Before a honeybee swarm settles permanently, dozens of scout bees independently inspect nearby cavities, "vote" for the ones they like with a waggle dance back at the temporary cluster, and only commit once enough scouts agree on the same site — a decision process called quorum sensing, typically reached at roughly 15 concurrent scouts convinced of one option (Seeley & Visscher). A well-tuned bait hive simply makes the odds of being that chosen option much higher.
Thomas Seeley's long-running field trials found that bait hives matching these preferences — about 40 litres, entrance near 12.5cm², mounted 3–5m up — were chosen many times more often than boxes outside that range, which is why so much swarm-trap advice boils down to simply copying what a hollow tree already offers.
A bait hive mounted in a tree, scouted by honeybees that inspect the entrance, decide whether to recruit nestmates, and — once enough scouts agree — bring the whole swarm home.
Box volume, mounting height, entrance size and lure strength combine into a single attractiveness score that drives how often scouts visit and how likely each one is to join the waiting quorum before the swarm commits.
Move the sliders toward the values real bait hives use — around 40 litres, 3–5m up, a 12–15cm² entrance, and plenty of lure — and watch scouting speed up and quorum fill faster.
Scout bees don't vote by majority alone — they need roughly 15 bees simultaneously committed to the same site, a quorum threshold discovered through Thomas Seeley's decades of swarm-tracking field experiments.