It took a while – and if I can be honest, we actually gave up on those swarm traps we built back in March. After all, it is the first week of June, and that seemed like ages ago.
But today, just as we were about to inspect our top bar hive, I noticed some activity around the worn, now slightly sagging bankers box we had left hanging against a tree.
There were actually bees buzzing around the thing and not just buzzing, but actually moving in and out of the box. Some bees had finally moved into our traps! But that’s not all…
That inspired us to take a tour around the yard to check the other boxes and sure enough, one other box was buzzing with life! We somehow managed to capture two colonies in one day! How exciting is that?! So exhilarating… so… wait… that means we have to hurry up and finish the other hive! (I told you we gave up – but isn’t it amazing how when you stop trying so hard, things happen on their own?!)
Now, it’s on to the next step: hiving the swarm!
If you want to build the same type of cardboard bait hive that we built, please read, “How to Build an Inexpensive Bee Swarm Trap” and watch the video we also watched that helped us successfully capture our very first swarms!
By the way, Scottie won the challenge we presented in that post – it was both of his traps that caught the swarms. My trap is still perched lifelessly in the tree – not one bee is buzzing.
I really thought my trap would win. But it’s okay, it’s still a win/win – we have two new free honeybee colonies now!
Check out the video that shows what we found buzzing around our swarm traps:
So as it turns out, you really don’t need any fancy expensive traps to lure some free honeybees into your yard!
We’ll keep you updated on the progress of these colonies.
