Four weeks ago we decided to move our two hives from our garden to a friend's field because we - and our neighbours - were getting stung, after three peaceful years when no-one but me got stung (twice, through my clumsiness). Like a lot of people on here we suspected the strange weather pattern of April and May was causing this, but - whatever - they had to go.
My friend's field is only a mile away as the bee flies, so I expected problems with returners. But I placed the hives in long grass with a fence 6 feet in front of them to force the bees to reorientate straightaway. On the day I moved them three of my neighbours got stung by returners, and I had a little cluster of about 200 bees were sitting on the old site of the hives in our garden that evening. I didn't know enough (three prior years' experience) to put a nuc box down for these, and I reluctantly killed them before anyone else got stung (detergent water in a spray - pretty instant).
Since then all has been well. What were two very aggressive stingy and following (up to 100 yards) colonies have settled back into peaceful ways. I inspected both yesterday in the early afternoon. I only got pinged a few times, no stings, no dead bees, no following. Amazing!
So I just wanted to confirm that you can move a colony less than three miles if you make it difficult for them to get in and out of the hive once you open it - dense foliage that they have to fight their way through seems to do the trick, and it should be right in front of the hives, leaning on them. I've done this twice now, and it does work.
My friend's field is only a mile away as the bee flies, so I expected problems with returners. But I placed the hives in long grass with a fence 6 feet in front of them to force the bees to reorientate straightaway. On the day I moved them three of my neighbours got stung by returners, and I had a little cluster of about 200 bees were sitting on the old site of the hives in our garden that evening. I didn't know enough (three prior years' experience) to put a nuc box down for these, and I reluctantly killed them before anyone else got stung (detergent water in a spray - pretty instant).
Since then all has been well. What were two very aggressive stingy and following (up to 100 yards) colonies have settled back into peaceful ways. I inspected both yesterday in the early afternoon. I only got pinged a few times, no stings, no dead bees, no following. Amazing!
So I just wanted to confirm that you can move a colony less than three miles if you make it difficult for them to get in and out of the hive once you open it - dense foliage that they have to fight their way through seems to do the trick, and it should be right in front of the hives, leaning on them. I've done this twice now, and it does work.
