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can anyone advise on best time to move hives. My 6 hives are all abit close together and i would like to move them
around the garden to separate them. I thought i read once that in the depth of winter if they are not likely to fly for
more than 5 days you can safely move the hive without them getting lost the next time they emerge.
Rather reluctant to do it if its not true, does anyone know please .Thanks very much will be interested to hear any
ideas.
Well I am not advocating this only giving you an example. .....we moved our 3 hives to the new bee house in August. We only had to move them about 20 ft so every second night we dragged them a couple of feet slightly turning them into their new direction ie from east facing to South facing. We put them on pallets and attached rope to drag them with. Lucky none capsized.
Getting them from outside to inside is another story but it all went OK.
I've tried both - moving them a short distance every day or so, and moving them within the apiary in one go. The latter was a dismal failure, even though I blocked the entrance with grass and baffled it with loads of leaves, they still went back to their old site.
I've moved them around the garden in the depths of winter without problem.
A frosty week is best, that way you can wait 3 days or more when they have not flown,and then 3 + days without flying at their new location.
Edit to add. When I have done this there has always been at least one hive left in the original location. So, if there are any with memory they have a hive close by to go into if they return to the original site
I generally move in small jumps - can do it twice a day on long flying days. Any large moves mean that I tend to swap - move one colony to an out-apiary and then bring another one back and dump it where it needs to be. I have read of moving hives in the winter as Black Comb has done and it seems to work fine but haven't done it myself.
I have done as well Adam and it works fineQuote:
Originally Posted by Adam
You can move them in Winter because none of the winter bees will have been foragers so they just accept the new position
I wouldn't stick a hive in the back of van to move it over winter, but to shuffle hives around within the same apiary I think you'd be ok.
I think it may depend where you are and local climate. Here, well south of Stonehaven, there aren't usually many consecutive winter days when there's no activity.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger
We have the same problem - they're usually flying at least once a week in winter. However, a move of 2ft or so every other day works fine. We're currently moving a Paynes Nuc from where the swarm was originally caught to the apiary. The only thing I wouldn't do is to move them late in the day when it's cold, in case the flying bees returning to the original site get cold before they locate the new position. I've noticed one or two land and crawl around a bit before taking off again so tend to do the moves only on a good flying day.