Moving the hive before an inspection.

[freethorpe bees]

A book I am reading suggests moving the hive three feet, onto a sheet, before carrying out an inspection, to reduce the number of flying bees around you.
Anyone ever heard of this? Seems like a bit of a faff to me and something you'd need two people for.

 

[winmag270]

I've heard of that technique used when dealing with an agressive colony, ie; when you are trying to find / remove the queen, etc

makes life less "busy"

 

[richardbees]

What's the polite way of saying 'what a load of crap'?

 

[winmag270]

The theory behind this is to move the BB over 3 feet from it's original site...

The flying bees upon leaving the BB will return to the original site, thus reducing the number of bees in the BB being inspected, etc.....

 

[cheshirehives]

What book? I have a number but cannot recall any reference to that method before!

 

[victor meldrew]

What book? I have a number but cannot recall any reference to that method before!

I have the book I'll look it up ! Still a load of cr*p though
I viscous colony will meet you from yards away never mine feet .

John Wilkinson

 

[dickbowyer]

It is in "The Complete Guide to Beekeeping" by Jeremy Evans and Sheila Berrett (page 61) - a favourite of the West Sussex fraternity. They also advocate a "brood & a half". Both have their place IMHO!

 

[freethorpe bees]

Yes - that's the book I read it in. I thought there wouldn't be many (if any) who do that. To me if flying bees bother you that much maybe you shouldn't be a beekeeper anyway!

 

[mbc]

Dont knock it till youve tried it.
I've used the method myself to find a queen from a vicious colony up the road from me. A swarm had moved into an old hive and built comb all over the place as wax moths had destroyed the old comb. I was asked to help requeen the colony and wish I hadnt accepted after several unsuccessful attempts to find the queen resulting in broken comb, stinging bees and honey all over the place. In the end I shook one reasonable comb of brood free of bees and put it into a new brood box on the original site and moved the offending colony about twenty yards to the other side of the garden and left them to settle down for a day. The following day we went back and quickly found the queen in the old box without any stings at all, popped in a new queen with the very cross bees and one frame of brood on the original site and placed the old hive above a queen excluder over the new brood box. When we went back a week later to squash any queen cells in the top box ( there werent any ) the colony was much calmer and had already drawn out and layed in most of the foundation we'd placed in the bottom box.
I'd say in certain circumstances the technique is very useful.

 

[RoofTops]

I have heard this recommended when inspecting mini-nucs. Ron Brown said he carried his mini-nucs over to a table where he could sit down in comfort and go through them. The flying bees "waited patiently" for the mini-nuc to be returned to its original spot.

For a full sized hive this is not normally done but I can see there might be times when it might just be a useful technique to have available.

 

[oliver90owner]

FB,

One can understand how some new beeks get hold of the 'wrong end of the handle' - if they only read a book like that one.

Obviously not suggesting you are one of those type, but you may understand what I mean.

As stated previously, it is an utter load of rubbish/waste of time and effort. Far better to work behind the hive and allow the returning foragers to find the entrance easily (ie - land!) ? So I would think it likely to increase the number of bees flying around the beekeeper, not the converse.

The specific manipulations (not 'an inspection') of moving the hive away, to ease the problem of finding the queen, would need much more distance than the three feet quoted!

Regards, RAB

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I would also have thought that the movement would be more likely to wind the bees up, not to mention the risk of dropping the brood box as you move it!

Maybe it's a reasonable method if you have one or two hives, but any more than that and it would take you all day to do a simple inspection.

 

[Poly Hive]

I have used it too and will again no doubt, but never a mere 3 feet, that is a def error or more likely a typo.

A good 20 yards is a decent distance.

PH

 

[newportbuzz]

i have used that method once before with a nasty hive last year.
they were tetchy to start and i dequeened them and left them for a while which turned them into terrors. I came back with the new queen a few days later and they drove me away. So i came back an hour later moved the hive a good 30 yards away. put a empty hive in old spot went and watched some tv came back in a few hours later and cut out queen cells and introduced the new queen. only 3 stings.
i am hoping this spring will find the colony a much nicer beast to play with. time will tell.

 

[Vergilius]

I might try this with my nippy ones when I come to re-queen.


Ben P

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Thinking about it, it could be quite a useful method when you want to change a brood box (i.e transferring all the frames into a new brood box). I've done that a few times under attack from angry foragers!

 

[SteveJ]

Friend of mine did this for an apiary visit . He moved a hive to the other side of the field in the morning leaving a new hive in the old location. Did the visit in the afternoon. Then united them in the evening. Reduced the ammount of flying bees around the colony during the visit.

Steve J