I have yet to actually catch any swarms, but I have built some bait hives. I worried myself over the size of the cavity until I just decided if the things didn't catch a swarm, I would have a whole bunch of ugly wooden boxes laying around without being used. I'm using the Dcoates 5 frame Nuc design.
Bjorn, I have been trying to get some bees to notice my swarm traps. They seem to be attracting:
- Wasps
- Mice
- Some bees around what I realized now is the old Honey House
- And Roaches.
I can understand keeping the Wasps and Mice out, but will the Roaches make all the fastidious bees go "ewww!" and go look for a different place? They don't seem to want to get in the comb, these are a smaller version of what we used to call "Palmetto bugs" down in Florida. They seem to be hanging out on the bottom board, enjoying the dark.