Liam C Ryan
House Bee
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2010
- Messages
- 241
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Tipperary
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 7
Hi All ' is this time of the year a bad time to move hives
bees clustered while moving if shaken and broken up can get chilled and be unable to re cluster,be gentle
martin
So its ok to move short distances in winter? They wont come out on a warm day and go back to the original site?
It all depends on what sort of Winter you are having
My bees haven't clustered yet as the weather has seldom dropped to zero.
If I moved them 30 metres I'd expect that all the foragers etc that flew out on the next mild day would return to the original site.
What you want is a continuous spell of cold/frosty weather before and after the move - be as gentle as possible with them whilst moving then pile some twiggy branches across the entrances of the hives. When they come out of a tight cluster after a cold snap they will instinctively re-orientate - the 'difference' outside the entrance due to the foliage will also trigger this.
I moved five hives a short distance (ranging from six feet for two to about sixty for the others) the day after the weather changed and it warmed up considerably. very few bees went back to the old site sixty feet away.
It all depends on what sort of Winter you are having
My bees haven't clustered yet as the weather has seldom dropped to zero.
If I moved them 30 metres I'd expect that all the foragers etc that flew out on the next mild day would return to the original site.
Bees start clustering at about 14 degC. The colder it gets the tighter the cluster.
SteveJ
Not here in the UK
If there's any forage bees are out at 10º
the whole cluster issue is a spectrum from completely loose bees when hot to progressively tighter packed as i gets colder, eventually balling up proper and presumably, if it got cold enough, achieving a mini singularity - from which vicious wasps would emerge out the other side. i'd imagine.
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