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   In the middle of the winter when the weather is too nasty to go outside and do anything that is not absolutely necessary, I look for projects that need to be done inside. Not something as boring as cleaning the garage, though it is needed, but something more entertaining, such as building swarm traps.

   In the spring, when bees hatch new brood, hives become overcrowded and part of the bees will leave the home hive, looking for a new place to set up a colony. If a person sets up an attractive home for this new colony, they may move in and set up housekeeping. A person can then move the new colony to their apiary and have another hive at no cost. There is the added advantage of these wild bees being acclimated to the area with survival skills necessary to survive our winter weather rather than buying bees that may have come from the south where they do not have to face the challenges of cold weather.

   With hours spent in the timber training his squirrel dog, our grandson, Zane, has run across two bee trees. These are trees that wild bees have colonized. Nobody knows how many years they have lived there but they are survivors. In times past, people would cut down bee trees to get the honey from them. If they did not cut them down, they would cut an opening in the tree to raid the honey. Either method was detrimental to the bees and usually meant the bees died. I hope to catch at least one swarm of these native bees as they swarm naturally. If I am not successful, I have at least not caused harm to the wild colony.

   A swarm trap needs to be the proper size, shape, and smell to assure bees will move in. A swarm of wild bees will move into some pretty strange places if they cannot find the ideal spot, but I want to increase my odds by having a home they find attractive. For my weekend garage project I built boxes from plywood the size and shape that have been proven to be acceptable when scout bees go out looking for a place for their swarm to live. The only variable I have in my traps is the color.

   When we were deer hunting in December, the temperature was above fifty degrees. While on stand, I noticed a few honeybees landing on my fluorescent orange sweatshirt. When everything is gray or brown in the winter, apparently my sweatshirt was the only thing brightly colored enough to attract bees. I decided to paint one trap fluorescent orange to see if that would help attract the bees. I painted another trap white. My thoughts were, it would stand out at the edge of the timber and remain cool when the sun was shining on it. I know, the smell of paint can linger for extended periods of time. With this in mind, I decided to treat the final trap with the ancient Japanese method of preserving wood called shou sugi ban. This entails burning the surface of the wood. The charred surface prevents rot or decay from the rain or sun exposure. It will not have a chemical smell that will offend the bees.

   I will place my traps along the tree line near the bee trees in early spring. Hopefully, I will be able to report back on which color a person should paint their swarm traps. If I catch bees in all of the traps, we will know, the bees do care what color their house is as long as they have a dry place to make honey and raise the next generation.

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