Beehive Move

Friday was the day of the big move, we were moving our bees from a friends back garden into our new apiary- a journey of around 13 miles. We decided to make the move during the day so the night before we had taped the hive shut, blocking the entrances, the next morning we returned with a rough plan of what we were going to do.

First we would change the roof to a flat one then break the hive down to 2 sections- the supers and the brood. We'd then secure them together and then off into the car, down the motorway and then reassemble in their new home. Simple?!?!

The brood without honey supers

one that didn't want to be left behind

We managed to break the hive down easily with only one or two stragglers left behind. We'd borrowed a hive lifting tool which made carrying the hive sections between me and my dad light work.

the lifting tool ready to move the brood

We then loaded them into the back of the car, you could hear they were not too happy about the whole situation. They were also very hot, we tried to make sure they had ventilation and had all the windows open to create some air flow.

bees on tour!

We set off onto the motorway, my biggest fear at this point was getting stuck in traffic and the bees overheating but we had a clear run down to their new home. We got them out and took them up to the new apiary where we reassembled the hive and took off the tape letting them free.

the new  site

branches across the entrance

They were really hot and only slightly bothered by the move, they had starting escaping out of the ventilation cones on the roof. They seemed to settle down quite quickly. We put branches over the front of the hive so they knew they were somewhere new, although bees are so clever I'm pretty sure they were already aware! There's a rule about moving bees 3 feet or 3 miles meaning anywhere between these they will not be able orientate themselves around the new site and will return to the original. We moved them pretty far but I'd rather be safe than sorry!!! The whole process was easy than we thought, we moved the hive about a year ago and only a couple of miles up the road, it was quite rushed and definitely not this well thought out as we were moving house and had to move them quickly.

They seem to have settled in well and our winter preparations can start next week.