Another moving bees question

[Ambodach]

My apologies for yet another query on this topic - searching back threads gives all too many hits to find what I'm after.

I do have to move the two hives now - garden area change from vegetables to decorative(!). The move is ~20 metres and I have a concrete path to do it on and a pair of trolleys.

I've followed one bit of guidance about aligning the hives so that they effectively go backwards and therefore I can do 2m at a time, and I'm also bearing in mind that the first hive will have to be most of the way through the move before I start the second one.

The question that I can't find the answer to is what time of day should I do each 2 metre step ?

Thanks
Rob

 

[itma]

Time of day shouldn't matter much - but I wouldn't do it late in the day, when it is cooler.
Any extra time spent finding where 'home' has gone to, is going to risk returning foragers getting chilled before they find it …
But if you are moving 2m backwards, with no visual clutter to obscure the new hive entrance position from the previous one, then there shouldn't be much delay in getting back inside.

A good visual 'marker' at the hive entrance will help the (poor short-sighted) bees find what they are looking for.

Since its getting a bit Autumnal, I wouldn't move the hive every single day.
Every really good flying day, perhaps.



Since you are lucky enough to have the benefit of the path and trolleys, I might actually be tempted to make smaller moves, more frequently. Maybe even making a bigger move on better flying days … Have fun, it doesn't sound as though you risk things going wrong.

 

[oliver90owner]

Definitely in the morning on a good flying day is preferable. As above, late in pm may not be good, but my thoughts are that any bees which orientate, or re-orientate, are better doing it before flying on any mission, so finding the hive quickly and easily on their return.

RAB

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

Why not wait until the flying is minimal when the first frost arrives. Close up the hive entrance. Move both hives the next day and allow the bees to remove the grass stuffed into the restricted entrance. They will take time to do this and re orientate on the new site. Most of the green veg will then be out of the ground. Meanwhile you can prepare to redesign and move plants by splitting/taking root cuttings and loosen any shrubs by digging around and under the roots then backfilling to allow them to make new fibrous roots, they suffer less if you do that.

 

[alanf]

I do have to move the two hives now...I can do 2m at a time, and I'm also bearing in mind that the first hive will have to be most of the way through the move before I start the second one...

They are both your hives? Both healthy? And nobody else has hives within a few hundred metres? I wouldn't be that worried about drift between them, I'd probably try to move both together.

 

[oliver90owner]

I'd probably try to move both together.

Seems like the OP has considered that. Only sensible if hives are positioned across the path. If in the direction of travel, drifting would be so great that the hives might need swapping position continuously!

I woud not be moving bees at the first frosts. I would be waiting for several days of continuous non-flying for that, not just the odd early-morning frost.

But moving one hive, if returners could easily find the other hive, is one way of speeding the transfer.

 

[Ambodach]

Thanks guys

For the 'visible marker' I will find something large and white to screw above the entrances, and otherwise I'll just trundle each hive along sometime each warm morning - fortunately we seem to be getting good weather for the next week so that will help.

Apart from the good weather just now, the key to all this is the concrete path which has to be lifted before any ground work is done, so moving the hives is the first operation.