I do not know whether bees in the Northern Hemisphere have a directional preference for their combs, but there is a wonderful paper on comb orientation in swarms by a fellow named DeJong. The experiment was done in Brazil I believe, which would make it close to the equator. Apparently there the comb orientation in swarms will usually be the same as that of the parent hive (if there are no starter strips or other physical constraints). In the case of the experiment the swarm bait hives were round (the walls anyway, perhaps they were a cylinder on end: I am obviously writing this from memory and do not have the paper in front of me). As far as the discussion in this thread about the direction of the entrance I can be of no help as I do not recall how this was dealt with in the experiment. The fascinating thing about the experiment was that usually the swarms oriented closely with the comb direction of the parent hive. However, if an artifical magnetic field was created around the swarm box which was perpendicular to the earths magnetic field, then the swarm's combs would also be perpendicular to the parent colonies combs. Regards Stan -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---