Moving Bees in December

[EmsE]

I'm not quite sure how this is going to go, but just when I was thinking my Christmas preparations couldn't be more hectic, I've just received a phone call advising that I need to find a new home for my bees until next Autumn and have until the new year to move my colonies.

Where they are at the moment is at the other side of the farmers field and Scottish Power are working on the pylons. Whilst my bees are a safe distance from the pylon, they need to dig along the bottom of my apiary, close enough for them to annoy my girls.

So with the weather forecast predicting high winds, rain or snow and the access to my apiary is in the rivers flood plane (which was very boggy last week) before going up a steep bank, the hives are heavy with winter stores and 'you don't move bees in winter!!'- any advice is welcome. Fingers crossed I can find a new home for them at such short notice.

edit:

...and trust me to have 2 of them on a double brood.

[Jimbo]

Winter is a good time to move bees as they are not flying so you can move them a short distance. I have to move some of my colonies to a new site in the next few weeks. I start by sealing the entrance either with a foam strip or paper. I then put grey gaffa tape to seal the entrance and wrap it around the floor board and brood box. I then remove the roof and tape down the feeder holes in the crown board and tape the crown board with 4 strips of tape to the top of the brood box. I then carefully place 2 straps around the floor, brood box, and crown board. I use the straps that you feed through the metal buckle and when you pull the strap it tightens up and won't release until you press the clip (Tesco do cheap straps £1.50 for 2). Depending how far you are going to move I place the sealed brood box into a wheel barrow. If the box is going into the car I place a thin sheet of material over the box. Just in case anything goes wrong. When I place the brood box into the car I always have the frames orientated from the front to back of the car. If it was the other way and you have to brake suddenly the frames could swing in the box and kill bees or the queen. When I get to the new site I rebuild up the hive and put on any ekes, sugar, roof etc. I have moved bees lots of times using these straps and never had a problem. It is also easier with 2 people to do the lifting. With the double brood box I would put the tape around the two brood boxes and make certain the straps are long enough to around them. I also use the straps in winter to keep everthing together in case there is strong winds. At £1.50 for 2 they are a bargain. You can get better made and longer straps in Halfords for tying down canoes etc i.e Thule is a good make but expensive

[Jimbo]

Just read your post again. Do you have a site to go to? Does your association have a site that you could use as a temp home. Any of your local beekeepers got space?

[EmsE]

Hi Jimbo,

I don't have anywhere yet but thankfully the initial panic is now passing, although it would be better if the weather forecast improved. I do have a hive at another site where I could ask if the owners would be OK with a couple of extra hives, but that location isn't really suitable for my more 'enthusiastic' colony.

I think my main concern was that moving the bees at this time of year may be detrimental for them. If i'm not removing the crown board to replace with a ventilation screen, then they won't lose too much heat during the move which was the other worry, however would there be a risk of them suffocating/overheating? (silly question for this time of year probably)

How close do you think I could get away with for the move as more than 3 miles could be a problem. I'll need to speak to the farmer to let him know that I've been asked to move the bees and hope he may be able to suggest another site for the time being.

[gavin]

Jimbo, I only use the heavy duty straps from Thornes or B&Q for full colonies. The lightweight Tesco ones are fine for 5-frame nucleus boxes but I wouldn't trust them to hold a double storey brood box hive together. I've had too many little accidents transporting bees to and from the heather to trust to weaker straps. I prefer ratchet straps but the flat buckle straps are good too. And the lock-slide clips, but the issue with them is that you end up with the wrong boxes together and so the slides that lock them together don't work.

This kind of thing:

http://www.towsure.com/images/products/887/detail/ratchet-strap.jpg

And this is OK too, from Thornes:

https://secure.thorne.co.uk/popup/images/ahardl2b.jpg

I'm assuming that the cheap Tesco ones are like this. Thornes have them as economy hive straps with a spiked cam buckle. My Tesco ones are all black:

http://www.autow.com/images/products-large/TDR090.jpg

We heard last night in Perth from a very experienced beekeeper that moving in the depths of winter isn't something she'd do, but I'd thought that there was no problem at this time of year and will continue to move when I have to. The big advantage at this time of year is that you can forget the three feet or three miles rule. They should re-orientate when they next emerge on a warmer day. Maybe a short move on the same site would be OK for you Ems?

[Jon]

I don't think it is a problem moving them, and the colder the better as the cluster will be tight.
The American commercial guys move bees from storage barns up north at 4c straight to California to pollinate the almonds.
I moved one about 30 feet about 4 years ago after a week of cold weather and there were only a couple of dozen bees returned to the old site.

