Hi all,
Today I cleaned up, painted n added a new rooftop bait hive ! I’ve already observed a few noisy bees looking it over. Not sure it will work but nothing ventured … Nothing gained, my mom use to say a lot !
. I used a couple shallows boxes. N a combo of deep n shallow older frames I had with wax in them. Weird but maybe it’ll work !Hey @Gerald_Nickel! I just came across this while looking for posts about making a bait hive. It’s been awhile, but I wondered how your bait hive worked out?
Last weekend I bungeed a homemade one to a tree at my brother’s place, and one on top of a ladder in my garden. Both are 8-frame deeps that have two used frames with old brood comb residue on the top bars, left after I cut out most of the comb. The entrances are about 15cm square (Tom Seeley). My nephew Jack, who is 5 and a half and helped me with my Flow harvest last summer, will monitor the swarm box at his house for me 
Eva,
Just revisited n rebaited my two bait hive couple days ago. Only got one swarm so far use those two fragranced with lemon grass oil. I live in an area that doesn’t seem to get much action like when I was a kid beekeeper.
I try to watch my own hives pretty close n do walk away splits so I don’t have to chase them into the trees n bushes here. Only had one swarm get away from me in 4 years n that was four years ago.
If I see any tendencies or signs of swarm possibilities I split … I’m also continuing moving frames of brood from strong colonies to weaker ones thus hopefully keeping swarm urge to a minimum!
Here’s a couple pix’s from the other day rebating …
Glad to hear your teaching a young new beekeeper the hobby ! That’s awesome. I don’t post in our bank or grocery store about wanting swarms as many turn out to be fake (yellow jacket) nests… My heart 
health has made me limit too much Bee activity other than my own n an occasional teaching moment if the new beekeepers come to my home.
Thanks for the note,
Gerald
