Hive swap advice needed

[MarkyMark]

Hi everyone, I have a dilemma & hope someone on here can help.
Ive got a small colony in an old rotton WBC & i want to swap it to a national hive, any ideas on the best way to go about it ?
I was just going to chop up a few of the main frames their on to fit the national (which has new undrawn frames in) And shut them in there for a few days with some syrup.....I thought do it now whilst its still cold & they arent flying (well i say arent... i havent been over to them on a sunny day yet)
Anyone got any input ?


Sorry ive been away a bit, my laptop HD decided to go south and l'm one of those silly people that dont back things up !

 

[Ewok]

Your WBC frames should fit the National - just transfer them & add an extra frame.

 

[Tom Bick]

The frames from the wbc will should fit into the national as Ewas said

Dont do it now leave them well alone apart from a check on the stores

When the weather is better say in April and the bees are foraging you can move the wbc hive to one side place the new national hive on the original position as the wbc the flying bees will return to the hives original position and enter the new national hive.

Remove each frame from the wbc and put it in the new national hive carefully be conscious of the queen also she may be on a side wall of the wbc bb along with other bees so look carefully. In an ideal world you have spotted her on a frame

Try and knock the remaining bees from the wbc bb into the national bb

Close up the hive and let it all settle down for a week and then if you want to consider moving them onto new frames and foundation do it then.

But first of all I suggest you go and check on them sunny day or not

 

[Hebeegeebee]

MarkeyMark,
I keep Nats and WBC's. Swapping frames is easy as has been explained. The Nat could have a dummy board put in instead of a frame at first.... The new hive should be on the site of the old one of course but you knew that.

The Thornes catalogue has a table that lists the frame sizes which is quite useful.

Even if your WBC is old and manky, as a double walled hive your stock of bees should be snug in there unless it leaks. (If the colony is small you could put them in a nuc for a while).

Adam

 

[ENZO]

If you want to use the new frames and foundation, when the weather is a little warmer, place the new National brood box on top of the WBC brood box (bailey comb exchange) and feed, the foundation will be drawn, the queen will eventually start to lay in the top box, slip in a QX between the 2 brood boxes, check a few days later to make sure the queen is in the top (eggs), then just wait for the brood to emerge from the lower box. Then all you have to do is remove the WBC and replace with the National, most of the bees will fly into the National but it may be worth shaking in as many bees as you can from the WBC brood box as some of the young will never have flown.

I do a full comb exchange to a 1/3rd of my hives every year and this works well for me.

All The Best, Enzo.

 

[Grub]

Hi everyone, I have a dilemma & hope someone on here can help.
Ive got a small colony in an old rotton WBC & i want to swap it to a national hive, any ideas on the best way to go about it ?
I was just going to chop up a few of the main frames their on to fit the national (which has new undrawn frames in) And shut them in there for a few days with some syrup.....I thought do it now whilst its still cold & they arent flying (well i say arent... i havent been over to them on a sunny day yet)
Anyone got any input ?


Sorry ive been away a bit, my laptop HD decided to go south and l'm one of those silly people that dont back things up !

As the others have said put the new hive on the original spot with the old hive about 4 feet away , I have done this before when somone gave me a old hive and I would deffo not do it until end of April early May and make sure its a realy warm day it will be easier than what you think
Good luck

Grub

 

[Chris B]

Simply transferring frames is easiest option.
However, you don't mention anything about the history of these bees. I would be curious to know why the colony is small. Does that mean weak and/or diseased and/or failed queen and/or suffering from varroa? Dealing with the more urgent need of the bee's health, you might find a shook swarm kills 2 birds with one stone. How much more can you tell us?