By: David Burns
As a YouTube content creator focused on beekeeping, I receive countless inquiries each week through the comments section of my videos. A common question that arises frequently is: “Is it alright to relocate my hive if I am unhappy with its current placement?” Many of us have encountered this predicament, where we initially believe we have found the perfect spot for our hive, only to discover that the hive’s growing activity is causing disturbances to our pets or children, staining our laundry on the clothesline, or receiving inadequate sunlight. In such situations, what is the most effective approach for moving a hive?
New beekeepers often underestimate the difficulty of relocating a hive. For one, a thriving colony with supers brimming with honey can weigh over two hundred pounds, making the task a strenuous and demanding endeavor. Additionally, it’s remarkable how our bees can fly for miles to gather resources and return to their hive with incredible precision. They are so adept at pinpointing the location of their hive that even the slightest move can disorient them and leave them unable to find the new location of their hive.
Have you ever moved your hive just a few yards away to a different location in your yard? If so, you may have noticed that your foragers continue to fly out as usual to collect nectar and pollen, only to return to the exact location of their previous home. Instead of finding their hive, they return to the old location and become disoriented and bewildered, hovering in the air for days on end. To avoid this scenario, experienced beekeepers have long advised to “move them two inches a day or two miles away.” This means that if we move the hive just a couple of inches every day, the bees can quickly adapt to their new surroundings. Alternatively, if we relocate them two miles or more, the landscape is so different that the bees must take a new orientation flight and memorize their new location. After a few weeks, we can bring them back to our yard to their final location.
As beekeepers, we are faced with two pressing challenges when it comes to relocating our hives: how can we safely move a heavy hive, and how can we prevent the loss of our diligent foragers? Ideally, hives would be situated on pallets for easy transportation via fork truck to a flatbed truck, and then driven miles away to another beeyard. However, this approach is not a feasible option for most beekeepers.
My wife, Sheri, and I raised most of our six children while raising queens, nucs, packages and manufacturing beekeeping equipment in a small family business. Any time I needed to move a hive in the same beeyard, I always had free help. I devised a method that worked well on a tight family budget using sheer muscle and things around the bee farm. Maybe this will work well for you.
The night before the move, once the bees are all back and inside the hive, block off the entrance. I use a robber screen to block the entrance. The BeeSmart robber screen can be screwed on to hold the bees inside the hive by closing the two doors on the robber screen. I’ve also used ⅛-inch hardware screen, cut to the width of the bottom board to hold the bees in. Early the next morning, I drag one of my strong teenage sons out to the beeyard long before sunrise. I place a six-foot, heavy three-inch bar across the top of the hive, then I place two tiedown straps under the bottom board all the way around the bar on top. The bar hangs over each side several feet. We each lift our side of the bar and walk away with the hive and move it to the new location in the same beeyard.
The challenge of retaining foragers still looms. How can we help our winged workers reset their GPS to the new hive location? Through trial and error, I discovered a technique that triggers many of the foragers to embark on a fresh orientation flight. Placing a sizeable object, such as a folding chair or golf cart, in front of the hive at the new location can disrupt the foragers’ usual flight path upon leaving. Startled by the obstacle, they start to fly around the hive’s new spot. However, some foragers may still return to their old location. To overcome this obstacle, I place a single deep catch hive with a frame or two at their previous location. The foragers enter but cannot leave as they can’t unload their haul. Come sundown, I carry the frame back to the hive’s new spot and shake the bees in. Repetition seems to be key as, after a few iterations, the foragers appear to learn the new location.
Beekeeping has instilled in me the value of resourcefulness. When raising a large family on a bee farm, you learn to improvise and make do with what you have. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to invest in costly moving equipment when all you need is to relocate a hive or two. However, if you have the budget to spare, companies like Dadant and Mann Lake offer useful tools such as the two-man lift ($100) and EZ Lift Hive Truck ($629), respectively. Although I could not justify the expense on a tight budget, I still take pride in seeing my teenage workers out in the beeyards before sunrise, ready to begin the day’s work. After all, my father taught me the importance of starting work as soon as the sun rises. If you’d like to watch my video of us moving hives this way, visit: https://www.honeybeesonline.com/davids-youtube-channel
