Two bait hives ready for spring

One of the ways of increasing the number of active bee hives is to wait for a call that someone has a swarm clustered in a tree in their backyard, and to capture that.
The other option is to place “bait” hives in inviting locations, and hope that a passing swarm takes a fancy to them.
In my first full beekeeping season, I’m going to try both. 🙂
The photo above shows two bait hives ready for spring. I made the boxes myself (as per my previous post), and painted them a very pale green. I also made the two bases, which are a bit rough, but sufficient for this task.
As these are temporary hives, there’s no reason for a full Warré roof, and I’ve constructed a simple flat roof out of plywood, treated with linseed oil.
Now I just have to wait until spring, and then find some friends who are willing to provide a temporary home for the hives, in return for some honey and/or wax. 🙂
Update: see my review of Swarm traps and bait hives, and how it changed our bait hive approach.
August 10, 2013 at 2:57 pm
[…] « Two bait hives ready for spring […]
August 23, 2013 at 8:18 am
[…] my book review of Swarm Traps and Bait Hives, I tweaked the approach I was planning for my “bait hives“. The goal remains the same: to catch passing swarms, to build up my number of active hives […]