Space between hives?

[Harpo]

Hi guys,

as I'm about to have some earth moving work done I have to move my hives and was asked by my hubby if I could put them all together in one area....

I have 4 in total - unfortunately all the swarms landed in each of the corner trees - and 2 will have to be moved 15 meters and 1 will have to move about 8 meters.

The weather has been horrific and they've bunkered in so I was going to add tape and follow the " 3 day memory" theory plus partially block their entrances with debris to cause them to re-set their GPS's...

My question is " How far apart do I space my hives if I put them in a row facing East?" Will they get confused and enter the wrong hives? It was suggested I could paint the area above each hive entrance a different colour?

My hubby wants to pave an area and have each hive point a different direction ie north, south, east and west??? Can this be done?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[Michael Bush]

Mine are all touching.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#hivestand

[Harpo]

Thanks Michael,

I had a look at your pics... now you have two rows?

Are they all facing the same point on the compass?

[JP]

Because you have only four hives now (  ) I would put them all together. If you place them on some type of rack you can give yourself some space between each hive to place tools, covers and such. Much easier to work them that way, is what I do.


...JP

[Michael Bush]

>I had a look at your pics... now you have two rows?

Yes.  My typical stand holds 14 hives in two rows of 7.

>Are they all facing the same point on the compass?

They all face out.  I work them from the front.  You may prefer one row and work them from the back...

[RayMarler]

place them like on a 4-hive pallet. Two hives side to side facing same direction. Two more hives same way, but with backs up against the first two. You work each hive from the side, having the hive next to it as a table. works great and all four are side by side/ back to back, takes up least space. Two face one direction and two face the oposite direction.