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What are the ingredients for making and placing a temporary hive that will successfully attract swarms? There is a lot of conflicting info out there. Anyone care to add to the confusion?

Thanks

I am usually confused so I will throw out a few bits of information.
Swarms or scout bees I should say since they are the ones that locate the new home for the swarm may have the new location in mind or scouted out a week or so before the main swarm. The scout bees seem to like a box about the size of a deep that is 6-10 feet off the ground and a little lemon grass oil or queen pheromone may help attract them.
Thats all I can remember right now so there there may be other stuff to consider.

Add in some old comb that has had brood in it. You may want to treat the comb with Xentari before you put it out to stop/limit wax moth damage.

Which way would you face the bait hive?

I set one out this past summer a bit after the swarm season and didn't give it much thought but faced it toward my bee yard, maybe that wasn't the best thing. It was facing north.

I seem to remember hearing/reading south/southeast is the best direction, just like hive placement. I'm not sure of the basis for it--if many spring swarms are mid-morning, that could make the opening/front of the bait hive warmer and inviting, but I don't know when the scouts would be out determining the desireability of a given location. Maybe it's just that if we keep all openings in a consistent direction, WE will be able to find the front of our hives.

I have read that bees navigate mostly by eye and that they like to have a landmark to help them find home. Like a lone tree in a field would be easy to spot from the air and so would be a good place for the colony.

I have also read that the entrance hole should be about 2" diameter but it seems to me that most feral hives I've seen had small entrances.

Bees do navigate by landmarks but lets not forget the waggle dance, bees do not communicate landmarks through a waggle dance.
So how much of their flying is done by eye and how much through navigation by the sun?