So late in the year I noticed that the green hive was empty on Station F. This was a real shame as the bees that were in there were from a lovely swarm that I pulled out of a gutter in Broadbridge Heath. From a near death experience to a happy and prosperous hive –> however you win some you loose some and they absconded. (Remember that bees are rarely captive, they are in your hive because they choose to be and can leave at any point in time.)
Anyways to cut a long story short, I had an empty hive on Station F that had been robbed clean and A REALLY FULL nuc that had come from an equally nice swarm down the road. These bees were super placid and gentle and a real pleasure to collect. Having put them in the blue nuc they were left to their own devices and grew into a huge colony. I was debating whether to leave them in the nuc over winter or try and find them a bigger home. This would probably have involved moving them into the Blue Poly Hive and moving those bees out into a nuc, but then this opportunity arose.
Problem: The green hive is on Station F and the nuc is next to Station A!!! Do you move the bees to the hive at Station F or do you move the Green Poly Hive to the bees next to Station A? The distance is about 6 m so not far, but a lot further than the 3 m that is the maximum recommended move distance. Also in the middle of an Apiary they are likely to get confused so I would move them less than the 3 m. See my page on hives to understand the layout.
When moving bee hives you should move either less than 3 m or more than 3 miles!
In the end I decided to move the hive to the bees, let them settle and then move the bees to Station F in their new home as this is how I have set up my apiary. The down side of Hard wiring my hive scales is that I cant just move the stations around!
The frames within the blue and white nuc here were inserted into the middle of the green poly and the 4 spare frames around the edge added to make up the 10. The green poly was left in the same spot as the blue and white nuc occupied. I then went on holiday for a week to let the settle.
After my holiday, the first move was to about 1.5 m back into the apiary. This removed the bees form next to the blue poly and started the journey. the final destination is Station F which is in the back right corner of the photo. The empty blue and white poly was left on the station mainly to protect the scales from the weather if it rains.
Second move will be to the middle of the apiary, twisted slightly so that the final move does not miss orient them with an entrance that is now 90 degrees to what they are used to. I’ll wait another 3 days and then perform this move.
I’ll also put the flow frames back on top when the hive is settled in place.