Flying bees returning to garden

[tomtomhitter]

Hi all,

I moved 3 hives from my garden last night, to a spot just over a mile away. Now, I know about the 3ft / 3 miles rule, so I stuck a load of leaves and sticks in the hive entrances in an attempt to confuse the bees into thinking their location has changed and re-orientating themselves.
This obviously didn't work as today my garden is full of bees looking for their hives!

I have placed empty hives with a frame in each, just to give them somewhere to go, and they seem to have taken to them. But what's the best way of re-siting them later this evening so that they don't return back to my garden tomorrow?

Thanks!
Tom

 

[MartinL]

Move them >3 miles???

You'll now have a load of idiots (including one stumbling out of a bar in Earls Court) tell you how to move it less than three miles.


Fact is, they gain height & it all looks pretty much like it was at the original location so that's where they end up.

I tried the same after reading it here a couple of times, I had a swarm move into an empty box by my front door. Popped them in the car unloaded them & drove home.
1/2 of them were waiting for me (with nowhere to go) when I got back!

Don't worry about having tried something that has failed, but don't be daft enough to make the same mistake twice!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yep. You have to move them all well away
The 3 mile rule is there for a reason. You can get away with less if there is a significant geographical barrier in the way. A hill or a forest for example

 

[Hivemaker.]

But what's the best way of re-siting them later this evening so that they don't return back to my garden tomorrow?

Move them three miles or more .

 

[tomtomhitter]

I did take the topography into account and there are 2 hills and a woodland between my garden and the new location...

Maybe they just really like my garden!

 

[Poly Hive]

This ***** moved two full colonies and eight strong nucs some 700m with no returnees.

Ph

 

[Beefriendly]

It depends on the where they forage. If they start to forage on the same patch as the old site then they re-navigate back to old site. If they don't forage on same patches they don't return.
In winter you can move them a few yards with no problem.

 

[WalnutTreeBees]

Can I hijack to ask.... if I want to move a hive half a mile away, how long will I have to leave it in a location that's more than 3 miles away before I can move it back to the new location that's half a mile from the original site? I'm guessing that i have to wait until all the flying bees have died off at the intermediate site before moving it back? So at least 3 weeks?

 

[eltalia]

Can I hijack to ask.... if I want to move a hive half a mile away, how long will I have to leave it in a location that's more than 3 miles away before I can move it back to the new location that's half a mile from the original site? I'm guessing that i have to wait until all the flying bees have died off at the intermediate site before moving it back? So at least 3 weeks?

THE answer is "for as long as it takes the sun's azimuth to
significanty shift, usually around two days in fine weather".
Yet you can move them across the yard or across a field in the one day
following that same use of the principle, with a twist.
NO leaves/branches/twigs "leave a box behind" BS needed.
Tom should have moved them 3 miles, or whatever...a longer way off.

Bill

 

[bingevader]

This ***** moved two full colonies and eight strong nucs some 700m with no returnees.

Ph

Me too, but hey, what do we know.

 

[Beefriendly]

If you also had hives left at old location you wouldn't notice any returnees as they would enter those hives.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Me too, but hey, what do we know.

Perhaps if the OP had moved his a similar distance he wouldn’t be in a pickle

 

[beeno]

Hi Tom, I have tried this and it was successful in my own garden. Let them be queenless for a day and move the bees to walk into their colony with their old queen early evening. There was no bees in the now empty hive in the evening of the following day.

 

[Poly Hive]

In my instance, it was a clean sweep so yes returners would have been very conspicuous and there were none.

PH

 

[enrico]

I moved mine 20 yards in the winter when they were not likely to be flying for two weeks. I still had returners but I put no hives out and hoped they found their way to the nearest hive. There were none in the evening so they went somewhere or died. This happened for a few days. The suggestion was that winter bees have a longer memory!!!!!!!
Who knows.
E

 

[tomtomhitter]

They took to the empty hives I put in the garden in the original spots so I thought I would block the entrances in the evening and move the bees back to the new location.
Strangely, after dark, there wasn't a single bee in any of the 3 hives in my garden despite being busy in the day.
Think I will go to the new location this evening and block them in for a day or two.

 

[philipm]

Moved mine from one side of our field to the other side a few times never really had any problems,Don't know if I would shift all the hives in one go though.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

.
Think I will go to the new location this evening and block them in for a day or two.

Stable door. Horse. Bolted.

(And block them in in this weather?)

 

[eltalia]

Stable door. Horse. Bolted.

(And block them in in this weather?)

Ditto...to both.
Water lead horse drink force..?. nUh uh.


Bill

 

[maz0]

Perhaps your issue is in the fact you done them all in one go. I am currently in the middle of moving 3 hives 100 meters.... all 3 were within a foot of each other originally.

I moved hive 1 and put an empty brood box in its place at 11pm and sealed them shut until the next morning (branches in front of entrance). At around 7pm that day I checked and there was maybe 20-30 foragers in the empty brood box in the original location. I carried that down and shook it out at the entrance and in they went, replaced empty brood box at original location, monitored for 3 days and no bees returned to the empty brood box.

Few days later I moved hive 2, this time I didn't place an empty brood box in the original location but moved the 3rd hive half a foot closer to hive 2's place. Monitored it the next day every few hours, lots of activity, bees coming and going into hive 3, no dead bee's on the ground, no obvious signs of anything gone wrong to my beginner eyes. From my research, the lost bee's would most likely be returning with forage and would be able to beg/borrow their way into hive 3.

I'm now left with hive 3 still at the original location, its been a week since I moved hive 1. I'll be doing hive 3 and replacing with an empty brood box again as it was pretty easy with hive 1.

Weekly inspection showed all 3 hives still in good condition.

3-3-3 is a good rule of thumb but I've now proven to myself that its not gospel. I asked several long term beekepers before doing this, can I move them 100 meters? 'no no, it's got to be 3-3', - ok, have you ever tried it yourself? 'no'....you can see what I'm getting at....

I'm sure I'll be bashed for going against the grain as a beginner but its just my experience so far, good luck!