More on Bait Hives

I know I said that 2 warre boxes are the ideal volume for a swarm and that is true but I have had some success in the past using smaller boxes. As well as the two box warre in the Layens boxes mentioned before, I will also try a couple of single warre boxes. I prepared one today re-using old materials.

I started by adapting a standard warre floor. I think the standard warre floor footprint is too small when the hive gets taller so I am adapting all of mine by adding boards as feet. I used two pieces from the pallet beams from my recent post. I used 8 long screws previously recovered from my blue kenyan hive to screw the beams to the old floor.



Sat an old warre box on top, still with 8 top bars and starter strip foundation. Then stapled a square of mosquito netting over the top of the box.



I am not putting standard warre quilts on these bait hives but cut squares of wool carpet.



The roof is finally put on and now just waiting until I am ready to set them out. There is no old comb in this one, just the starter strips, so I will insert a couple of pieces of propolis in the entrance well to give it a welcoming smell to any scout bee that comes near.