Be careful tomorrow's storm does not move them for you before you have chosen a new site!

[chris]

would there be a risk of them suffocating/overheating?
For a very short time, I use a bit of foam like Jimbo says. If I want some ventilation because the trip is longish, then I have mouse guards that are the *archway* types, and when turned upside down they block the bees but have small holes. Otherwise, you can always quickly staple some metal mesh over the entrance.


How close do you think I could get away with for the move as more than 3 miles could be a problem

If it's fairly cold and the bees aren't flying, then no problem.Just put some branches near the front of the hive in the new position, and some grass on the landing strip.That way, any bees going out will normally reorient themselves. And anyway, you would only risk losing a few old foragers, which are more of a liability in winter.

Just seen Jon's post. If that wind is blowing this way I can let you have the choice of 100 acres of wild land for them:)

[gavin]

Depending on how long are they planning to work close to the bees, if they are on mesh floors and the weather is cold couldn't you just block them in for a few days?

[EmsE]

Be careful tomorrow's storm does not move them for you before you have chosen a new site!

When I got the phone call from our LA secretary, that's what I thought he was going to tell me. There are 3 bricks on each hive so hopefully they won't find themselves in France- now that would be an interesting trip- lol.

The lady I spoke to did say I could move them to the other end of the field, but I would need to check how suitable it is. I was also concerned that it wouldn't be far enough, although for actually moving the hives it could be a nightmare as I'm not sure how accessible it is at this time of year. There is a stream feeding into the river that I may need to paddle through- a wheelbarrow could be useful but I don't think this would appeal to my husband's sense of humour if he was the one helping me- even with his fishing waders on :D. I'll need to take a trip down there at the weekend to have a look around and will be a relief if it's plausible.

I was hoping that it would just be a few days but apparently it's until the Autumn :confused: Goodness knows what they're planning to do. It was lovely honey from there this year as well so would be a shame to lose the site (not good for rearing queens, but that could have been more down to the weather). Thanks for the advice everyone and I would never have thought that the bad weather could have gone in my favour (except for the gales)

[EmsE]

I've got a couple of the heavy duty ratchet straps shown above as that was all I could pick up in Halfords (sooo expensive), but when I went to put them on the hives, there were no instructions on how to use them:confused:

[gavin]

Took me ages to get comfortable with tightening and releasing the ratchet strap and also the flat fold-over buckle ones. But that was before YouTube:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kE4xnA-eEY

For anyone with the flat flip-over thing strap (leverlock I believe) Thornes explains here (http://tinyurl.com/7oapu3d) how to use it.

Then you have to click 'Further details' against the red strap.

G.

[EmsE]

That's great! Thanks Gavin.

[chris]

So, yet another reason for thinking that beekeeping is for men.:p You could try tying a pretty bow:cool: runs for cover.........................................

[gavin]

I'll bet you anything that Ems gets to grips with it faster than I did. Scary things these ratchet straps when you first meet them. Is sexism still alive and well in deepest France then?!

I was forced into buying straps for all the hives I had a couple of summers ago after sheep were put in the orchard to shorten the grass. Great scratching posts. The hives not the sheep. Then my spare boxes got filled with bees, got some more spare boxes, they got filled with bees, and now I don't have enough straps. Must rectify that, though this weekend I'll be scouring the place for heavyweight rocks like they use in Orkney so maybe straps can wait.

[Jon]

Lidl do ratchet straps for £2 on a regular basis. I think there are similar prices on e-bay as well.

[Adam]

I find the ratchet straps tend to foul up and not release very well and if fingers are cold they get caught and then I swear. The cheaper ones (like the black one in Gavin's picture) work so much better.
I used a ratshit one for pulling a small tree vertical after it had blown over in the wind and after a few months the webbing failed due to sunlight exposure.

[EmsE]

So, yet another reason for thinking that beekeeping is for men.:p You could try tying a pretty bow:cool: runs for cover.........................................

I don't normally keep bows in my tool box:confused:;) So long as I take my bee keeping gloves off I should be able to thread the straps through fine now. I agree that bee keeping is for men as well as women:)

The problem I have with the black ones in Gavins photo is that they tend to slip- the ratchet ones i'm hoping will be more secure (as suggested).

[Jimbo]

Hi EmsE,

I find the black ones won't slip if you buy decent ones. I have been using these type of straps for over 25 years for tying canoes to roofracks with no problems with the straps slipping. You can get canoe straps in outdoor shops. They will be a bit more expensive than the Tesco version but are a bit better made