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How to get your first bees in South Africa

South Africa's honey bees swarm often, and every spring thousands of swarms look for a home. A well-placed bait box is the cheapest and safest way to start: it costs little, brings in no disease from elsewhere, and needs no ladder work on someone's roof. Most South African beekeepers built their first apiary this way.

What makes a good bait box

Scout bees look for a home that is:

• about the size of a standard brood box (roughly 40 litres);
• dry and dark, with a small entrance near the bottom;
• above the ground and in shade;
• smelling of bees.

The best bait box is a brood box with frames, a closed floor and a lid, with the entrance made smaller. The swarm then builds straight onto frames, and you can move it without cutting comb.

Lures

• Rub the inside with clean beeswax and a little propolis.
• Add a few drops of lemongrass oil on a cotton bud. More is not better, because a strong smell can put scouts off.
• Never bait with old comb from an unknown source. It can carry disease and wax moth.

Where and when

• When: swarm season. Inland this is mainly late winter to early summer, about August to November. In the Cape it is spring.
• Where: along the edges of bush, near water and good forage, and where swarms have been seen before.
• How high: about 2 to 4 metres up, in a tree or on a pole or ledge, where you can still reach it safely.
• How: fixed firmly and level, shaded in the afternoon, with the entrance out of the wind.

Always ask the landowner's permission.

Checking and collecting

Check every week or two from a distance. Many bees flying in and out with pollen means that a swarm has moved in. Leave it for one to two weeks to settle. Then collect it at dusk, when the foragers are home: smoke the entrance gently, close it with foam or mesh, lower the box and move it to your apiary.

Other ways to get bees

Catching a swarm cluster. A swarm hanging on a branch or fence is usually calm, but wear full protective gear anyway. Put a box below it, shake the cluster in with one sharp jerk, and wait until dusk for the flying bees to join. A cluster that has hung for days and built comb is a colony, and needs a removal.

Buying a colony or nucleus. This is quicker. Buy only from a registered beekeeper in your own bee area, and see the colony opened first. Look for eggs and young larvae, a solid pattern of capped brood, stores of honey and pollen, and calm bees. Avoid spotty brood, a bad smell and old black comb.

Removals. Colonies in roofs, walls and meter boxes can be cut out and moved into a hive. This is harder work: visit first, agree in writing who repairs the structure, switch off electricity to the area and never work alone on a roof. Never use poison on bees.

Register and record

Beekeepers in South Africa must register. Mark every new hive with your registration number at once, and record the date, where the colony came from and its first inspection. Leave a newly moved colony alone for at least a week, because African bees abscond readily when disturbed.

This guide is based on Chapter 5 of Beekeeping for Beginners, which covers swarm catching, removals and transfers step by step.