>
> >Further testing (using a t-shirt I spray with the repellent) 
> indicates that the product really "pisses off" the hive.>


I experimented about 3 years ago with citronella drops in small 
beeswax blocks as a "swarm deterrent".  The idea was to place these 
in sites that swarms favoured year after year but which they were 
difficult to remove from.  If it had been effective we would have 
supplied these to the Glossy Black Recovery Team who are monitoring 
the nesting sites for the Glossy Black Cockatoo on Kangaroo 
Island.   This was in the interests of good community relations as 
there are very many possible nesting sites that are not occupied by 
bees or which are occupied only very briefly as there is a high 
attrition rate.  However the current practice is to apply pesticides 
to as many nests as can be reached prior to the swarming season.

It did not work.

My most hopeful location was in an electrical junction box built from 
an old super which was awkward to remove bees from but attracted 
several swarms a season.  The citronella blocks retained their potent 
odour but did not prevent occupation.

Interestingly, although this season has been a heavy swarming season, 
the junction box has not scored a single swarm although old bee boxes 
some few paces away have managed to collect six.   These can be 
retrieved very simply as they are on the ground.  Perhaps it is up to 
the first swarm of the season to make a choice and the swarm odour 
influences the following swarms.

Betty McAdam


HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
J.H. & E. McAdam<[log in to unmask]>
http://www.users.on.net/~hogbay/index.htm

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