I need to move my hives a short distance (400m). I'm aware of the 'not more than 3m; not less than 3 miles' mantra. So in practice how does one move hives as I need to?
Despite what you have been told by others it is actually not too difficult to move hives 400m at this time of year. The key thing you need to achieve is for the bees to know that something has changed and they are in a different place - you do this by providing several triggers. The bees will then undergo reorientation flights and you are sorted.
So the triggers I use are
1) close up the hives the night before - sponge from old cushions is an easy way to do this - preferably the day before a decent flying day
2) move the hives early next day to new position - preferably the outlook from the entrance is different such as the direction facing or trees/fences/hedges nearer or further away
3) Cut some small branches from a bush or tree that has dense foilage.
4) Get hold of a bunch of sprigs of a strong smelling herb - e..g mint or lemon balm
5) After you have left the colony for 3-4 hours in the new position slightly open the entrance but immediately stuff the a bunch of bruised herb sprigs into the opening - sponge makes this easy to do
6) Arrange the branches over the front of the entrance so they form a leafy barrier that bees can't easily fly through leaving a gap you can put your hand through to the entrance.
7) Once in place reach through and gradually loosen the herb sprigs, maybe removing a few until you have a gap that the bees can just get through oneor two at a time (wear gloves!)
8) That is more or less it - provided it is a good foraging day they will gradually all come out and reorient over the afternoon and will push the sprigs out
9) In the evening remove the branches
I move colonies less than a mile 20 or 30 times a year and this works everytime - I think the bruised herb sprigs are actually much more important than the barrier of branches because the smell immediately alerts the whole colony to something being different along with the blocked entrance.
).
