Any advice on moving WBC hives?

[KDW]

We are about to move a WBC hive and bees and would appreciate any advice on the best way to go about it. Are we best to move the whole thing or take the lifts off and move the inner box fixed to a temporary board base? We have a bit of manoeuvring to do to get it through a poky basement flat into a garden at the end of the journey, which is why the option of removing the lifts has come up. All advice appreciated! I am a new beekeeper so really mean ALL advice!

 

[Bad Boy Bee]

borrow a national hive and tranfer them into it - strap, seal and transport.

 

[KDW]

Thank you, I had thought about that - but forgive me if this is a stupid question - do you mean actually lift the frames out of the WBC into a national box?

 

[milkermel]

I had to do this single handed last year 3 brood boxes worth as the owner didnt have supers.

I had hoped to move all in one go, but it just wasnt going to happen!

I couldnt compress the bees into any smaller space so ended up using wire framed queen excluder with cheapy tights streched over them. place these on top with a blank board on the bottom strapped them down well with ratchet straps and moved each box I left an empty box on site just to catch up the stragglers.

If you can leave it until a little later in the year it may make your job a bit easier as there will be less bees.

Oh and another thing not sure how it stands with the law, but keep your bee gear on whilst travelling if its not too far! you end up jumping otherwise when you get a stray follow you into the motor!

I may be teaching granny to suck eggs but the other thing to do is to do it in the evening when its dark. Personally I would say remove lifts during the day as it will be less to deal with then if all you have is one brood box you can slide base board under once everyone in, leave it for a while to settle, lift lid and put tighted QX on top of crown board and strap down.

Someone may have an easier idea, but that is roughly how i did it.

 

[Andy Coleman]

hi - I moved my original WBC hive early this year. I removed all the lifts and roof, and used a couple of hive straps to secure the brood-and-a-half chambers to the floor. I used gaffer tape liberally to seal the entrance, and also stuck it round the joins between the boxes, as well as the crown board, to avoid any chance of escapees.

I had made the dumb mistake of installing my original nucleus colony into a WBC which was already set up in the back garden, and which like yours is approached through the house; but what I hadn't checked was to make sure the base would fit through the doorways and go round the corners in the house in a horizontal position when I wanted to get it out - so make sure yours will fit before moving, the legs are quite wide. In the end I got mine out though the neighbour's garden.

I got a beekeeping friend to help, I would have found it hard on my own.

Don't forget to ensure the frames are aligned with the direction of travel if you're taking them in a car, this minimises the tendency of them to slap against eachother which at the very least will annoy the bees (apologies if you're already aware of this).

I assume you've worked out how they will get on in the garden, flight lines, potential neighbour problems, how you will tend the garden while they are busy during the season. My back garden is fairly small, but I was able to position the hive so they didn't stop my wife from hanging out washing etc, and with fencing and shrubs to elevate their flight lnes so the neighbours weren't annoyed, although I did get a couple of stings while cutting the grass. After one season I found a site on a nearby farm and decided to move them. I miss having them at home, so enjoyable just to sit and watch, but they do limit use of a small garden.


Best of luck! kind regards Andy

 

[RoseCottage]

Moved our WBC hives a few times now...

As said previously...

Remove the lifts and roof - ensure a good closed crownboard too

Gaffa tape all box edges together and also to the floor

If you have OMF use gaffa tape to seal front door and back with sponge to ensure no escapees.

If you are travelling you may wish to place a travel screen on top (provides ventilation but using an OMF should be fine).

Use straps in both directions to strap the stack to the floor and make sure they are tight.

When moving try and avoid frame swing by carrying the hive with the frames in the direction of travel

Place a sheet under the hives whem moving them - if things go wrong you can wrap the issue up and get control back.

Relax as it should be easy to make a move. Also look at the following thread and assess your move location:

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10209


As to when you move them it depends - the idea is to get as many bees in the hive before you seal it up. So seal them in the evening or early morning (pre 6am probably) when most foragers are at home.

Work out a plan for if things go wrong...how are you going to react? What would you need to do to secure the hives?

Have your suits handy...

All the best - its an adventure so have fun - a sense of humour is handy as well as a camera,
Sam

 

[milkermel]

Definately have a back up plan !

I had a few stings that day because I didnt! like i said I had planned on moving everything together but was on my own (get help if you can!)

Even so I dont think I could have done it with help in one.

My stings were because I had to bodge and had a short time to move in - lady was moving in 3 weeks and I was going to be away for a month 3 days after move, so had to be now or now.

have to admit, even though I got stung a couple of times it was still fun - no photos as it was 11pm by the time I finished! Not good when getting back up at 4am for milking

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Lifts off. Hive straps. Gaffa tape. Easier than a National with two people as you've got handles in the floor of the WBC.
Do it towards dusk when all the bees are at home.

 

[KDW]

A big thanks to everyone for all your advice. Luckily there are two of us - and we have a van, so plenty of space to load into, panels to strap the hive boxes into / onto - and a solid divider between rear of van and cabin so less fear of escaping bees causing problems while driving! We also both have suits.

I hadn't read anything about the direction of the frames, so that is very useful to hear as it sounds like a relatively simple thing to do which can help make a difference. Also a good suggestion to take the lifts off earlier in the day so some of the work is done. We are planning on moving them in the evening and have about an hour's drive between the old location and new - it's just access to the new that I still haven't worked out. Access via my neighbour's garden would require lifting to about 4ft in the air (there is a lane way at the rear of my garden but my ground level is about at shoulder height while standing in the laneway) - and people to take it from the lifters - which is why I want to avoid it, as I think it will be heavy, require 4 people, and be difficult to achieve without tossing the bees around a bit.

I now need to go out and measure front door and see if the WBC base will get through without tilting, or if we go the whole hog and screw the brood box and super to temporary bases so we can bring them in separately through the front door. It's one deep brood box and a one third-full super. (in terms of honey / weight, I mean). Hmm..

 

[KDW]

In terms of locating the hives - more questions! I am lucky enough to have a large garden, but it is long and thin (only about 10ft wide) - so difficult to site the hive anywhere where I won't be crossing the flightpath as I have a path more or less down the middle of the garden, and regularly use / work in all of the areas that aren't under overhanging trees.

I do have a high brick wall on one side of the garden, and would ideally like to site the hive facing that. The point I am thinking of would allow approximately a 3ft gap between the front of the hive and the 8ft wall - is that too close?

 

[milkermel]

one of the hives i look after is about that distance away from hedge and it has worked fine this year.

 

[rockdoc]

Just a thought on moving hives and aligning the frames in the direction of travel. I've had to move a number of hives this year and have found the snap on Hoffman spacers a great help. They limit any 'slap' induced by inadvertent heavy cornering!

 

[KDW]

To everybody that offered advice - I thought you might like to know that 8hrs after we set off, we are now back at home (yes, at 3am) with the bees in the WBC in the garden. As predicted, there was a fair amount of hilarity as well as panic and pain! Thanks to everyone for their advice.. presuming the bees are still there in the morning, I'll be back for more advice soon!