PDQ 2: Moving a Split

[Ringlander]

Question 2: I am trying to keep the area taken up by my garden apiary under control. A couple of days ago I had to do an artificial swarm on a nice strong colony when queen cells appeared. I had to place the box with brood and queen cell further away from the apiary than I wanted to, (about 30 feet) but after a tidy-up now have space to bring it back into the main apiary space. Assuming all the flying bees returned to the site of the original hive within 48 hours is it OK to move the brood hive back into the apiary in one go in the evening given that very few bees have started to orientate and hence I will lose very few by making the move in one go rather than lots of 2 yard steps over a period of two weeks?

 

[Ian123]

You should have kept it closer, if you move it directly back over that distance you will get a lot of lost bees milling about in that spot. As it’s the only hive for some distance. You can make the steps bigger. Although you’ll get a few confused the vast majority will find the hive by the evening. Ian

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes - crack on with it, as you said very few flying bees left with that half of the split so no harm done

 

[pargyle]

If you are worred jut leave a container where the hive was - at least if there are any that get a bit confused they will have somewhere to go and you can tip them back near the one in the apiary. I'm with JBM though - with a split like this there are not going to be many flyers left in there anyway.