>Has anyone had any luck setting up empty hive bodies to attract swarms when
>they occur? Are there any better ways to do this?

        This is a plausible idea.  I've tried it for many months at a time
-  a nice clean pre-owned hive a few yards from one liable to swarm.
        I've never had any colony arrive in any such.  They prefer the
noisy corroboree swirling over much of my back yard, followed by the
massing on a high branch, the moving down with the mirrored sun's image on
the top of the mass, the bashing of the low branch so the swarm flops into
the cardboard box, and then the wonderful moonlight march when tipped on
the lawn in front of the empty hive which they scorned to go directly into.

        It's impossible to understand all the propensities of this species,
but I must say the process they thereby force on me somehow does me good.
Ignorant neighbours in suburbia can misunderstand, but I love swarms.

R