Swarm lure CHARME DES ABEILLES 30g

01 · WHAT IT DOES AND DOES NOT

It is a lure for the swarm in flight

When a colony swarms, the scouts go out to find a cavity and compare candidates. This product puts your box on that list and improves the odds that they choose it. What it does not do, and you do ask us: it does not gather loose foragers working an allotment, nor does it build a colony out of nothing. With no swarm in the air, there is nothing to attract.

02 · HOW IT IS APPLIED

A little on the frames and at the entrance

Just smear a small amount on a few frames of the nuc and at the entrance — some people spread it round the inside with a cloth. If you can, put in old drawn combs: the smell of old wax is what weighs most in the scouts' decision, and the paste reinforces it. Repeat every 8 days for as long as the swarming season lasts.

03 · WHERE TO PUT THE BAIT HIVE

High, steady and in the shade

Set the box high up and on a firm base, and look for shade in the middle of the day: an overheated bait hive stops being interesting and can spoil the paste. And a point of good manners worth respecting: do not set bait hives next to somebody else's apiary, because what you catch there is your neighbour's swarm.

04 · AFTER THE CATCH

Quarantine, and varroa first

A caught swarm is a colony of unknown origin. Take it to a quarantine apiary, watch it for a few days and treat it against varroa as soon as you can: in a swarm with no sealed brood, a contact treatment reaches every mite at once, and that window does not come round again.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is for outdoor use, in a 30 g tube. Keep it closed and out of the sun: heat carries off the essences, which is precisely what you bought.