> Has anybody calculated how long in advance of swarming bees take an
> interest in a bait hive and add it to their list of possible new homes?


Lindauer has observed that house hunting bees are former foragers.
So perhaps 1 to 2 weeks prior to swarming, foragers would 
be aware of many available voids.  This might explain why
my traps near where I extract are my most successful at
attracting swarms.

Quote:
Some...of the old, marked bees came back occasionally to [my] 
feeding table, but no longer as forager bees; they sipped only briefly 
at the sugar water, but they did not fly back immediately to the hive. 
Rather they began working in the neighborhood in a strange way: they
sought nearby for dark holes and cracks, crawled into mouse holes in 
the ground and into deep cracks in the bark of trees, and finally 
inspected [my] two empty nesting boxes. There was no doubt about 
it: these former forager bees had become house-hunting bees." 
(emphasis Lindauer)

Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/

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