moving hives

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i had to move 2 hives a few weeks ago. the bees hadn't seemed to cluster but i was moving them a few miles anyway.

had reports of someone sniffing around the wood they were in . not helped by the farmer doing some maintenance and making hives visible from the road.

Thanks everybody for your replies, l should have said l needed to move the hives 5 miles. l think l might leave the move until early spring even though lots of bees were flying today and they they don't seem to have clustered this winter.
Regards
L C Ryan
 
Moving hives

Hi everyone
We have kept a single hive successfully in the back garden for the past 2 years, but new next door neighbours have recently moved in and while they seem quite happy that we keep honeybees, their 5 year old soon is a real wild child (looks and acts like Macaulay Culkin). I'm feeling very apprehensive about the coming season. A friend has an acre of garden about 2 miles down the road and is happy to have our bees, so I am considering moving the bees before they become more active.
Does anyone have experience of moving bees a short distance, that will have to involve a vehicle? I'm guessing we should aim to do this in the early evening. Any tips welcome.
Green Bee :thanks:
 
Wait till Spring.Close up the hive after bees have stopped flying and move first thing in the morning and put a few twigs/leaves/branches in front of entrance.
OR if you move now just do it....gently.
At least two straps,perpendicular to each other.
Either way it's recommended that you orient the box so that the frames are in the direction of travel but at this time of year I would expect the frames to be well propolised together (especially if they are hoffmans) so I doubt if it's that important.
 
ask him if he wants to see whats in the box and let him open it without a suit on.
 
We have kept a single hive successfully in the back garden for the past 2 years, but new next door neighbours have recently moved in and while they seem quite happy that we keep honeybees, their 5 year old soon is a real wild child (looks and acts like Macaulay Culkin). I'm feeling very apprehensive about the coming season. A friend has an acre of garden about 2 miles down the road and is happy to have our bees, so I am considering moving the bees before they become more active.
Does anyone have experience of moving bees a short distance, that will have to involve a vehicle? I'm guessing we should aim to do this in the early evening. Any tips welcome.
Green Bee :thanks:

We had new neighbours whose youngest son was about 6. We also have very tall deciduous hedges between our the gardens so the bees fly up and away. We did move the hives across the garden though, just to be sure there was less risk of footballs landing on them and have an out-apiary available if we need it. So far it hasn't happened.

Honey is a sweetener, for neighbours as well as for recipes.
 
In the interests of keeping on good terms with the neighbours, we did move the bees, to a friend's garden. They are thriving there and we have just taken on our 2nd colony. Thanks for the advice. It'll be much less daunting if we have to move them again. :)
 

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