Pollen Patch Bee Farm

About two weeks ago, the day before Mother’s Day, I was upstairs helping my son make some lunch when my husband yelled “Carli, come look at this, I think it is a swarm of bees.” I have been bee obsessed lately and thought he was messing with me but I followed him into our backyard and sure enough the air was filled with thousands of buzzing and flying honey bees.

I need to back up in my story quickly and provide a little background information. Earlier in the week I had bought 2 swarm traps. I had prepared one by rubbing a few frames with beeswax and putting a few drops of lemongrass oil in the corners. I hung it in a tree on our property, fully not expecting to catch anything this year but why not try, right? The second was sitting on our patio table waiting for me to get around to it.

Okay, back to the story, my husband had just started a fire in our backyard firepit, and it was creating smoke that was driving the bees into our neighbor’s yard. I ran to the table, grabbed the swarm trap and a handful of frames, along with a bottle of lemongrass essential oil and began assembling the trap. A swarm trap is basically a wooden box with a few empty frames (with or without a beeswax coating) in it and a hole. It has a lid on the top and an entrance hole in the front with vents on the top and bottom. You can add commercial spray or lemongrass essential oil that mimics a queen’s pheromones if you like. Some beekeepers also add old frames or comb because bees seem to like to move into spaces that other bees have previously lived. I am brand new at this and don’t have any of that yet.

So, I placed the swarm trap on top of a bucket in our garden and began placing a few drops of oil on the frames before putting them in the trap. Immediately, the swarm changed direction and began hovering around the scented frames. Within minutes they were hanging on the box, entering and exiting the entrance. I watched them get acclimated for about an hour and some of our neighbors stopped by to see what was going on as well. Then I decided to give them some space to decide if they were going to settle in.

When I returned a few hours later they were all hanging on the outside of the box. I think in my rush to apply the lemongrass oil I overdid it and the scent was too strong. I moved onto plan B and retrieved a nuc box that was used with the previous hives and filled it with 5 unscented frames. I placed that on the ground in front of the swarm trap and mixed a solution of water and sugar in a spray bottle and lightly misted the bees. I then picked up the swarm trap and shook the bees into the nuc box. the Queen was shook into the box and the other bees filed in. I left the entrance open and by evening most of the bees were inside.

The next morning they were very active and flying around the nuc box. My hope was that if I did not disturb them they would accept the box and start building comb which I could then move with them to a permanent hive. Unfortunately, they did not have the same idea. My husband and I left for the day to visit our mom’s for Mother’s Day, run some errands and check on the other hives. When we returned the nuc box was empty and I was bummed.

I checked out the other swarm trap that was hanging on a tree and was delighted to see a few scout bees flying in and around the entrance. Come back for part two to find out what happens!