Combining hives

[hawkman]

I need to combine and make a few 2 story colonies. Question is considering the 2 foot 5 mile rule, what is the best way to do this when the singles are some distance from each other, like 15' or so, to avoid all the drifting? Ive just been hive hopping the last few days trying to get the singles that I want to combine closer and closer to each other until I drop them on top. There is still a good amount of bees going back to the old spot. Can this be done any other way?

Thank You,

scott

[Murphy]

Scott, If you can't take them a couple of miles away for about a week, just move them. The field bees will work their way into other colonies.
Kieran

[Mike Gillmore]

Scott,

I had to move one of my hives about 200 yards this spring. After setting it up at the new location in the evening, I propped up a large piece of cardboard in front of the hive, forcing the bees to renavigate when exiting the hive the next morning. I left a super at the old location to pick up any straglers that returned to the old site. None ever went back.
If you set up something in front of the entrance to block the bees normal flight path they will re-orient themselves to the new location.

[hawkman]

Thanks Mike, Ill give that a try. I did stuff the entrance with grass last night before I moved them forcing them to fight their way out this morning. Ill tape some cardboad to the front and see what happens. I dont have any extra gear right now to put in the old location. Im wondering how else I might pick up those stragglers?

scott

[Michael Bush]

>Question is considering the 2 foot 5 mile rule

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmoving.htm