Moving Hive from an old stand to its new one about a metre distance...

[Mackayboi]

Hi,
Will there be any issues by moving the hive about 1 metre to a new stand.
The current stand is in a very bad shape, and it will tip the whole hive if not addressed promptly.

I will be closing the entrance with a block and nail the entrance shut. all at night time.
Then Move the hive to the new stand and open the entrance again.

Any suggestions?

[Moots]

Mackay,
THere's lots of opinions on this one...the rule of thumb you always hear thrown around is that you can move a bee hive 2 feet or 2 miles, with everything else in between being a problem.  The theory being, 2 feet is a short enough distance that when they don't find the hive where they expect it to be, they start a circular search and find it rather quickly, while 2 miles is an extreme enough change to prompt them to re-orient when they exit the hive.

THe problem being is that the distance most people want to move a hive is usually more than two feet, and less than two miles.  :?

What I, and i think most folks on this forum do, with good success is after the move place either a branch, or piece of wood in front of your entrance, not totally obstructing entry, just rerouting them.  This helps to que the bees that something has changed and gets them to re-orient to the new location.

There are others that would make the move by taking baby steps over multiple days, in my opinion, more trouble than it's worth....especially for moving a meter....I think you'll be fine.  You may not even need to use the branch trick, but it's so easy, why not? 

I usually leave the obstruction for a couple days or so, then remove it.

Good luck!  :)

[mikecva]

At this time of year your bees are probably active. I have moved several hives about two meters to put on more solid ground. I was able to move the hive in one piece so I did not need to break down the hive. I got some grass and stuffed it in the small entrance 4 of the hives had. The one with a large slot I just put a damp clean cloth across and held it in place with duct tape. In the mid-morning you can remove the grass and cloth. A few of the bees will go back to the origional spot but by nightfall they should all have their new barrings.   -Mike

[millipede]

Can you not place the new stand where the old one was?
Failing that, you can close them up for 36 hours, that tends to make them reorient, or possibly place branches across the entrance so it looks very different to them forcing them to take a new route out of the hive, this too will help to get them to reorient.
But I am pretty sure at 1 meter they would be able to find the hive by themselves unless there is another hive close to their old location.
I tend to play it safe even on short moves and at least place branches in front of the hive.

[Mackayboi]

Thanks heaps fellow beeks!

I will report back tomorrow to let you all know how the move went.

[edward]

Or you could just move it forwards och backwards up to 2-3meters with out any problems, left or right more than 60cm at a time can cause a smallish disturbance.

If you only have one hive you can move it 5 meters without many problems, if you have more than one hive you might end up with bees drifting into the wrong hive, the bees don't just vanish.


mvh Edward  :-P

[iddee]

If there are no other hives within 2 meters of the old site, anything you do will be extra caution that is not needed. To move a hive 1 meter, I move it. That's it. If the new site is closer than another hive, they will find their home. If not, they will take up with the nearest hive.

[GSF]

It's going to sound like a scratched record but..,

I moved my one and only hive about 15-20 yards straight forward before dawn. I put some branches in front to help them reorient. I believe it was MB that suggested that although they will reorient they will also recognize old landmarks and possibly return to the old site anyway. Not to worry, they will either smell their hive or do the circular thing and find it.

I've found this to be true in my adventure. There were so many returning to the old site I even put a box over there (wrong answer) and would bring them back to the mother ship. (rookies can't leave well enough along) Not long I would be repeating this same thing. Anyway I was told not to put the extra box in the old spot to just let them work it out. I didn't, and they did.

[Mackayboi]

Update: The bees managed the move without a problem.

If I had a second hive close by it may have been a different story...

[glennj3cub]

I am glad to read this post. I just moved my one hive around the corner of a building so the sun would hit it earlier in the AM. I was surprised to see them returning to the old location and particularly onto  a white wooden chair I had next to it. After about an hour they all disappeared so I assume they went back home!

[D Coates]

glennj3cub,

Welcome to beemaster.  I used to be really cautious about moving my hives until I started thinking about it.  When a tree falls with a hive in it you always find they figure out when the hive went.  Bee's always seem to figure out where the queen went.  I experimented and moved a hive 15 yards to see what happened.  They figured it out within a few hours.  Since then I've moved them yards and 100's of yards whenever I needed to.  There's a little confusion but within a few hours they figure it out.

[Moots]

glennj3cub,

Welcome to beemaster.  I used to be really cautious about moving my hives until I started thinking about it.  When a tree falls with a hive in it you always find they figure out when the hive went.  Bee's always seem to figure out where the queen went.  I experimented and moved a hive 15 yards to see what happened.  They figured it out within a few hours.  Since then I've moved them yards and 100's of yards whenever I needed to.  There's a little confusion but within a few hours they figure it out.

D,
Very interesting...How much do you think having other hives near by complicates that issue, if at all?

For instance, If you have 3 hives on a rack spaced about a foot apart and want to move the center hive, say 15 or 20 feet away. Do you think they'll find it, or simply merge in with one of the two remaining hives?

[D Coates]

My 2 cents only they find their way back to the original hive.  I've got 5 to 10 nucs behind my 15 hives in my main apiary. Sometimes these nucs are up to 3 5-frame deeps tall depending on their respective strength.  When I've had a hive that has gone queenless for whatever reason I move a nuc on top to requeen.  These could be 10 to 75 yards apart depending on where in the line of hives and nucs I'm mixing.  I put the nuc on the hive in the morning on the way to work.  I let them acclimate to the new location for little over a day.  I then remove the bottom of the nuc and the top of the hive (put it on a combine board) and put newspaper there when I go home from work the next day. 

I went by at lunch to see what they were doing the first few times I did this.  There were workers fanning pheromones and there were some bees (+/-50) checking out the old location.  A few would land and even cluster then take off a minute or two later.  By evening there were a dozen stragglers circling where the nuc was.  They could be drifting but the respective hive population quantity appears the same before and after the move.

[iddee]

They may do either, but a close by hive will accept them. I move hives from the beeyard to a distance during the day. By night, all bees are in a hive, and I see no fighting. If I am moving a whole yard, I will leave the weakest hive for a day or two.All the stragglers will have taken up with it and when it is moved, they don't leave it and go home. The hive remains stronger with the influx of field bees.