Merging without moving

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Jack Straw

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I want to merge a small nuc (recently transferred into a national) and a queenless colony which are currently 20 feet apart in the same apiary but am conscious of the 3ft/3miles rules

I have thought about moving the Q- away for a week or two and then bring it back once the flight paths have been forgotten

Partly from laziness but also because of a back strain I am carrying it would be easier if I could merge without moving one away. Instead could I merge the two boxes using the newspaper method, put Q- on top of Q+, block the entrance for 72 hours and then put grass/twigs in front to encourage re-orientation.

Would that work?
 
if the Q- colony is the one that has to be moved 20 feet - put that one above the newspaper and don't worry about it - the act of uniting the both will reset their GPS for them - if it's the Q+ colony that is being moved - put that one on top - same result.
You can scatter a few magic twigs around the entrance as well if it makes you feel better :D
 
Approximately half of a worker's life is spent foraging out of it's lifespan of 6 or 7 weeks. So If you moved the nuc 3 miles away you'd have to wait a bit more than 3 weeks for the bees that began foraging when you moved them to die off. Then all the foragers will only know the new location.


but yes, do it locally.
I like the magic twigs... but then, I do live between Avebury Circle and Stonehenge and in sight of a White Horse.
 
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I want to merge a small nuc (recently transferred into a national) and a queenless colony which are currently 20 feet apart in the same apiary but am conscious of the 3ft/3miles rules

I have thought about moving the Q- away for a week or two and then bring it back once the flight paths have been forgotten

Partly from laziness but also because of a back strain I am carrying it would be easier if I could merge without moving one away. Instead could I merge the two boxes using the newspaper method, put Q- on top of Q+, block the entrance for 72 hours and then put grass/twigs in front to encourage re-orientation.

Would that work?

It's what I always do but without bothering to blocking the entrance.
Cazza
 
if the Q- colony is the one that has to be moved 20 feet - put that one above the newspaper and don't worry about it - the act of uniting the both will reset their GPS for them - if it's the Q+ colony that is being moved - put that one on top - same result.

This works for me too
Only on one occasion ever have I had 50 or so bees back at their old site.
Prepare both hives in the day remembering to loosen the hive you are moving from its floor.
Wait till late evening when they have stopped flying (but not dark!) roof off, move brood box ....done.
They are usually through the newspaper by the morning and you can juggle the frames as soon as you like.
 
A related question

At the risk of being accused of hijacking a thread, might I ask the following? After combining two colonies, you somehow have to concentrate all the bees into one box where previously they occupied two boxes. How do you decide which frames go where and how do you get the bees into the box that you want them in - shake them in?

Presumably, at this time of year, you'd put all the brood and as much stores as possible into the one hive that you're keeping. Whatever stores are left over after that could go into the hives of other weak colonies to replace undrawn or empty frames. Is that the way it's done? Any other advice?

Thanks

CVB
 
Presumably, at this time of year, you'd put all the brood and as much stores as possible into the one hive that you're keeping. Whatever stores are left over after that could go into the hives of other weak colonies to replace undrawn or empty frames. Is that the way it's done?


Exactly
 
. How do you decide which frames go where and how do you get the bees into the box that you want them in - shake them in?

When uniting 2 hives into one I put an empty brood box on the site then go through both the original boxes first putting brood and queen in the new box then if room some frames of stores. Bees from the remaining frames are shaken into the new box. They usually end up light on stores so you need to make sure they don't go hungry.
 
At the risk of being accused of hijacking a thread, might I ask the following? After combining two colonies, you somehow have to concentrate all the bees into one box where previously they occupied two boxes. How do you decide which frames go where and how do you get the bees into the box that you want them in - shake them in?
Presumably, at this time of year, you'd put all the brood and as much stores as possible into the one hive that you're keeping. Whatever stores are left over after that could go into the hives of other weak colonies to replace undrawn or empty frames. Is that the way it's done? Any other advice?
Thanks
CVB

These manoeuvres always interest me re current culture of beekeeping. On the one hand we swap brood and store frames from one colony to another to maximise colony strength; on the other we are advised to return extracted wet supers to their original hive, sterilise the hive tool after finishing each hive etc etc - to reduce disease transmission. Meanwhile the flying bees drift between colonies. Oxymoron! :hairpull:
 
These manoeuvres always interest me re current culture of beekeeping. On the one hand we swap brood and store frames from one colony to another to maximise colony strength; on the other we are advised to return extracted wet supers to their original hive, sterilise the hive tool after finishing each hive etc etc - to reduce disease transmission. Meanwhile the flying bees drift between colonies. Oxymoron! :hairpull:

:iagree::iagree:
It is confusing when conflicting advice is given.
 
Not usually a problem. Just check that both sets of bees to be united are free of infectious disease like AFB EFB. Some diseases like chalk brood, chronic paralysis, sac brood are mainly down to genetic susceptibility so that identifies the queen to be culled. Nosema spore infected combs may be a problem as the presence of Nosema may not be obvious.
Manley once said "if you unite two weak colonies together what do you get?" Answer : One weak colony
 
with respect to hygiene, it's good to be pedantic when moving anything between apiaries at different locations, but you can be a little more relaxed between hives that are next to each other in the same apiary as the drones will be regularly visiting each other's hives anyway.
 
Within your own apiary, provided you don't share it with anybody else who has an out apiary, I don't think it makes any difference how you swap frames
 

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