Is it too late to move recently swarmed colony

[buzzerB]

One of my colonies swarmed Friday; probably about 48 hours ago.. I stumbled upon it [fortunately not physically] just as it was getting dark, the same day, with heavy thunder showers looming. I quickly got it into a brood box and covered it.

Is it now too late to move to its final site? It will be 48 hours at about 2200 hours tonight. We are planning to move it tonight, about 30 yards and put a lot of shrubbery etc at the entrance and re-orientate it to the sun.

Any experienced brains out there much appreciated

 

[RoseCottage]

Have they been out much or pinned in by rain? Have a significant majority had the opportunity to orientate at the temporary location?

I would close them in tonight, move them, open them up and place a bushy branch over the entrance for 3-4 days.

Place a brood box in the old location to gather any bees who have already orientated. You can pour or shake these back into the hive at the new location. In a few days all will re-orientate if your obstruction in the print of the hive is good,

All the best,
Sam

 

[Midland Beek]

Go on do it, you'll get away with that. If any flying bee is lost then I am sure it will at least find its way back to the colony where it originally came from.

 

[buzzerB]

Moved bees OK, thanks

Thanks for the advice. The Queen has only just begun to lay which has made me very nervous. It was quite a relief when i found eggs yesterday.

 

[RoseCottage]

Great news...well done. Did you get many bees at the old location?
All the best,
Sam

 

[Chris Luck]

I would say that at 30 yards you will loose most of the flying bees, not a great deal maybe in terms of the colony but substantial none the less.

Chris

 

[SixFooter]

I would say that at 30 yards you will loose most of the flying bees, not a great deal maybe in terms of the colony but substantial none the less.

Chris

If its a swarm, surely that's all of them!

 

[Chris Luck]

Well, no not really. Once "home" is established the majority of the bees will stay "indoors" and only the initial foragers will map out the location.

Chris

 

[SixFooter]

Yes. It makes sense. I learn so much from this site!

 

[andycadman]

Would you still loose all the flying bees if you used the first method mentioned above:

I would close them in tonight, move them, open them up and place a bushy branch over the entrance for 3-4 days.

Place a brood box in the old location to gather any bees who have already orientated. You can pour or shake these back into the hive at the new location. In a few days all will re-orientate if your obstruction in the print of the hive is good,

or about what percentage are you likely loose?

 

[RoseCottage]

It is all about circumstances. If lots of foraging bees had orientated themselves to the original location then they would follow their mental maps back.

If you force them to relearn their location then all will be well. So you try and provide a disorientation prop such as a bushy branch that forces them to check their map out when they leave the hive.

Depending upon the circumstances some, lots, many, few, etc may not re-orientate on first flight and so will go back to the old position. You place a nuc or BB there to collect them and bring them back to the new location to have them try again.

The OP said that there had been bad weather so probably few would have carried out orientation.

All about circumstances...I wait to hear what happened for his bees.

All the best,
Sam

 

[andycadman]

Many thanks.

I have a hive that I want to move 25 yards in a couple of weeks or so.

It would be nice if I could avoid taking it two miles away for a while.

I will be very interested if the process on this thread works out OK.

 

[RoseCottage]

Andy I posted on this a while ago...

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

All the best,
Sam