movin them hives

[AndersMNelson]

Hey everybody.  I'm planning on moving my two hives to our new house which is about half a mile away.  I'm gonna move them at night, or at least after the sun has gone down, and put a large branch in front of the entrances.  Is there anything I'm forgetting?  Also, is it going to be too cold to move in the evening?  I think the low on Friday is going to be around 40 F.

[Jerrymac]

If it stays cold you probably won't have a problem. But you might want to place empty boxes in the old location and check each night to see if some returned to old place.

[bberry]

you might want to get some of those adjusting sinching straps to hold all together (think called maxistrap)while moving-this worked for me pretty well keeping everything tight

[Michael Bush]

Close them up the night before and do it when the next day will be warm.  Put an empty box at the old location so you can return the confused ones.  A half mile is about the worst distance to move them since it's close enough they will see landmarks to get them back to the old hive, but it's far enough that circling won't get them back to the new location.  On a warm day they have more time to figure things out.  On a cold day they may fly to the old location and get too cold before they figure things out.


http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmoving.htm

[AndersMNelson]

OK, thanks for the advice everyone.  I know the distance is bad, but I don't have a choice.  One of the hives is really struggling: last time I checked, there was a bunch of dried up larvae and it looked like the hive wasn't gonna make it.  I'm in college a couple hours away from home, so it's kind of tough for me.  thanks again

[Cindi]

Anders, I hope things work out well for you, it is hard when you can't be close to the bees to keep watch all the time.  Have a great and wonderful day, nonetheless.  Cindi