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    Keeping Honey Bees and Swarm Trapping
    Keeping Honey Bees and Swarm Trapping
    Keeping Honey Bees and Swarm Trapping
    Ebook56 pages55 minutes

    Keeping Honey Bees and Swarm Trapping

    By Grant Gillard

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    About this ebook

    The concept of trapping swarms is very simple. The title, however, of “trapping” swarms brings up some strange ideas of fatal mouse traps (a quick and “humane” death) or even those “have-a-heart” style traps that keep the animals contained but healthy.
    A swarm trap is not really a trap. It’s a box, a bucket, a drum or some other attractive cavity that represents a temporary home for the bees. If you are familiar with beekeeping, a five-frame “nuc” box is often used to “trap” a swarm. If you can imagine a five-frame nuc box nailed to the side of a tree or tied onto the lower side of a large branch, then you have an idea of the simplicity of a swarm trap.
    There are two, key characteristics of swarm traps. First, they are temporary, and second, they are made to be attractive to the scout bees. Its attractiveness is based on the size and volume, defendability (the entrance or opening should not too large), height off the ground and smell. You can use any box or cavity, and the most popular, commercially made swarm trap available in the supply catalogs looks like a wood-fiber flower pot.
    I prefer my traps to look like boxes so I can place standard-sized brood frames in them. The swarm moves in and begins to draw out the foundation and the queen starts laying eggs. With box-style traps, I can take that swarm trap to the bee yard and transfer the frames of brood and bees to a normal hive body.
    The transfer process is not difficult which makes a box-style swarm trap ideal.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrant Gillard
    Release dateFeb 15, 2012
    ISBN9781465986238
    Keeping Honey Bees and Swarm Trapping
    Author

    Grant Gillard

    Grant F.C. Gillard began keeping bees in 1981 following his graduation from Iowa State University. He started with twenty hives in southern Minnesota and now keeps around two-hundred hives in southeast Missouri where he sells honey at the local farmer's markets. He is a frequent conference speaker, author, husband and father and pastors the First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MO. He often blogs at http://expertscolumn.com/users/revgrant1

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      Book preview

      Keeping Honey Bees and Swarm Trapping - Grant Gillard

      Keeping Honey Bees and Swarm Trapping

      A Better Way to Collect Free Bees

      Grant F.C. Gillard

      Published by Grant F.C. Gillard at Smashwords

      Copyright 2012 Grant F.C. Gillard

      Discover other Smashword titles at

      https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/beekeeper731

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Welcome!

      How Do Swarm Traps Work?

      What Kind of Trap Do You Recommend?

      What if I Don’t Want Frames?

      So What Kind of Trap Do You Use?

      What Makes The Trap Attractive?

      Do Swarm Traps Work?

      An Alternative Use for Swarm Traps

      A Success Story

      So This is Perfect, Right?

      What’s the Season for Swarming?

      How Far Do I Have to Move the Swarm Trap?

      Some FAQ’s

      Other Resources to Consider

      Welcome!

      This e-book manuscript is Part II of my previous work, Free Bees. My earlier manuscript, available at my author page at www.smashwords.com, specifically, https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/beekeeper731 covers the dynamics of the natural swarming process, and how a beekeeper can intercept that process and get some free bees.

      That earlier manuscript, technically Part I, covers how the swarming impulse starts, how it builds, how the swarm leaves and how you can catch them. You’ll also find tips on how to thwart your own hives from swarming on you!

      My practical intent in that previous manuscript was to show you how to get on a swarm call list so people will call you, then how you can arrive at the site to remove the bees and put them to work in your apiary. I detail how to approach that anticipated phone call (and the questions you should ask so you’re not coming to save a nest of hornets in the ground). I also share how to get those bees into a hive body and put them to work so they’ll produce you some honey.

      And the beauty of chasing swarm calls is the free bees.

      Well, almost free.

      There are instances when you don’t get to the swarm site in time. While you’re on route, the scout bees have found a great place, then convinced the other bees in the swarm cluster to follow them, and the swarm leaves. Sometimes they leave just minutes before you arrive. Then I find I’ve invested time and energy and a gallon of gasoline for nothing. It is that very feeling of frustration that moves me to take my swarm chasing to the next level and consider swarm trapping.

      This manuscript, Swarm Trapping is the follow-up to the manuscript on chasing swarms. Swarm trapping is another aspect to free bees that entails catching that runaway swarm even when I’m not around and in places I can’t always be. I’ve had my share of experiences where the swarm departed for some unknown destination, and then I’ve wondered about the swarms that come out of bee trees in remote areas where no human being was able to discover them and call me. And what about the swarms that people find but they don’t know who to call? Eventually those swarms will leave for a hollow tree or somebody’s garden shed. How can I get those swarms I don’t even know about?

      Then I began to think about creating some kind of a temporary location that would attract the scout bees so I wouldn’t necessarily have to be present to retrieve the swarm, or if I arrived a minute too late, how I might still catch that swarm by setting a trap over the hill or in various locations around the community?

      Think about it. You get a swarm call. The swarm has left the hive

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