Queens in Alcohol

[ONTARIO BEEKEEPER]

I know that you can use lemon grass oil in a swarm bait box, and that there are also a few products on market that you can buy to attract swarms. But somewhere I remember reading that you can put your un-wanted queens in a vile of rubbing alcohol and after they've been in there a while you can use this to attract swarms. Make your own swarm attractant ?

Does anyone know the proper procedure of doing this, or if it works ?

[iddee]

Micheal Bush recommends it.

http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

[contactme_11]

The swarm lures you can buy commercially are pretty much a mix of this and lemongrass oil.

[Michael Bush]

(Posted before I was done)

[Michael Bush]

Put some rubbing alcohol in a jar (or if you prefer some everclear or vodka...) and whenever you are 'retiring' a queen, just drop her in and put the lid back on.  After a while it gets quite dark from the "queen juice".  It makes great swarm lure especially if you dip a q-tip into it and the other end of the q-tip into lemongrass essential oil.

[ONTARIO BEEKEEPER]

O.K,  so sounds easy enough. Just a q-tips worth, good thing you said so, I probably would have used half a jars worth. Thanks.

[David LaFerney]

Does it have a shelf life or do you just keep adding to it like mulligan stew?

[troutstalker2]

  I've used queen juice with lemongrass oil last year. I just made one trap and caught a swarm in about 5 days. I made some more and will try at more locations this year. Maybe it was just beginners luck. It was a swarm from my yard I believe, but at least I didn't have to chase them.

David

[Michael Bush]

Like mulligan stew.  Just keep adding queens and keep using it...