Hi All I have been enjoying this thread. In south africa, many people trap swarms. I myself have a few trapping sites, the best of which, using one bait box collected nine swarms over a three week period which was the peak swarming season. (This site was directly above my solar wax extractor which I placed in a crook in a wall facing the rising sun) There are two common trapping techniques employed in south africa. One is to use specially made boxes and place them in suitable spots where bees will naturally scout. (eg on cliff faces, on sun facing walls of buildings etc). These boxes are made to hold between four to five frames and should have an internal volume of 50 litres (about ten gallons of some sort I think) if one wishes to trap european bees. (I think the reference for that volume is in Honeybees and Wax, HR Hepburn) For african bees the volume is less important, but in hot weather the trap must not exceed an internal temperature that will melt wax. The inside of the box should be smeared with melted wax and propolis. I have found the gunk left over after cleaing wax up is fine. (In this regard the plastic ammo crates used by some armies, as well as the old M16 and South African R1 rifle ammo boxes are the exact right size to take 4 frames) Alternatively, one can rotate all old colonies into new boxes, and use old boxes as bait hives. This works exceptionally well. There is a commercial beekeeper to the north of me in Durban who routinely moves in a thousand old boxes into metropolitan durban where he nets a full catch of swarms by the end of the season. Apparently in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe beekeepers there have charted routes through the city where bees move each year, and know the best places to place catch boxes. In the Natal region many beekeepers have built special attachments to pu on their land rovers/range roves to allow them to move through saligna (type of eucalypt) groves and check/remove full catch boxes nailed on racks up in the trees. In my area, a number of people place catch boxes at sights where bee removals have been done. Every spring this stops the owners of houses saying 'my bees are back in my wall/airbrick/ceiling/rainwatertanck/potplant etc. In my experience it is not as much the wax that attracts bees to a site as it is propolis. Hope this is of help Garth --- Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries 15 Park Road Apis melifera capensis Grahamstown 800mm annual precipitation 6139 Eastern Cape South Africa Phone 27-0461-311663 On holiday for a few months Rhodes University Which means: working with bees 15 hours a day! Interests: Fliis and bees Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post in no way reflect those of Rhodes University.