[Radford]

I have to move two hives from my back yard in town to my new house in the county. We have been remodeling this house for 3 years and we are almost done. We paid for things as we fixed them. I have moved 6 Italians (I think,very calm) hives already and now the hot ones have to go. I can get it done in the next 2 months but has to be done in 3 months. So waiting till the winter comes is out. I go out before sun up and the bees are sitting on the porch waiting for sunrise. I tried to clog the entrance and put screen across the entrance. Who ever said bees do not see red light or fly at night I beg to differ. I was stung on the upper and lower lip. My lips swelled and I had to go to work. That was funny. :scratch: :s

 

[mark williams]

First congrat's on the new house.Smart to build as you go.
As far as the bees,I'd go out at night even if I had to suit up & close the entrance.

 

[beepro]

Never, never ever work your bees at the night time without full protected suit on.
They are more sensitive and nasty at night. Yes, they can see you but you cannot see
them that well. Red light will not work either. They will bite, crawl all over you and sting you whenever they can.
Any small hole you have they will crawl in to sting you. A veil will not do so full protection is a must. You
are lucky this time that they only stung your lip and not at your eyes.
Instead of moving the entire hot hive try the divide and conquer technique to reduce the hive population first. Each day open the hive enough take out a frame or 2 from the hot hive to a nuc with a frame from the gentle genetic queen eggs/larvae so they can raise a new queen.
By the end of the week this hot hive should be fully disassembled. A small nuc is less aggressive that they cannot even defend themselves. When the population went down a bit it is easier to move the entire hive to your new location.

 

[djei5]

Suit up, close the entrance, strap them tight and move them, I've moved extremely hot at night and mashed every crawler I saw. It has to be done, so just do it!

 

[UTvolshype]

Get a roll of nylon screen wire at one of the big box stores and cut a big square strip of it. In the afternoon before the day you want to move the hive get the strip under the front of the hive and use very strong duck tape to get it in position to hold the screen. You want the screen well under the front of the hive and a stream of tape holding it in position under the hive and the landing board. Wake up early in the morning and smoke the front of the hive. Pick up the front of the screen and move it over all the bees that are outside the entrance. Tape up the top and sides of the screen. You can now rope up the hive and move them with out bees flowing out the entrance. I would only try this if your only dealing with a hive body and one / two supers on the hive.
If you have a lot of supers on the hive I would pull of the supers and harvest the honey and them move them. Nasty bit of work but this will keep you from getting ate up.

 

[Ross]

I had a really hot one that had to go. I tried closing them and the hive was just too leaky. I finally backed the truck up to it and started grabbing boxes and putting them in the bed. I didn't bother to restack them, just drove off with them flying. I lost some bees but I really didn't care. It worked like a divide and conquer as the guards got left behind. It made it a lot easier to find the queen on the other end, and there were plenty of bees left.

 

[beepro]

Looks like you don't have much of a divide and conquer more so like 'grab and go' method.
Might want to put an empty hive box for the mean foragers to go back. Then you can give
them a frame of gentle queen's eggs/larvae to start a new hive from. A small nuc cannot
be too mean.
Good job! You sure conquered this one. Whatever works for you. Now I know why the beekeepers insisted that the property
they placed bees on must have vehicle access just in case.

 

[Colobee]

Reading up on dealing with hot hives: #1 solution is to re-queen, another "leave them alone"...
I've also found that, as frequently mentioned in various literature, extra smoke can be counter-productive.

In the mean time I came across "Kombucha mist spray", and Honey Bee Healthy as alternatives to smoke for calming. HBH ingredients list lemongrass oil and spearmint.

Any other "tried & true" variations out there? (and I'm not talking about the one that rhymes with vasoline).

I'll be splitting one up, but the new queens are 2 weeks out.

I have wood framed moving screens that screw snugly onto the front of the hive. Very simple to make. Duct tape the super seams ahead of time, slap the moving screen on at dawn, one ratchet strap around the whole hive ( 2 if your the nervous type) and they are good to go.

"Is that Ross in the rear view, honey? Better step on in, we're out of epi-pens.."

 

[Ross]

Yep, I divide and conquer in the bee yard, but this one was in the backyard and the wife wanted it gone.