A/S

[thebhoy]

Has anyone done an A/S and sat the 'old' BB with house bees, brood etc on top of the roof of the 'new' BB which has queen and flying bees?

Did it work?

I need to do an A/S and due to limited space.....there is a hive either side of it and no space to put another one......so I thought I could place old on top of new.
Flyers will return to old entrance and after QC is capped..a couple of days before virgin q emerges.... I thought I could move old hive to another location in my garden and that the returning flyers on finding hive moved will use entrance lower down thus boosting bee numbers again.

All being well original hive will carry on and rebuild whilst the new virgin will get mated and start a new colony.

Does this sound ok?

 

[Polyanwood]

Yes. Easiest way is to take one of the edge off one side of a crown board so it can act as a roof on bottom Q+ colony and as a floor, facing in the opposite direction to the original for the top Q- box.

 

[drstitson]

but if you have the space elsewhere in the garden why not just move the "top/original" colony there in the first place?

KISS

 

[thebhoy]

Was thinking more like the current house bees that become flyers over the coming week will boost up the original colony numbers and leave less bees to go with the virgin queen and then move the box....similar to when it is moved from one side to the other in a standard A/S.

 

[Polyanwood]

The flyers will return to original colony whether they are just above or at the other end of the garden. Most people don't bother with the moving the colony a second time.

 

[Vramin]

Was thinking more like the current house bees that become flyers over the coming week will boost up the original colony numbers and leave less bees to go with the virgin queen and then move the box....similar to when it is moved from one side to the other in a standard A/S.[/

Do a search for 'Snelgrove method' It is exactly what you are describing. Plenty of info around. Best reference is on WBKA website by Wally Shaw.

http://www.wbka.com/images/education/a018themanyusesofasnelgroveboard.pdf

 

[Bomber]

I carried out my first AS last week, I put original queen on the original site and located the Q- (one QC) about 20feet away behind some willow trees as this was the only space 8 had left. I watched and the flying bees return over the next wee while to the original site and have since checked the two and all is fine.

This worked for me.

 

[thebhoy]

thanks folks, much appreciated.

Another challenge is running out of equipment.....had to move a queen and some frames on Sunday ...after they swarmed from my other hive on Saturday but queen was clipped so still have them and rehoused in another hive...dummied down.

Have to do some re-arranging of colonies / splits to accommodate and location I would put this split isn't best place for long term

Needs must so onwards and upwards