moving bees urgent advice needed

[zippy573]

i have kept bees for years and for the last 15 years they have very happily been located next to my brothers agricultural yard. He has hosted an event there every year for the last 5 years with no issues - on one occasion the marquee was errected 4 foot from the hives - and no attacks even when the marquee was being errected!

Tomorrow my brother has his 50th bd party and it all kicks off with events for youngsters at 6pm, clearly the bees will still be flying then.

Now my problem is for some reason this year my bees are attacking people including me, even when we are 50 meters from the hive and i have not distubed them for 3 days! My hunch is i have them too close together and they are straying into one anothers hives by mistake which is making them bad tempered? i also have one very bad tempered hive (new purchased queen last year of a VERY well know strain) i artificially swarmed this on monday. Most of the hives are currently trying to swarm, there is plenty of oil seed rape in the area and obviously the weather is fantastic at last!

So i have tonight to get them moved - relocating is not a problem as we are farmers and have land up to 15 miles away that i can take them to.

Last night when i went to move one hive the bees were still clustered outside on several hives.

So advice please - doing nothing is not an option!

any tips on getting them inside the hive tonight
what time should i move them. how far do i need to take them - shorter the better for me.
thanks

 

[user 6228]

...
any tips on getting them inside the hive tonight
...thanks

A wild idea

make it rain

other might know but might a fine water spray make them go inside?

 

[whiteoakjill]

I like to move hives first thing in the morning but that is first light, normally as cool as it gets and gets over the warm evening problem. mind you with todays breeze they might all be in tonight

 

[ashleybee]

When I move hives I usually go out to close the hives up early in the morning. I moved some yesterday which were double brood nationals and there were no bees out side.
When I say early I closed them up at 03:50 and had them loaded and moved by 05:00.
I think it give the bees alot more time to get any excess heat out of the hive.
The only thing is, is it dosen't give you much time if they are still not in but I can't see why they wouldn't be.
Atb Ashley

 

[zippy573]

thanks for the advice - dont mind an early start! do you use ratchet straps to hold them together and tape up gaps? cant really remove supers today as i will stir them up even more and there are lots of people in the yard. but hoping to forklift them onto trailer!

 

[Skyhook]

I think you have a night shift coming on! The answer has to be prep them today (straps, travel screens if youre using them), then just as late as possible. I'd have thought they should pretty much all be in by 10.00, or 11.00 at the latest- then foam strips in, load up and off!

If you had a few days in hand I'd say you could do it a bit earlier, leaving one hive until last for the strays to beg their way into- but if tomorrow is the day you don't want pissed-off bees flying around, I think the graveyard shift is the only answer.

Of course if you have travel screens and OMF's you could shut them in late tonight then do an early move tomorrow- but without that much ventilation you're goign to cook them shut up for that long.

 

[zippy573]

thanks all - also how far minimum distance please

 

[oliver90owner]

clearly the bees will still be flying then.

If they are on one field of OSR, put them the other side of the next but one?

Regarding moving them, I would consider closing (some of) them up for a day. If on OMFs, should be little trouble, maybe travelling screens over the strongest or any solid floor colonies. Might save an awful lot of work....

RAB