In the old days, bees were brought to the apiary from the forest, luring with the help of various tricks into empty hives. This way of multiplying the bee population remains popular today, since it is an expensive pleasure to buy layers and queens in specialized farms. How to lure a stray swarm of bees into your apiary - read on.

Fishing basics

The capture of wild swarms gives beekeepers great advantages. One of them is the formation of different bee families with high resistance to environmental conditions.

Did you know? The queen bees do not sting people, even if they are angry. The uterus uses its sting to fight other uterus.

Why catch it?

Even buying a swarm in a well-established farm does not guarantee that insects will not burrow and will not fly from your apiary. This often happens with beginners in breeding honey insects. If this happens, you must have special skills to return the fugitives back to their site. As for wild bees, they are incredibly valuable biological material for increasing the viability of the apiary as a whole and obtaining strong offspring.

First of all, bees living in the wild are highly productive toilers, which has a beneficial effect on the income from the apiary. The second factor in favor of catching such insects is high winter hardiness and low morbidity, since they need to be able to survive without human help, unlike bees hatched in apiaries.

What is the use of fishing?

• Hunting stray swarms is of undoubted benefit to the beekeeper:
• the ability to form strong families with high physical indicators;
• saving money on expanding the economy;
• an opportunity to return the escaped bees.

In addition to the benefits for humans, such an activity is also beneficial for insects. The fact is that the bees bred in the apiary are not adapted for survival in natural conditions. In this regard, catching a vagabond swarm literally saves winged toilers from death.

How to catch bees

To catch bees, a bait is required. It may be a wooden box with a lid, but it will be much easier to catch insects in a new or old empty hive. This is best done in the spring or after the last collection of honey, when insects are in active search for new housing.

When using an empty hive, you must clearly follow these settings:

• inside the house for bees, set only 6 frames instead of 8.
• to process the walls and notch with natural wax, as well as picking herbs (sage, mint, lemon balm, basil).
• check the hive at least 3 times a day for the presence of scout bees and a swarm.

Important! If necessary, reinforce the old swarm, in which half of the individuals died, the new one must be placed directly next to it. You can even connect 2 families, the main thing is to have time to do this while the temperature is high outside.

Another variant of the lure has the form of a box with a hole equipped with a latch. Inside, the box must be equipped with honeycomb cells and waxed frames. You can also make a bait in the form of a hollow. To do this, you need a block of wood and 2 dense boards - for the roof and bottom. The block should be split in half and the core should be cleaned, a hole for the tap hole should be made in one of the parts of the block. Next, all the parts must be connected, set the bait frame and the waxed frame inside, and also put the herbs.

Where to set traps

In order for your apiary to flourish, it is important to know when and where to set traps, otherwise you will have to wait for insects for years. The installation of traps should begin a week before the start of swarming in the spring and summer until the end of August.

The basic rules for installing bee traps:

• the notch should be turned south;
• a distance of 300 m should be maintained from roads and housing estates;
• the tree for fixing stands out against the general background;
• direct sunlight does not fall on the structure;
• fixing height - 3-5 m;
• fixation must be carried out using a sling or rope.

On the trees

Having a trap on a tree, you need to make sure that there are ponds and meadows with melliferous herbs and flowers nearby. You should choose the largest, healthy tree, without signs of decay - spruce, oak, aspen, birch. Did you know? To feed 1000 bee larvae, only 100 g of honey is required.

Near the fields

If there are no forests nearby, then the insects will pick up a place where they can find nectar. Accordingly, they will begin to look for fields with honey plants. Most often, insects organize their hives on the branches of solitary trees and shrubs located no further than 50 m from the nectar collection site. If the hive is on a bush, you can set the trap directly on the ground, after substituting several bricks under it.

In the garden

There is even the option of installing traps in the garden. If you have a large enough area with fruit trees and lindens, you can set a trap on the largest tree a week before flowering begins.

Catching bees without traps

For luring bees, you can use different methods - for example, spray bushes and trees with such means:

1. Sugar syrup with the addition of citrus zest - when the bees fly together, you can put the hive in that place.
2. The preparation "Sunroy" - it has in its composition various attractants that lure insects. The tool needs to spray tree trunks, it is used to wet the walls of traps.
3. The drug "Apira" - it is similar to "Sunroy." Available in gel form, which should also lubricate shrubs and trees, as well as traps.

You can also just plant fruit trees on the plot, if they were not there before.

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Wild bees

A few recommendations that will help optimize the process of catching bees:

1. Pick up only strong large branches for trees or bushes to set traps.
2. Be sure to use a protective suit when working with insects, pre-treated with a tool that soothes them.
3. Plant melissa, mint and linden near the site - this will help attract honey insects and increase productivity in the garden.

Possible problems when catching bee swarms

The main problem with catching honey insects is that bees can bite you. This can be avoided using protective clothing. In addition, it happens that even in a correctly selected place and with a well-equipped trap, insects cannot be caught in it.

This means that you missed the moment when the swarm tried to move into the house, and moved the trap to another place. The fact is that initially, during swarming, 10–20 individuals of scout bees fly out of the hive. They are actively seeking a new refuge for the separated swarm. And if you rearrange the house, the scouts will not be able to find it and lead a swarm to it.

Important! After the new swarm has settled in the hive, be sure to double-treat the Varroa tick with Bipin or Timol in the fall . Medicines must be diluted according to the instructions and applied with a syringe directly to the bees or sprayed using a smoke gun in the hive.

So, if you do not know where to get new bees for the apiary, you can use the above recommendations and lure yourself a wild swarm. It will be characterized by higher performance and increased resistance to disease.