Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Problems
For various reasons, you may have to move your hives to another apiary (for example, to
avoid spray damage, to pollinate a certain crop or just because you are moving). Moving
bees isn't difficult, but there are two major problems.
If you move your bees within their radius of foraging, then, once you have moved the
hive, the foragers will all fly back to the original position. This means you should move
your bees at least 2-3 km (1-2 miles away). Even if you move them 18 m (20 yds) they
will fly back to their original position and cluster there. If you move them just a metre,
however, they will usually suss things out and go to the right place. There are ways
around all this, as I explain below.
The second problem is that, if you move your bees during the day, you will lose most of
your foragers because they will be out. You can, however, block them in the night before
with equipment similar to that used for spray protection (mesh entrance block and
gauze lid), and then move the hives the next day. The bees will panic and suffer stress
but, if you have provided them with room, water, food and ventilation, they should
survive.
I carried 20 colonies from Toulouse in France down to near the southern tip of Spain
in an enclosed van. By ensuring that each hive had an empty box on top and a gauze lid,
and by squirting water from a hand-held spray into the top of each hive every hour, the
bees survived the three-day journey and were perfectly well at the end of it, if a little
angry when released.
You could, however, move your bees on an open truck at night or in bad weather. They
will all be in the hives because it is night or raining, and you can load them with no
precautions other than to ensure they are well strapped down and won't move. We
moved all our bees like this in New Zealand with no cover and with no entrance blocks.
It was essential to arrive at the destination by dawn, though, and when on one occasion
this didn't happen, many bees were lost.
