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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Swarm Has Moved In? Or Is this Scouting Behavior?

I left this old deep nuc sitting where ProteusA and B as well as Persephone had been housed in past years. I've smeared the landing area, the underside of the front edge of the top cover and the tops of the frames with my homemade swarm lure. I've pretty much ignored the nuc this spring - just hoped one of these days a swarm might want to move in.

I've been gone all weekend and returned to bee activity. There are 10 bees around the nuc in the picture below. Either this home is winning out in the scout's search or perhaps the bees have already taken possession.



In my carport are two boxes ready to go to Blue Heron to super the hives there. This box had three bees flying in and out of it as I drove up to my house. Maybe it is also being scouted by a potential swarm. We'll see and I'll let you know if it ever quits raining so that I can open my hives and see what's what at both places.

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2 comments:

  1. A home made swarm lure recipe sounds interesting. I've heard the queen pheramone smells like lemons.

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  2. Anonymous3:29 PM

    how efective is the home made swarm lure

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