Empty hives are swarm magnets! Leave one or two in your apiary.

[@GeorgeCMcRae]

Yes!!!! Empty hives and baited hives are a must!!!!! Give them variety too!!

[@C_Castillo]

I attract bee swarms every year, in mid February and mid summer, I have 2 hives and keep them well maintained in the summer, weekly checks, and supers as needed, I only spend about 2 or 3 minutes in each hive a week, just checking for growth, egg patters, production, and for mites/beetles/moths ect... you know basic stuff, one of my hives has a bit of an attitude, and the other is the nicest and will just let me open the hive up with no smoke or anything. But yes I attracts swarms all the time , I usually have to house them an just give them away

[@houstonsheltonbees814]

Beautiful country. Great tip. Hello from the Kentucky mountains USA 👍

[@highlandhoneybee]

A swarm move into an empty hive in my small apiary last week, though it was not a swarm from one of my own hives. It was quite a large swarm and whether the bees came from a neighbouring beekeeper or a feral colony, I've no idea. I'm just pleased they seem to like their new home.

[@krankywitch]

Thank you for not editing out the 'slow bit', it was lovely to sit with a cup of tea and watch the whole show. After 3 years of TBH keeping, I got my first bee sting last week, and figuring that's my bona fides and I can now expand, I bought a Warre hive to get ready for swarm season (September/October here). Just under a kilometre from my patch there is an enormous wild hive in a giant termite-hollowed eucalypt that has been sending out swarms for 20+ years, so I was going to build a trap/lure box and place it in a tree and cross my fingers. Watching your lovely footage, I think I'll just prep my new Warre with some used comb and place it near my TBH and cross my fingers. BTW, the sting was entirely my own fault - I got too cocky, figured I didn't need to kit up just to place a jar of sugar syrup under the lid, but the girls took the opportunity to remind me about hubris and the gods. I have a lovely red/purple tattoo on my cheek and a renewed respect for sharp tails. Cheers and please keep the lovely spring activity footage coming - you are making the nasty windy/sleety/freezing/foggy/icy days bearable.

[@alex_ob1]

So you'll stick to wearing a veil from now on? Plenty of beekeepers (like Phil) seem to get away without, perhaps they have more chilled out bees though!

[@krankywitch]

My hive swarmed today - and landed on a tree not 1m from the empty hive I set out just in case, but they showed zero interest in it. Lucky for me they settled on a low hanging plum tree branch that I was willing to sacrifice. Two chops with the loppers, and I have a box of bees! Once hubs gets home from work, I'll get him to make a blocker for the door on the new hive - just one 4.3mm opening so the queen can't get out - and then we'll transfer the girls. Hopefully when we unblock the door after a couple of days, they will have decided to stay. Can't leave it longer than that as our queen may be a virgin. We know she's not our old queen as this is the second swarm in 14 days from that hive - the first one got away from us and it most likely was our 3yo queen heading out. We're due for our first spring inspection this week - I'm very curious to see if we have more queen cells in there.

[@richardhawkins2248]

I have a hive where a swarm moved in four days ago and then another moved into the same hive today. Then they decided to move out and I mean all of them and started building comb on the bottom of the hive. I've tried to move them into a top bar so we will see what happens.

[@dcvariousvids8082]

When you lessen the number of available entrances, how do you decide which ones to lessen and or to close off?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Watch where the bees prefer to go

[@bobskimaxx]

I've had two empty hives in my garden for seven years........ nothing! I have tried everything to tempt them to visit.

[@jamesdodds3195]

Well that's not encouraging. Do you have honey bees frequenting the area?

[@hayfarmer547]

Try som lemongrass oil. It worked for me.

[@samwinsley9529]

Do you make the quadratic hive boxes?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Yes, although some were made for me.

[@irishcoffee6894]

Hi Phil, Do have frames in these nukes as well or are they completely empty ?

[@BarefootBeekeeper]

Full set of frames with mostly drawn combs, but starter strips would also work.

[@irishcoffee6894]

@@BarefootBeekeeper aparently something went wrong. I wanted to ask. Do you need the small frame bars in between the frames or can you just leave them. I have a top bar hive too with loads of small bars between the bars where the can draw their comb on !

[@DescendantsOfEnoch]

swarm traps