Feb 2, 2020: Baiting Swarm Traps Today. EXCITED!!

Just sharing with you examples of locations where i set up swarm traps. Hope you enjoy and find it useful.

A Sure Sign That Swarm Season Is Near!

Some people get excited about  the Christmas Season. Some people get excited about hunting season.  Not me....the thing that I get excited about is swarm season, And even though it is a bit early I do believe it is upon us!

The picture above was taken today on the bee farm, Feb 1, 2020 about 15 miles east of Leesville, La. If you are new to beekeeping and are wondering about the significance of the above picture, it is a picture of a scout honey bee. Scout bees look for (among other things) sources of forage, water, tree sap, and new housing for the colony . This particular scout bee is looking for new housing for a colony that is about to swarm. 

How do I know that this particular bee is a scout bee? Two reasons really. Reason #1 is because of the time of year. The first big pollen flow is going on right now. The swamp maple is in full bloom, and when  that happens during a warm winter like we have been having this year it can trigger the queen to start laying more heavily. When she starts laying more heavily this will trigger the rest of the colony to start preparing to propagate meaning they will want to make two colonies out of one. This is the natural activity for a healthy colony this time of year. 

Reason #2 is the fact that bees are drawn to certain things as far as housing goes. If you can grab their attention you will greatly increase your odds of capturing a swarm. How do you grab their attention? I use lemon grass oil on a q-tip placed inside a box with  room enough to be home to a young colony. 

These two reasons are at work together in this picture. The box is a Kenyan Top-Bar swarm trap and it is baited with Lemon Grass oil. Why does Lemon Grass oil work? Because it smells exactly like the pheromone that a queen bee emits. This grabs the attention of scout bees, then they are drawn to your box. Once their they will inspect the box, record the data (location/hive measurements), and then bring that info back to the colony. Once the new queen emerges from her cell back at the old hive, the old queen and half of the colony are evicted and will travel to the newly found home.  Viola! You now have a new healthy honey bee colony!

We here in the south are on the cusp of the swarm season 2020, and I am giddier than a kid at Christmastime. FREE BEES! And folks, that is something to be excited about. These early swarms carry with them the potential of providing you with harvestable honey in their first season. Not only that, but capturing your own bees in your local area like this insures that you have healthy bees that are adapted to your local climate. 

So what are you waiting for? Get those swarm traps out! Get them baited up with Lemon Grass oil. It is TIME!!

Around the bee farm I keep swarm traps set up all year long. Even though there is a specific season for catching swarms, usually from Feb or March through to about September, there have been instances here in Louisiana that beekeepers have caught swarms all the way to December. For this reason I keep traps up throughout the year. That, and its just easier to leave them up LOL.

Get out those swarm traps and make sure you get the purest Lemon Grass oil available to catch your bees. Below is the exact oil I use. My results are great with this brand. 

Happy Bee Catching!

Great App For Keeping Up With Swarm Trap Locations

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! 

I haven't posted an update here in a few weeks now because I have been busy with work and with putting out swarm traps. Yes, I know most people believe that it is a bit early (or late depending on how you view it), but I want to get them in place now as I build them and find good locations for them. Also, I like to put them out over a very large area so I can get a wide range of genetics to bring back to my apiary. I am switching over to top-bar hives, so I am building a bunch of top-bar hive swarm traps. The process is slow right now, but I am hoping that after the Christmas Holiday I will have time to build and put out many more throughout the state. 

Anyway, if you are like me and trying to place multiple traps, it might be a good idea to use some sort of GPS app to keep track of them all. I found on that I really like called HuntStand. I found it on the Google Play Store. I don't know if it is available on iPhone. So far I like the features it comes with. It has great functionality and seems to be very accurate, even in areas where there is little cell coverage. 

I am able to mark my location easily, label it, make comments at each visit, and even use a photo to help me locate it better. There are a ton of other features, but these are the few that I am using at this time. 

If you are putting out many swarm traps over a large area, I highly recommend that you download this GPS app. Its free to use. You can upgrade, but I think the upgrade only gets rid of the ads. One last thing, make absolutely certain that you backup your map after putting out traps. If you don't and your phone gets broken somehow, you will lose your data. 

Have a great day!

A screenshot of my current trap location near my home.