moving feral hive into new hive body

[cwells616]

I am new to the forum and relatively new to beekeeping. I started with two packages last year but by late July they all absconded. I live in Central Texas and last year was one of the driest in history. Don't know if that was the cause or not, but I will probably visit this site often to seek advice and answers. I purchased two new packages this spring and have decided to have feed available to them continuously, unlike last year. So far so good, but it is still early. My question this time is about a feral colony that is in an old hive body on my neighbors place. He has told me I could have them but I need some advice on how to do it. Here's the situation: The colony is in an old hive body that has a bottom board and an inner cover. The outer cover is on the ground beside it. My neighbor does not know if there are frames in it or not, so for all I know they may have comb attached to the inner cover which is pretty much sealed up with propolis. The bees do come in and out of a small opening in the hole of the inner cover as well as the regular entrance. My neighbor does not want the hive on his place any more. The farthest property I have to move them is about 1.5 miles, which I don't believe is far enough. But I do have access to a friends place about 10 miles away. I read where you can move a hive a long distance for a week or so and then move back to the desired location which may be close to the original location and the bees will reorient that way. What would be the best way to move this hive and eventually transfer it into a new deep with fresh frames and foudation. I have thought I may be able to order a new queen, place her in the new hive body in her cage and place the feral hive on top of or below the new hive with a queen excluder and see if the feral hive will move into the new box. The other thought would be to go ahead and open the feral hive, cut the comb and wire into frames and place into the new box, eventually with the goal of going to a regular 9-10 frame deep. The county I live in is labeled as having africanized bees, so I can't really integrate the brood comb or bees into my existing hives without sending a sample off to A&M for testing, wich I did last week with a swarm I caught and hived. So, there is the long story. I would appreciate any and all pointers on how to handle this, and I am sure I will be back for more. Thanks

[hrogers]

Howdy CW --

I suggest that you take them home as is and do the exploring later. 1 1/2 miles is enough. Just throw a little grass in the entrance to call their attention to the move.

Ask for more help after you discover what you have.

Doc

[Neubee]

If there are no removable frames in the old hive body here is a neat design that would help with the move to a new box:

http://www.beesource.com/plans/swarmframe.htm

[Dave D.]

You may be surprised when you get in the box and find some relatively solid frames. I have moved some bees out of old junk equipment that was almost glued solid. I just about destroyed the old hive bodies getting them loose, but there were several brood frames that I was able to transfer over to new boxes. The bees took to the new equipment when their brood was able to make the move without much loss. We even got about 2 gal of honey out of about 8 deep frames. Not bad for a hive that cost me $2.50 at an auction.

[Lew Best]

where are you located cwells?

Lew near Waco

[wayacoyote]

I agree with Doc.
MOve them, pull off the inner cover with any means possible and put a new hive body with foundation on top. With luck, the queen will move up int the new body. At that point, you can do whatever it takes to remove what's in the lower deep. Taking the lower deep off to the side a few yards will cause foragers to leave you alone as they return to the original location.

For getting glued-in frames out of a body, I put piece of wood under the frame's endbars and hammer down on the box. This causes the frame to pop out the top. work one frame at a time for tough jobs.
Waya

[Walt McBride]

If you are having problems geting the inter cover off use a 3'length of iron wire with each end wraped around a screw driver and saw back and forth under the inter cover. This will reliese the comb from inter cover to let you see what you have in the hive.
Walt