I may be one of the last surviving regularly-practicing recreational
bee-liners.
My Dad still makes the high-tech 3-chamber boxes, if anyone needs one.
http://www.bee-quick.com/bee-line/bee_line_box.jpg

To "survey" an area for bees, one is well-advised to use the pheromone 
lures during swarming season. They have been shown to be better than 
"old comb" in swarm traps.  Actual swarm traps are optional if one
wants to merely detect bees, I've seen bees go for them year-round,
as they can even attract a crowd of foragers, or gather up stragglers
when one is doing a removal.

Before blooms are out as I assume is now the case in Maine, checking 
the water sources on 50 degree and above days is a good approach.  
Water is easy to find on topo maps, and a hive will always have a few 
water foragers working.  The best thing about finding bees at a water 
source is that this tends to make for a shorter distance to the hive 
than starting with bees doing nectar and pollen foraging.

If you want to establish a "trap line", you could buy a quantity of
pheromone lures, glue them to the lids of prescription pill bottles 
with a larger-than-bee sized hole drilled into the side, and partly
filled with soapy water.  This would kill a few bees, but it would
indicate that bees had found the trap.  Most drug stores will give
you a dozen bottles for free if you ask.

As far as finding the hives, I like the capture, feed, and release from
different points triangulation approach, but this requires that one buy 
or kludge up some sort of bee-lining box.  Others claim that the feeding

dish approach is the best, but I haven't got the time to use that
method.

There are at least 3 hives, maybe 5 in Central Park in New York City,
so I don't know why you wouldn't have any near you.

If you want to lure bees with honey, sugar water, melted beeswax, 
or any of the other commonly-fabled substances, I'll submit this
photo as proof that one can never tell what might attract bees
during a dearth.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tropanic/2298102075/

Yes, that's an "Apis sortastupid" on the right, a bee somehow 
attracted to DIET Pepsi, which has no sugar content at all.  
Go figure.



 

****************************************************
* General Information About BEE-L is available at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm   *
****************************************************