To get an apiary is a business that requires financial expenses. But the bee family can be obtained without investing. Useful insects can simply be caught. A properly arranged bee trap can keep a runaway swarm or just bees flying in the wild.
The whole point is how to do this. After all, a trap for bees should somehow attract those very little toilers. This device is a small makeshift hive.
New bee house
Traps are different. It’s easier to create a house-like one. A typical bee trap has both side mounts and a tray. Such a hive is made of plywood in order to facilitate it. Experienced beekeepers suggest that making traps for bees requires ingenuity. This house should not be painted, let it retain its natural color.
But inside it should contain a framework for bees, where the arrangement of a new home will begin. For this purpose, those that were already in use and contain honeycombs that have been blackened from time are best suited. The smell of just such a framework attracts bee families. For lack of such devices, you can use the framework with wax, apply propolis and mint. This is done quite simply: a trap for bees is wiped inside and out with propolis or mint leaves.
When installing the extreme frames to the wall, a gap is maintained, approximately equal to the thickness of the finger. For this, rails are fixed between the wall and the top of the device. When setting the remaining frames, a certain distance must also be observed, but the design as a whole should not be burdened by such tricks. Therefore, so that during the transfer of the house the bees and the uterus do not suffer, it is more reasonable to attach the frames with their upper trims to the walls of the trap using screws. And on top of them a canvas is laid in two layers, then a plywood or ruberoid cover is placed and fixed with screws around the perimeter of the house. The trap is raised to a certain height and tied with a rope to the tree trunk.
Locating a Trap
Every business is carried out in a certain sequence. If this is an ordinary house, then before making a trap for bees, a place is chosen for its installation. Preference is usually given to a lonely tree growing near a bee apiary. A meadow with blooming honey plants can be chosen.
Experienced beekeepers know that each trap has a range of up to 2 kilometers. If several more are set for one trap inside the designated perimeter, then the bees will settle in only one of them.
The life of a bee family flows according to its strict schedule. The swarming period usually lasts from June to July. Based on this pattern, after installing the trap, you need to look closely at the tray so as not to miss the moment of activity. Noticing that the bees flew into the hive, you should immediately close the tray and take the trap to your apiary. The framework in which the construction of honeycombs began, together with the family are transferred to a full-fledged real hive. The queen bee can be replaced by a more thoroughbred one at the beekeeper’s request.