[Enci Box]

Elisha, thank you so much for your reply! I feel better knowing that you are “holding” my hand in this new adventure!

I moved the box about a foot and I’m not going to touch it until you say so! 🙂 Will keep you updated about the progress of the bees moving in. Crossing finger, toes and eyes! 🙂

Best,

Enci

[Enci Box]

Hello again!

Three weeks after we put out the box, we had a few bees visit our box. They were coming in and out and it seems that they were cleaning out the box from the lemongrass cuttings. There are a few of lemongrass cuttings tossed out of the box and a lot of the lemongrass inside the box has been moved towards the entrance.

Out of curiosity, I opened the top of the box, to see what is happening inside and we saw lots of bees (maybe 10 or more). Three days after I opened the box, there are no more bees in sight. 🙁

What does this mean? Should I have not opened the box? Did I disturb them? Will they come back? I’m so disappointed! This past weekend I dreamt of the big swarm moving in, but it was only a dream unfortunately. 🙁

Thank you for the advice in advance!

Enci

[Enci Box]

Susan,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I will try tying a strap around the boxes.

[Enci Box]

Thank you Elisha for the wonderful reply! Very much appreciate it! And thank you Michelle for the link. It was a great read!

Another question following your reply Elisha. I don’t have a bait or swarm box. I only have a medium size hive box with the frames in it. The box is about 3 feet off the ground, facing the fence.

Should I place the box higher? Should I place the box with the entrance facing out, so they can scent it better? If so, is it okay for me to turn the box, once the bees move in? Won’t that confuse the bees?

[Enci Box]

I’m jumping on this topic because I think it’s relevant to Attract or Not Attract and is a good follow to Michelle’s post.

We set up our box last week, on Thursday. Our frames have no foundation and we put in the wood sticks and painted bees wax on them. We also put in fresh cut lemongrass, but since that didn’t attract any bees in the first two days, we put in a small vile of lemongrass oil that we purchased at the recommended bee shop in Downtown LA.

Now it’s been 5 days and we have no bee action around our hive. Nothing. Nada.

What should we do to attract them? Turn the box opening away from the fence? Should we put in more lemongrass oil? Should we capture some bees from our front yard and hope they are the homeless ones? We have lots of bees in the front yard due to our native wild flowers.

Please help! I’d love to know what and how long it takes for bees to smell the new home.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by Enci Box.

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