My strongest hive swarmed on Thursday, late in the afternoon. I saw them gather on a tree branch, about 35' off the ground. No easy way to get to them. They stayed there Thursday night-- through several thunderstorms.
On Friday they were still there. I made up several swarm traps (empty boxes with some drawn comb and a bit of lemongrass oil) and waited. No action; they stayed on the branch.
Saturday they were inspecting the traps-- one in particular. There were dozens of them were all over it, inside and out. I watched carefully, and they were definitely going from the trap to the tree branch and back. (But I think there was also some traffic from that trap to the hive from which this swamp had come.) Several times I thought they were ready to make their move, but they didn't.
Sunday morning when we left for church the swamp was still on the branch. When we came home they were gone. No sign of them. There are a few bees in the traps, but only a few: probably from my other hives, I suppose.
So I guess I lost them. But what did I do wrong? I sure thought they were sold on that one trap. It's hard to accept that they found a place they liked better.
Next time, cut the tree down. :-D I have seen bees hit the traps I have on my porch all the time in the spring. Sometimes up to a hundred bees on one at a time. But only 1 took the trap this year.
And my next swarm is likely to go for that same branch, right? Ugh. Couldn't have chosen a tougher place to reach.
Was there any honey (even a little bit) in the drawn comb in the swarm trap? If so, they may have just been robbing it out . . . I have been caught with that one before . . . thought bees were scouting out a nuc or box I put out hastily to give a swarm an option and one of my other hives just noticed it quickly and it became very busy very quickly . . . but not from bees in the swarm (or maybe some were mixed in checking it out, but most of them were likely robbers).
I have not had great success with boxes near a swarm, although I have been often caught with that same situation of a swarm way up high that I couldn't get to. I have had them check out my swarm trap or nuc near the swarm, sometimes avidly, but then just chose a different place.
I don't think swarms really want to stay close to the parent hive and based on Tom Seeley's research they almost always check out multiple home options (like greater than 10) before they move . . . so it is quite likely they will find one further away that they will decide is better.
I have also had the same problem that subsequent swarms from same hive or other hives will go to near the same spot high up in a tree . . . but that is not a given, sometimes they will still land on a low branch on a different tree or different place. I haven't actually had any swarms land in the exact same place as a recent swarm.
I think the best option is to find a place 1000 meters or so away, maybe in a couple different directions where you can put a couple swarm traps during the swarm season (and put them up high . . . >10 feet if you can). Then if you can't reach the swarm you might stand a better chance of catching them in one of your swarm traps.
Just caught one in one of my swarm traps 2 days ago. Took it down early this a.m. and hauled it out to one of my bee yards. 3rd caught swarm this year, but all in the last 3 weeks, so it will take a bit to get them strong enough to make it through winter.