MacJohnson Apiaries

A number of things may jointly or singularly cause bees to avoid colonizing hives. I will mention just a few
1) Substandard hive construction
Hives with gaps tend to be avoided if there are readily available compact hives or natural nesting sites in the vicinity
2) Lack of regular external and internal hive inspection
Bees do not move into hives already colonized by other insects such as spiders, wasps, zvitemamachira, ants etc and bees again tend to avoid colonizing hives surrounded by spiderwebs. Most beekeeping projects are blighted by this

3. Poor hive setup.
Some hives are set facing the direction of the prevailing wind, or directly in the blistering sun, or in an ant infested place and no deterrent measures effected etc
4. Absence of effective swarm attractants. A lot of potential beekeepers think beeswax is a swarm attractant. We have specially formulated the MacJohnson Swarm Lure which has proven time and again to be effective in attractive bees into hives.