I found a bee hive at my ranch this past weekend in a big oak tree out in front of our ranch house. The hive is about 20 foot up in the tree and they have a 3 or 4 inch hole entrance.
I dont have a ladder tall enough to get up this high to trap them out.
Whats the best way to try to nab this hive or collect swarms?
Should i mount a swarm trap as high up and close as i can get it to the hive and bait it with lemongrass oil?
I put a plastic plate on a cinderblock under the tree sunday and put some sugar water in the plate, see if i could get em to feed just for fun, but they never touched it before i left...
Put several swarm traps out. Starting at 50 feet from the tree, ending at 1/4 mile from the tree. They are less apt to move a few feet or more than a 1/4 mile.
I'm with Iddee, you will never be able to trap the hive out of the tree so just set up some swarm traps and use the hive as a source for bees.
Sounds good. That was my plan B. What i was leaning towards if i could go all out trapping them out.
Do you really want to carry a box of bees down a ladder anyway? I can think of a lot of things more fun than that. It would be nice to have a friend with a cherry picker on his truck.
I'm with Iddee.
If you do a trap out you will not get the genetics that you will get with the swarm.
Jim
Swarm traps it is!