relocation of hives

[DRJCKB]

Hi, My five hives are making some trouble with the neighbor and may have to be moved if they don't settle down.

Currently they are in a clear area that gets lots of sun/heat... the only other location that would be ok is a rather shady area... Is that a problem? It is under a tree, and doesn't get a whole lot of direct sunlight. Any ideas on pros/cons of locations? Does it really matter how much direct sunlight it gets? yada yada? Any ideas on my relocation problem would be appreciated.

From: clear direct sunlight

To (possibly): a shady (under tree) location that doesn't get a whole lot of direct sunlight.

Thanks,

DJ in Pittsburgh

[Big Stinger]

What are they doing cant say what to do if dont know what there doing.

[DRJCKB]

they are stinging like mad/angry psycho bees :( and my neighbor is afraid to come out during the afternoon :( I am bribing him wiht lots of honey, but that will only work for so long.

[beecron]

Doesn't sound like just changing location will solve the problem unless you're relocating a distance away. You will first need to figure out why they are being so aggressive. Are they queenright?

[Tia]

I agree with beecron. Something's up. I had a situation with "hot bees," that calmed down immediately when I moved them, but I'm pretty sure it was the incessant wind that was making them cranky, not the sunlight. Is the site very windy?

[Big Stinger]

Is anything getting to them like skunk or mouse. If not then check to see if queen is laying good.
If shes laying good do they have food stores in hive. Could be you queen has died or getting weak. But if there like that something is wrong with them. And youll need alot of honey for your neighbor.

[Michael Bush]

>they are stinging like mad/angry psycho bees [Frown] and my neighbor is afraid to come out during the afternoon [Frown] I am bribing him wiht lots of honey, but that will only work for so long.

Move them if you need to. Unless they are having problems, like chalkbrood, that would be helped by full sun, I wouldn't worry about the sunlight that much.

Requeen. Better yet, get rid of all the old field bees. If you have somewhere else you can put a hive, do a hot requeening:

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

Then at night close up the box at the old location and take it somewhere else. After it's been queenless overnight, introduce a queen. Without all the old field bees they will be instantly nicer.

Mean bees in town will just give bees a bad rep.

[ScadsOBees]

Have they been hot all year, or did it just start with this episode?

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=005335

If so, moving might helpe, but I don't think requeening is the solution. Make double sure they aren't robbing, maybe close them reduce all the entrances a whole bunch if they aren't.

[FordGuy]

sounds like you can fix it. I'd requeen them first with something like a NWC. (just a suggestion there). If that doesn't have immediate relief, then take the hive, with the new queen, and move them for 60 days till the bitches die a natural death, then bring them back when they have nice little girls.

[carbide]

Do you know if it's all your bees or just one particular hive that's gone berzerk? Maybe if you find that one hive you can move it.

My bees seem to be calmer and easier to work with since I moved them from a basically shady spot last year to a full day, full sun location.

[PA Pete]

From what I've seen (in my 1+ years of beekeeping), stinging for no reason means there's a problem. How close to the hive(s) do you have to get before they start stinging? Is it just your neighbor, or everyone?

I expect to be able to stand 10 feet behind the hives and not be bothered. I also expect to be able to sit on the ground 5 feet from the hive and usually not be bothered smile.gif

Chances are it's not all the hives. In a past thread (http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=005468#000003), MB recommended locating the hot hive or hives by opening them gently without smoke. This is the approach I would take.

Once you figure out which hive(s?) is/are hot, you can figure out why and correct the problem, whether it's lack of a queen or just a "hot" one.

Good luck!

-Pete

[Big Stinger]

When you open them up with no smoke be careful and go slow dont jar them or bump them. And it wont take long to know which 1 is hot cause youll be in a cloud of bees that are very, very, very mad. Did i say very mad. I done my hives like this about a month or so back and you can tell which 1 is hot you can tell the differance. My problem was my queen had died and they didnt have any eggs. But gave them a frame of eggs from another hive and now have a very good laying queen.

[wfarler]

I have dealt with exceptionally hot hives by laying down an excluder on the bottom board then a deep with frames with all of the bees shaken off. Then I lay another excluder on and an empty deep.

After that I start shaking bees into the empty top box and smoking them down into the hive watching for a queen.

She usually ends up on the ground nearby and is given away by a swarm of bees that won't leave her. If you can't find her she will take the swarm off somewhere else with all of the drones and take up residence nearby, you can usually track them down and soap them up. Either way she cannot get back into the hive. Reassemble the hive with a caged queen. In six weeks or 8 weeks they will all be nice.

Anyway you look at it this approach degrades the hive and is worse than finding the queen and turning her into tincture of swarm lure.

[ May 02, 2006, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: wfarler ]