How To Make Effective Wooden Swarm Traps 

Thanks, no problem.

It's possible with one person. Clunky but doable

Great! If you're making multiple, consider alternating which side the mounting bar is on so you can accommodate different trees more easily.

Mark, we are treatment-free beekeepers, so we don't treat them at all. If they came from a tree in the woods, they are used to not being treated already. Wild swarms can be great sources of new genetics that can handle no treatments.

This is double bubble insulation - its primary purpose here is a crush layer to seal as many gaps as possible. Duck cloth wouldn't have the same effect

That's a great option. The only issue is the cavity size is a bit small, and the frames in the box can slow down the bees while they try to move in, causing lost swarms. Ideally you would add a completely empty medium or shallow on the bottom (or just a spacer a few inches tall) to increase the cavity size and allow them to pile in faster.

We use 1x12 material, so 11.5 overall depth. We put our traps out early, the first swarms tend to be the best. In our area of South Central PA, we hang them in early April

It's 16 3/8 x 20 with a 3/8 lip on the long sides

@@HiddenSpringApiaries What kind of metal and what gauge did you use for the tops? This seems like a great design, thank you so much for being willing to share it!

It's 29ga galvanized. 26ga works too

We alternate which side the mounting bar is on so we can more easily accommodate different trees - the entrance should be pointed into a clear area and not back into the woods for best results.

@@HiddenSpringApiaries Thanks but that didn't answer my question. It looks like you put the entrance in a lower corner on the short side. I was asking if it mattered if you put it on the wider side - facing directly away from the tree?

We haven't tried that but there's a very low chance it would affect the catch rate of the trap.

Yes, it takes 10 standard deep frames

We get wasps occasionally, but not too often. The space is larger than they like

They are in the pop-up text at the bottom of each section of the video

We don't have any old deeps to rotate out yet, but they would work well too. Another reason is these traps are a few inches deeper than a standard deep so that there's plenty of free space below the frames to allow for a quick move-in.

@@HiddenSpringApiaries You could solve that issue by cutting another old deep into 3 or possibly 4 sections and tack it onto the bottom or top of your main deep. Good use of old boxes. Nice design.

I agree that would work well