One of the ways of increasing the number of active bee hives is to wait for a call that someone has a swarm clustered in a tree in their backyard, and to  capture that.

The other option is to place “bait” hives in inviting locations, and hope that a passing swarm takes a fancy to them.

In my first full beekeeping season, I’m going to try both. 🙂

The photo above shows two bait hives ready for spring. I made the boxes myself (as per my previous post), and painted them a very pale green. I also made the two bases, which are a bit rough, but sufficient for this task.

As these are temporary hives, there’s no reason for a full Warré roof, and I’ve constructed a simple flat roof out of plywood, treated with linseed oil.

Now I just have to wait until spring, and then find some friends who are willing to provide a temporary home for the hives, in return for some honey and/or wax. 🙂

Update: see my review of Swarm traps and bait hives, and how it changed our bait hive approach.