Advice is to jump

[beepig]

I have been advised to not move my colonies directly as the distance as the crow flies is only two miles. I am moving from an orchard to a nursery five hundred yeards from a huge lime & Ash tree forest. INstead i am jumping to a friends farm eight miles away for one week, and then to new location...
I am confused as to date much of the information i am being given is CONFLICTING...

 

[Erichalfbee]

It will be conflicting as different folk have different ideas about this. The usual rule as you know is three miles.It depends on topography though. If there is a large geographical feature such as a forest or decent hill between the two sites then a single move should really be no problem. IMO

 

[beepig]

well the forest is just above where they are going so no.

 

[Erichalfbee]

It's your call then.
Have you decent forage at the present location?
I have lots of willow and when the weather allows them out they are not foraging far....not a mile let alone two so in my position I would make a straight move.
My point is that they might not be flying far from the hives at this time of year anyway.

 

[Chris B]

My point is that they might not be flying far from the hives at this time of year anyway.

That's highly likely.
And even in the height of summer, a move of 2 miles might only see a handful of bees return to the old site. I did it once and caught about 100 bees in a mini-nuc placed on the original site.
So personally, at the risk of losing a small number of foragers, I would move the 2 miles direct, saving you the aggro, and saving the colony as a whole the double disruption of moving twice.

 

[Edward.21]

check this video out, although i have never done this myself, my friend tried it out and moved his hive under a mile and he said it worked really well.if you do try it out i'd love to know if it worked.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxZ4uEgRRZg"]Beekeeping: How To Move A Hive Any Distance (More Than 3 Feet and Less Than 3 Miles) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[enrico]

The trouble is that two miles is .... Well almost worth a risk! Especially at this time of the year but, if we said 'go for it' and all your bees flew back then who would you blame!
If I were you, and I am not remember, then I would just move them, lean a piece of wood across the entrances and see what happens. This is the time of the year you have fewer flying bees so what the hell! You lose a few!
It is totally up to you though! Let us know how it goes!
E

 

[Davelin]

I would move straight there at this time of year. Most of your current foragers will be near the end of their time so if they did return to the old site you would not lose much, my guess is they won't be flying two miles anyway so will re-orientate.
You will have loads of new foragers in a few weeks time and they will obviously only know the new position.

 

[MuswellMetro]

agree,

, a two mile move in the early spring is ok but put an object or branch in front of the new entrance to distract them as they leave, The LASI Uni of Sussex work on forager distances shows that in ealry spring Bees forage less than a mile for pollen. ( posibiley i think due to an energy expended verus energy gain balance)

it is therefore very unlikley any bees will have foraged as far away as one miles this spring so flight paths will not have crossed from the old site to the new site, To be safe you could leave a super on the old site, LASI greatest 6 miles forage was in August after the main summer flowering, so a move in august at 3 miles could mean bees retrurning to old site

 

[itma]

... The LASI Uni of Sussex work on forager distances shows that in ealry spring Bees forage less than a mile for pollen. ( posibiley i think due to an energy expended verus energy gain balance)
...

However, since the Sussex Uni campus is planted with thousands of crocuses, it would very surprising if the bees did go further afield!

 

[itma]

One step or two? 2 miles, this early in the season, I'd go direct, leave them shut in for 24 hours, leafy obstruction of the exit and the hive facing a different compass point.
But if going two steps, at this time of year, I'd be thinking of waiting weeks, rather than days at the intermediate point. If only waiting days, frankly I think you might as well go direct.
In case of a few 'homing' bees going back to the old site, putting a single basic hive back there for a few days wouldn't do any harm - but I doubt it would get many takers.

24 hour shut in. Needs ventilation. Needs shade. Needn't be on the exact final site - leave them in a cold garage for the 24 hours? (The bees only orientate to the new site when they emerge.)
...

I'm not changing the advice I gave you 10 days ago when you previously asked this question.

However, it is 10 days later in the season, and the bees will have been learning more of the surroundings around their OLD home, and thus will be 10 days more likely to go back to the OLD site.


I would repeat that a "stay away" of merely 7 days is going to be pretty pointless - as in it would produce results essentially the same as a direct move (whatever those results might be).
Either "stay away" longer, much longer, or go direct.

I wouldn't hang around for another 10 days ...

 

[Freddywasadevil]

I moved a hive just over a week ago, 1 mile away as the crow flies , I covered the entrance with grass and evergreen branches on the new site. I left a nuc at the old site and didn't see any bees returning to it. There is 20 acres of woodland between the sites. So all was well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[alanf]

Advice will vary because only you know your own sites, everybody else has only svpartial picture. The big question is, are they likely to be visiting the same forage area? If you move them the other side of an OSR field they would be working from either apiary then there is risk they go back to their old site. If you're in an extensive mixed area then few foragers will be going to the same obvious forage area.

Another factor is if it's one hive from your own apiary, you could lose foragers to your own other hives, that might not be much of a problem. Where I am in the suburbs the plums are just coming out, but they're scattered over gardens and allotments, there's a few dandelions and lots of mixed spring flowering. Moves at this time of year of a mile or two have not been a problem.

 

[beepig]

I appreciate all of the info and thankyou all. I have digested all and spoken again to my mentor, who is advising a "jump". Until i have more experience i shall take his advice. My two colonies are very active and the largest are producing and storing surplus honey also. The new site is a good ten miles from both old and new permanent site.
The temp site has been organised ready for the move later this week. We are doing the move around 8pm.
Heres hoping i am doing the right thing. Luckilly i have a land rover with no seats in the back making the move a tad simpler.