Two question

[ZuniBee]

I have been thinking about a couple of things and finally figure I should ask.

1. Has anyone ever caught a swarm where the queen was marked? I figure there has to be some instances of swarms leaving that have a marked queen and someone finding them.

2. How do commercial beekeepers travel with bees? If they drive from Georgia or somewhere on the east coast do the close the hive and keep feeding them across the country? How long can the bees survive being shut in the hive as they travel?

I know, two things that are not related but have been on my mind so I thought I would ask.

[Kirk-o]

I just drove two nuc's five frame of bees and five frame of foundation 525 miles.
This is what I did I had screens made for top and bottom taped them on with duck tape.I set them on the top of two top boards on the front seat of my truck
turned on the A.C. and I sprayed them with water bottle every 30 minutes.Got home 11 hours later left them on the front seat til morning moved them in the morning to there spot.I think commercial gus cover the truck with a net,
kirk-o

[Understudy]

I have been thinking about a couple of things and finally figure I should ask.

1. Has anyone ever caught a swarm where the queen was marked? I figure there has to be some instances of swarms leaving that have a marked queen and someone finding them.

I haven't yet. But that doesn't mean anything.

2. How do commercial beekeepers travel with bees? If they drive from Georgia or somewhere on the east coast do the close the hive and keep feeding them across the country? How long can the bees survive being shut in the hive as they travel?

I know, two things that are not related but have been on my mind so I thought I would ask.

I have screened bottom boards. I seal the entrances. I strap the bodies together.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Michael Bush]

>1. Has anyone ever caught a swarm where the queen was marked?

Yes.

> I figure there has to be some instances of swarms leaving that have a marked queen and someone finding them.

My queens are all marked, so any primary swarm has a marked queen.

>2. How do commercial beekeepers travel with bees?

I don't know.  I do know they have nets over the hives.  I don't know how the hives are closed up.l

When I've traveled with hives I like to have the door closed with #8 hardware cloth and some kind of top vent also closed with #8 hardware cloth.

[tig]

a swarm settled into one of my empty boxes.  the queen was marked but i had no idea who owned the colony so i kept it.

i moved my bees a distance of over 600 kilometers. 120 boxes total.  before the actual move, i fed them a lot to ensure adequate stores. we nailed down the boxes to the bottom boards {these wre single full colonies}, installed inner covers that has a screened middle portion for ventilation which were also nailed down.  on the day of the actual move, we nailed shut the entrance reducers and removed the outer cover. leaving the screened inner cover.

as we loaded them into the ten wheeler truck, we sprayed the screened inner cover with water.  the trip should have taken 16 hours but on the way it got caught in a typhoon and had to stop and wait the worse of the typhoon out.  it arrived in the destination 24 hours later and the typhoon was still too strong to set it up.  we put the bees in a shed to wait for better weatherwhich came the next day after lunch.  then and only then were we able to open the boxes. they were cooped up for almost 60 hours.

i lost only 1 queen in that trip which isnt bad considering the weather conditions and being cooped up that long.  we had to feed ASAP because they had eaten all their reserves which was to be expected.

[kathyp]

they make hive staples that you can use to nail the hive together, but i used the wide electrical staples and that worked fine.  i closed the entrance and they had the SBB for air.   to be on the safe side, i also ran a strap around the whole thing.