Moving hive

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Matthew Roberts

New Bee
Joined
Mar 20, 2023
Messages
45
Reaction score
15
Location
York
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
Hi All,
I'm a beginner beekeeper and need to move my first hive tomorrow. It is being moved less than 2 miles. Does anyone have any ideas or tips how to avoid loosing all my flying bees?

Thanks
 
Too warm to keep them closed in for a few days.
You can try propping something up against the front of the hive to give them an obvious visual difference on leaving the hive - some people say it helps.
 
After the move loosely stuff grass in the entrance so they have a wee struggle to get out and also put a board or branches over the entrance. BUT most importantly do not think of moving them with out a top screen ventilation.

PH
 
From my experience the lost bees will beard close to where the hive was at evening time. Stick an apidea close to the old spot and gather up the stragglers. Let them sit for a day or two before locking them in and moving to new location. Put them into an empty brood box over the main hive and let them chew their way out thru a newspaper. Best done in the evening and put branches across the entrance to confuse them. Took me a couple of attempts but eventually worked and that was within 1 km.
 
If you have other hives near the original spot no problem. But.....two miles is plenty
 
Back
Top