# Honey Bee Swarm Attractant



## IFLY4U (Oct 20, 2016)

My wife is experimenting with different ingredients in developing a swarm attractant for honey bees. She tried several brands already on the market and was not that impressed  before she made her own. This is the result of her own concoction on a sponge after being outside for 30 minutes. I think that she has a winner and is considering marketing it.
Gary


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## fireman32 (Oct 20, 2016)

Seems effective for sure.  Mt. Dew will attract them in the spring, not as many as you have there though.


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## chadf (Oct 20, 2016)

Was there a queen in the bunch ?


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## riverbank (Oct 20, 2016)

I sat a cream soda down and it got swarmed. I left it for days an they kept coming to it


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## Capt Quirk (Oct 20, 2016)

And what do you do once you have these bees hanging out? Without the queen, you don't have a colony, right?


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## IFLY4U (Oct 21, 2016)

The purpose is to place the attractant in an empty hive box in the Spring when bees are swarming looking for a new home. This normally occurs when you have a new queen introduced to a hive or a new one to hatches in the hive box. The new queen flies away with part of the bees in tow. From my understanding, bees always have scouts our looking for possible future homes. This attractant is to lure them to a new home when they swarm. We will be placing empty hive boxes with frame on several farms this Spring in an attempt to capture new swarms. This is a picture of the first swarm that my wife caught in the  back yard.


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## Jeff Raines (Oct 21, 2016)

What if someone close by has several hives,wouldn't you also be attracting their bees?


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## IFLY4U (Oct 21, 2016)

Jeff,
 It will attract bees from all over. They will only stay if they have the queen with them, in which case, they have already left their old home and looking for a new one. Queen bees do not forage for food.
Gary


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## Capt Quirk (Oct 21, 2016)

So... how do I get some of the missus' bee attractant?


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## fireman32 (Oct 22, 2016)

Jeff Raines said:


> What if someone close by has several hives,wouldn't you also be attracting their bees?



Most beekeepers split their hives before they swarm, if not it could be a substantial loss.


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## groundhawg (Oct 22, 2016)

riverbank said:


> I sat a cream soda down and it got swarmed. I left it for days an they kept coming to it



Seems much like his wife's attractant what you had was bees feeding, not a swarm.


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## groundhawg (Oct 22, 2016)

chadf said:


> Was there a queen in the bunch ?



Great question.  If there was not a queen it was not a swarm, just a lot of bees in one place.


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## Bkeepr (Oct 23, 2016)

The scent of beeswax attracts swarms.  I've heard of people smushing extra queens and using that to attract swarms.

I bought some swarm attractant made from essential oils but it didn't work worth a toot.

I hope y'all have come up with a winner!


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## riverbank (Oct 26, 2016)

Say I know where a "wild" hive is. How could I go about getting them to relocate to a box?


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## IFLY4U (Oct 28, 2016)

Riverbank,
  We will not know how well it works until this Spring when we can validate whether it works or not. We know for sure that it attracts bees from all over but we don't know if it will attract a swarm well enough to convince them to stay. From my understanding, if a hive is established, they will only split if another queen is made. One of the queens will leave taking part of the hive with her, thus creating a swarm. I am not sure that you can convince a hive to move out unless they have outgrown their current home, but.... I am not a bee expert. I just got roped into  having bees because my wife said so.
Gary


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## atlashunter (Oct 29, 2016)

IFLY4U said:


> My wife is experimenting with different ingredients in developing a swarm attractant for honey bees. She tried several brands already on the market and was not that impressed  before she made her own. This is the result of her own concoction on a sponge after being outside for 30 minutes. I think that she has a winner and is considering marketing it.
> Gary



Is that just a scent or is it some kind of syrup that they are actually eating?


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## atlashunter (Oct 29, 2016)

groundhawg said:


> Seems much like his wife's attractant what you had was bees feeding, not a swarm.



That's what I'm thinking. Bees are starving right now because of the drought. If you put out sugar syrup right now and there is a hive around you'll have a feeding frenzy on your hands.

A lot of beekeepers use lemon grass oil as a swarm attractant.


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