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Author Topic: How do I bring the hive all the way here?  (Read 3765 times)

Offline Apis629

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« on: August 04, 2005, 09:43:30 pm »
I've just been offered a hive of Buckfasts but he lives 35 miles away.  The hive has a styrofoam deep brood chamber, queen excluder and four honey supers, in that order from bottom to top.  A question of mine is, should I try to take off two or three of these supers so I can lift it onto the truck and then once I'm at the apiary put the supers back on or what? To anyone concerned, he's giving up the hive because he's moving to Alambama and the hive's already been checked by the Apiary inspector.  Again, I have no idea what I'm doing so any advice would be apriciated.

manowar422

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2005, 10:12:17 pm »
In a perfect world...

If temp. outside is really hot (90+) comb damage will occur
while driving over bumps, etc. (wait 'til it's cooler if possible)

Screen off all the hive's entrances after total darkness has fallen.

Tape or staple all the boxes together. (lots of duct tape works well)

Lift the whole stack on the truck as one unit.
(rent a lift-gate truck)
Tie down the hive very securely.

Drive very carefully home and reverse process.

Place tree branch or similar object in front of hive entrance
when you reopen the hive in their new location.
(according to many beekeepers, this gives the bees
something to orient themselves to their new area)

You will lose/leave behind hundreds or thousands of bees
if you take the boxes apart in the middle of the working day :(

Offline bassman1977

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2005, 10:31:58 pm »
That's exactly it.  

I waited until about 9pm to do mine and after talking with the guy I got my bees from, he said there were still a lot of bees looking for their home.  If I were to do it all over again, I would have waited until 11 pm.

One thing you might want to do instead of stapling or nailing your boxes is to use ratchet straps.  Just lay them out and set the hive on top of the straps.  Once you wrap the hive with a strap, put another strap over it to secure the entire hive to the truck bed.  You'll be set and won't have to worry as much if a pot hole sneaks up on you.  I did it that way because I hate the idea of poking holes in my boxes.

Good luck and have fun.  It's a cool experience.
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Offline thegolfpsycho

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2005, 12:44:22 am »
Guess it depends on how heavy it is with 4 supers on it.  Any chance to harvest a couple supers of honey?  Do it at night, and if it's hot, I would probably pull the top off and just screen it, as well as the entrance so they get plenty of ventilation.  Borrow or beg a low trlr and a hand truck, and wheel the whole thing onto the trlr with a small ramp or tailgate.  You won't need to place a branch at the entrance if your moving them 35 miles.  They should reoriente fine without it.  If your hive bodies are foam, tape will probably work better than nails or screws.   Just be sure you secure them well.  I was a bit careless on one occasion.  Stopped at a light, looked in the mirror, and the air was full of bees, with a bunch of wide eyed motorists lined up behind me!!

Online Michael Bush

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2005, 10:28:32 am »
I would use (and buy if you need to) a cinch strap to hold it all together.  If you're buying one it's worth the money to get one with nylon strapping instead of cotton.

In a perfect world you close it up and move it all in one piece after dark.  Usually I have to move them myself, so I park my little trailer next to the hive and put each box in the trailer on a bottom board.  I strap it togeter AND strap it down AND put empty boxes all around it so it won't slide.  I leave it open until dark so the bees can find their way back in and then close it up and move it to the new place.  I unhitch the trailer and in the morning I uload it and put a branch in front of the door.

But sometimes, I don't have the time for all that.  If there are lots of hives still at the old location sometimes I'll just load up the boxes, strap them together and down, close them up and go in broad daylight and unload when I get there.  This leaves a lot of field bees behind, but sometimes that's the constraints you have on your time.
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Offline Finsky

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2005, 10:43:14 am »
Quote from: Michael Bush
But sometimes..I'll just load up the boxes, strap them together and down, close them up and go in broad daylight and unload when I get there. .


I do nowadays like here Michales says. Here are my pictures how I put in pieces  7-box hive.  The wight is somewhat  300 lbs.
http://bees.freesuperhost.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1121627860


I started at mornig. I loaded parts piece by piece to car carry and I closed boxes with grid.

One little box I left and a brood frame that bees on their wing come into box. Then you can pick  that one box  sooner.

This is not benninners job, but it is really easy.

When you pick upp that lonely box, you can put there a new queen and you have new hive.

Offline Apis629

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #6 on: August 05, 2005, 04:14:34 pm »
I'm gonna go get the bees tonight so thanks for all the tips.  I found a truck with one of those lift gates for rentall for about $30.  I'm hoping to go over there at about 11:00pm  and get the bees to the house by midnight.  Cool thing about the truck is that it has tie-ons inside to keep the boxes from moving.  It also comes with a hand truck so that could come in usefull.  My only problem is that there's an upward slope to the spot that I'm going to put the hive.

Offline Apis629

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #7 on: August 05, 2005, 11:59:50 pm »
Just got back, without a hive.  I pulled up in there and I noticed when I was approaching the colony there was a smell of rotting fruit.  Once I saw the enterence it was all to clear.  It was covered in wax moth larvae and when I popped off the cover I nearly vomited with the smell.  The whole hive didn't have a single live bee in it.  Everything had been rotted or eaten so, it looks like I'm back to my original plan of splitting a hive in march.

Offline Jerrymac

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Re: How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2005, 12:05:31 am »
Quote from: Apis629
he's giving up the hive because he's moving to Alambama and the hive's already been checked by the Apiary inspector.


What about this check up it had????
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Offline FordGuy

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #9 on: August 06, 2005, 12:58:07 am »
Quote from: manowar422

(rent a lift-gate truck)
 :(


no, get four young fellas and introduce them to beekeeping

woops justread it is in bad shape - what about salvaging the supers?

Offline Phoenix

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #10 on: August 06, 2005, 03:30:33 am »
Being that the hive was that strong, I would bet SHB got to it, not the wax moths.

As the honey ferments from the fecal trail left by the SHB, it smells horrible.

Offline Apis629

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How do I bring the hive all the way here?
« Reply #11 on: August 07, 2005, 11:15:22 pm »
The supers weren't worth salvaging.  They were made of styrofoam and since I didn't know what killed the bees and couldn't do a flame treatement I didn't want to risk it.  Plus, in cleaning it out I would be bringing thousands of bee pests into my apiary and that's a head ache I can do without.

 

anything