Moving hives 10 miles ?

[greengumbo]

Moving 2 hives on sunday to a new site about 10 miles away. Good access by car etc.

I don't have travel screens - should I simply move them with windows downs and blowers blowing and varroa tray out ? Or put some curtain material over the top / duck taped down ? I have straps etc.

They are langstroth MB polys with brood box and a super each.

[fatshark]

Aberdeenshire … ? Late May … ? I'd have the heating on and keep the windows closed … you'll drown.

Seriously. Choose a cool part of the day (you'll be doing it in the evening presumably to catch all the foragers) and you'll be fine. Make some space under the boxes to ensure good air circulation. I usually stand boxes on a couple of wooden battens.

[Bumble]

You could put some curtain material over the top and put the roofs back on upside down, which leaves a gap between the top of the box and the underside of the roof, but you probably won't need to for that distance in the evening. Leave out the varroa trays, you don't need to count mite drop when you're moving colonies. Only put them back in again when you actually need them.

Just make sure you have the frames running front to back and that they can't slip sideways, a couple of straps at 90 degrees to each other and you should be okay.

[GRIZZLY]

stick in some foam strip to block the entrances. If they're MB hives they wont have a crown board = just some clear plastic sheet over the hive top. Should be beeproof o.k.

[Jon]

10 miles will be no problem at all with an open mesh floor.I don't think any other precautions are necessary. Drive slowly of course!

[drumgerry]

Just moved some hives with roofs on and with open mesh floors last week + entrances plugged with foam. About the same distance as well. No problems at all. Used two spanset straps per hive and boy those things are strong. So strong they dented the corners of my poly roofs as I tightened them.

[greengumbo]

That was interesting ! Moved two hives and it went okay other than one of them not fitting in the car.

Lots of angry bees at the time but they have settled in to new site.

Do bees get angry when the OSR finishes by the way ? Mine have been really grumpy this week and the field nearby is going over.

[chris]

Do bees get angry when the OSR finishes by the way ? Mine have been really grumpy this week and the field nearby is going over.

Could be they're suffering from withdrawal from certain substances...

Probably because all those redundant foragers move on to other tasks, one of which is guarding the hive, so they become more defensive.