With a box of bees with a mated queen currently costing $225.00 I’m going to try to attract some swarming bees this spring who are looking for a new home.

I’ve placed a cotton ball with a few drops of a bee-attracting lemon scent inside this box called a nuk with some empty honeycomb frames. Early spring is the best time to catch them so they will have time to establish a strong colony to go through the winter. They may even make enough extra honey for me to rob a little. 

If some scout bees decide my trap is a good place to settle down, they will return to their swarming colony and give the “go” sign to the other bees. 

After a day or two I’ll close the doors at each end and tape it shut in the evening when they’ve come in for the night. The next day I’ll take them along with their queen to my bee yard and dump them into a hive box with a lid.

I’ll place some pine branches at the entrance so when they leave their new home in the morning they will notice they are in a new place. That way they will know which hive is theirs. After a few days I’ll remove the branches. Then I’ll have another hive to care for–and potentially rob some honey.