From: grizzly bearnolds <mkittner@telus.net>
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002 11:36:37 -0800
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: location and weather of bee yard.

>From: Julia Graham <jlg7001@humboldt.edu>
>Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002
>Subject: [BioBee] location and weather of bee yard.

>I'm in far Northern California, on the coast, where the winters aren't
>that cold, but are VERY very wet.

We are further up the coast, located kind of just below Alaska. Our
spring/summer/falls are usually pretty wet, and I really like having my
hives under a roof in what I fancily call my beehouse (an open sided shed).
It keeps the equipment out of the rain and the wind dries things in the
beehouse. In the winter, also the equipment is out of the rain and snow and
is protected much better from the elements.

One late fall we needed to move the hives. That year I had them all
outside, I was experimenting with a different location for the hives, away
and out of the old beehouse. Unfortunately I had them in a spot which would
be hit by the masses of snow thundering off the long metal roof of the
house. That fall my husband had build the new beehouse at a new location
and just before winter set in, we had to move our hives.

Our bees are usually in two brood boxes. What I would do, and probably had
done that year when we had to move them. Quickly, without much disturbance,
and it was already advanced in the season, just before winter hit,
sometimes in November.

Use a wheelbarrow if the hives are too heavy for two people to carry.

Piece of plywood. Move the top box with the closed lid off the hive, onto
the plywood, set aside.

Cover quickly with a thick towel (old blanket) the top of the remaining
bottom box. Close the entrance with a kitchen towel.

Then carry the bottom box on its bottom board over to the new location. If
two can carry it, do so. Or put into wheelbarrow and transport that way,
use another person to help steady the hives while the other drives. Set up
the bottom box in the new location.

Go back and get the top box on its plywood. Carry it over (or use
wheelbarrow).

Remove towel from bottom box, the bees that late in the season shouldn't be
too upset. Add top box to the bottom box. Open the entrance. And things
should be ready and set up in the new spot.

We moved three hives that way - my way, husband wanted to do it different
but that would have upset them bees too much. I am proud to say we lost
maybe one bee only, no more. Come to think of it further, as those were new
colonies from summer, we probably did not separate the two boxes at all,
but carried both together over with the wheelbarrow. It takes some juggling
but two could do it. Depending how big, how heavy a hive is.

There are drawbacks and I am sure those will be pointed out. It is not a
good idea to divide the brood boxes and clusters that way. At that time, my
bees mostly were clustering in the bottom boxes, with a few bees up in the
second box. We had to move them, no choice. We managed as described, with
the least disturbance for the bees.

Now. Last year our friend came to pick up the colony that I had raised for
him. They were a bit uptight, so just fine for him. They were spread out in
the two brood boxes, a big hive, that was at a time the bees were not in
cluster and it was good enough weather still. But he made a contraption
that fitted together with dowels and lumber and a few screws, and with that
he made some kind of frame that fitted around the two hive bodies for the
transport. Everything came together nicely, and he put the hive into the
back of his pickup and drove home.

Ma. .. North Pacific Coast, British Columbia, CANADA