How Soon Can I Move My Hives?

1420 Views 8 Replies 3 Participants Last post by ilivetobealive, Apr 21, 2014

ilivetobealive

Discussion Starter · Apr 20, 2014 (Edited)

How Soon Can I Move My Hive After Requeen?

I recently did a split of my two hive as they were about to swarm, I was able to split the resources into 6 nuc boxes, all complete with at least one queen cell, twp frame of brood, and a frame of honey.

One of my main two hives swarmed anyway and because I removed all the queen cells from it, it was queenless. As all my queen cells had already hatched in the nucs, I called up a local breeder and put a new laying queen in on Wednesday. The bees accepted her well (I've seen the difference between a hive attacking a caged queen and accepting one).

I'd like to move these two main hives to another apiary I have about 30 minutes away as there is a major nectar flow there right now. Of course I'm fine moving the hive with my existing queen, but should I wait to move the other? If so, how long? I've always thought it best to wait at least two weeks before disturbing the hive so the bees don't take it personally toward the queen.

The hive I requeened is two deeps tall, full of capped brood and larvae but obviously no eggs...she must have only been gone for a few days before I added the new queen cage.

Thoughts? Looking back, I should have moved the hives and THEN done the splits...oops.

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ilivetobealive

Discussion Starter · #2 · Apr 21, 2014 (Edited)

I didn't hear from any of you experts so I went with my gut and only moved my oldest hive with my 1 yr old queen.

I'd still like to move the nucs and other main, requeened hive, over asap. My original question still stands, how long should I wait? I'd really like to move the virgin queens as I'd rather they breed in the other apiary. The bees I breed up in the mountain apiary turn out quite mean.

Also, I wanted to wait to add the super to the hive I just moved until it was in it's new location. How long would you wait to mess with a newly moved hive? There is mixed honey/brood throughout the hive and I'd like to move all frames with honey up to the super. This will obviously require a full inspection.

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ilivetobealive

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 21, 2014

Anyone?

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Charlie B

· #4 · Apr 21, 2014

ilivetobealive said:
Anyone?

I'm no expert but I think you made the right decision. I've never heard of waiting to move a nuc or a freshly re-queened hive because it may disrupt queen acceptance. That sounds like as old wife's tale to me. I do in all the time.

I just moved some hives to Watsonville a couple of months ago and they're doing pretty well. Where's the flow in Santa Cruz? I have to make up more nucs and need to catch a flow down there near Ben Lomond.

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ilivetobealive

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 21, 2014

Charlie B said:
I'm no expert but I think you made the right decision. I've never heard of waiting to move a nuc or a freshly re-queened hive because it may disrupt queen acceptance. That sounds like as old wife's tale to me. I do in all the time.

I just moved some hives to Watsonville a couple of months ago and they're doing pretty well. Where's the flow in Santa Cruz? I have to make up more nucs and need to catch a flow down there near Ben Lomond.

My hive moved so easily yesterday I don't feel like moving the nucs would disrupt them all that much, if at all. Sounds like you may agree.

I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains and it's generally pretty dry up here for nectar. I have another apiary on a friend's land in Aptos. Her one hive there was filling a honey super in a matter of 2 weeks last year, so I'm wanting to move all my hives down there ASAP, they seem to be doing the same this year already. I think the nucs would do much better and the queens would breed more easily as well.

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Charlie B

· #6 · Apr 21, 2014

Yeah there's not too much going on in the Redwoods in Ben Lomond either. I think flat land near farms is the best bet. I lured a swarm in Watsonville a while back, nice healthy black bees that are gangbusters. I have no idea where they came from.

I did see some commercial hives staged on my way back from Watsonville so I put a few traps around that area too.

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johng

· #7 · Apr 21, 2014

How long ago did the queens hatch in the nucs? If they just hatched you are probably safe to go ahead and move them. If they have been hatched a week or so I would leave them a lone. The virgins will do orientation flights a few days ahead of going on mating flights I would not want them to get mixed up with a move shortly after orienting to the old spot. Chances are they would reorient but, why take the chance leave the nucs where they are until the queens start laying.

As far as the requeened hive I would leave it alone too until the new queen has some capped brood or atleast some older larva. Once they have laid up a few frames of bees they are not likely to take out the move on the new queen. No expert JMHO

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ilivetobealive

Discussion Starter · #8 · Apr 21, 2014

Charlie B said:
Yeah there's not too much going on in the Redwoods in Ben Lomond either. I think flat land near farms is the best bet. I lured a swarm in Watsonville a while back, nice healthy black bees that are gangbusters. I have no idea where they came from.

I did see some commercial hives staged on my way back from Watsonville so I put a few traps around that area too.

Definitely. The area in Aptos is near countless Eucalyptus groves as well as access to the city and possibly some farm land, at the edges of their reach. The area is North of the City but quite open. It really is the perfect spot.

I ended up building 8 nucs to use for bait boxes but ended up using 7 of them to do splits. I could have done more but the queens hatched before I could split up more of the queen cells. I've never caught a swarm but was excited to give it a try. I'll put out my one trap and possibly build more this week when I have time.

Question: How long do I have to move these newly hatched queens? They hatched the last two days. I understand they take a few days to gain strength before mating but I'd obviously like to get them moved before they mate.

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ilivetobealive

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 21, 2014

johng said:
How long ago did the queens hatch in the nucs? If they just hatched you are probably safe to go ahead and move them. If they have been hatched a week or so I would leave them a lone. The virgins will do orientation flights a few days ahead of going on mating flights I would not want them to get mixed up with a move shortly after orienting to the old spot. Chances are they would reorient but, why take the chance leave the nucs where they are until the queens start laying.

As far as the requeened hive I would leave it alone too until the new queen has some capped brood or atleast some older larva. Once they have laid up a few frames of bees they are not likely to take out the move on the new queen. No expert JMHO

You just answered my previous post. The queens just hatched so I'll more than likely be moving them tonight.

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