AS - move to the other side

[Monsieur Abeille]

When I did my one and only AS last year I foolishly ignored the instruction about moving the original hive to the other side of the new hive after one week to capture new flyers. I was lucky and got away without a follow up swarm.

Space is a bit cramped in my stockade, so I am planning to demaree my national if they show signs of swarming, but I dont have the equipment to do the same for my WBC.

A roundabout way of getting to the question - if space does not permit to move the original hive from one side to the other, can it just be shunted away in another direction and rotated?

 

[oliver90owner]

Monsieur Abeille,

To a degree, is the anwer. Perhaps not effectively enough. A gentle move (even though the emerging queen cells should be 'ripe') by more than about 3m should be more than enough, especially if the hives were very adjacent beforehand.

Compromises, compromises, adaptations to basic method and all that!

Regards, RAB

 

[Vergilius]

Guys/girls,

Is it alright to AS without any original hive movement ie. just put queen, plus a few frames, plus bees in a nuc and then move the nuc to another apiary. Or is it really necessary to collect the flying bees?


Thanks,

Ben P

 

[oliver90owner]

You can do that but why?

Where are the super(s) going for the normal A/S? The result would be a hive with greater risk of secondary swarms unless all queen cells bar one were removed, the old queen would be restricted in build up (short of flying bees) and may well be smaller than a nuc, or if the nuc is full she will soon run out of space, need to be in a full size box and then probably swarm later in the season as soon as the new box is filled, as she will not actually be artificially swarmed.

RAB

 

[Vergilius]

You can do that but why?

Where are the super(s) going for the normal A/S? The result would be a hive with greater risk of secondary swarms unless all queen cells bar one were removed, the old queen would be restricted in build up (short of flying bees) and may well be smaller than a nuc, or if the nuc is full she will soon run out of space, need to be in a full size box and then probably swarm later in the season as soon as the new box is filled, as she will not actually be artificially swarmed.

RAB

Yep... I get ya.

Ben P

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Monsieur Abeille,

To a degree, is the anwer. Perhaps not effectively enough. A gentle move (even though the emerging queen cells should be 'ripe') by more than about 3m should be more than enough, especially if the hives were very adjacent beforehand.

Compromises, compromises, adaptations to basic method and all that!

Regards, RAB

Thanks RAB, makes sense

 

[richardbees]

Ben, do you want to rethink this question?

"Is it alright to AS without any original hive movement ie. just put queen, plus a few frames, plus bees in a nuc and then move the nuc to another apiary. Or is it really necessary to collect the flying bees?"

....the whole point of AS is to keep the means of generating a Honey crop i.e a stable hive full of ALL the mature flying bees.

You make up your nucs with new Qs, brood and nurse bees.

rich