This gives them time to draw comb down to the wires and for the queen to start laying


https://youtu.be/92EgotwfZCA

[rgennaro]

thanks everybody. My swarm traps are actually two nuc boxes and two medium boxes with frames in them already. I am putting a lure in there as well. For each box I took two pieces of plywood to close the top and the bottom and I made a notch on the bottom one to let the bees come in. I'll keep everything close with some bungee cords. Is that a good idea? :) My thinking was that this way the bees will be building in the frames and it will be easier to move the swarm.

I am putting one right next to where a swarm took residence last year in my barn.