I will be doing a few splits this year, and wondering really just how "set in concrete" the distance of 2 miles is for moving a split if you want the split to hang on to all the forager bees.
I have a convenient spot about 1 mile down the road. I'm wondering if I can move a new split, that has a bunch of foragers from the the mother hive, down there for a few days and then back to my apiary, if that is enough distance for them to re-orient.
My idea was to make the split (either existing queen cell, or walk away) and put the split box into the space where the mother hive was for a few hours to fill with foragers, then close it up and move it. Move the mother hive back to original spot.
I have a convenient spot about 1 mile down the road. I'm wondering if I can move a new split, that has a bunch of foragers from the the mother hive, down there for a few days and then back to my apiary, if that is enough distance for them to re-orient.
My idea was to make the split (either existing queen cell, or walk away) and put the split box into the space where the mother hive was for a few hours to fill with foragers, then close it up and move it. Move the mother hive back to original spot.