[John Scifres]

I made up a nuc from a couple queen cells from one of my hives. It seems to be doing well but I would like it placed permanently about 50 feet from where it has been sitting since I made it up.

How do I go about this?

Thanks for the help.

 

[NewJoe]

I loosely pack grass in the opening and put something in front of the hive that they have to crawl around to get out ....never had an issue doing it that way.

My hives are on a stand so I lean a telescoping cover against the front and they really have to crawl around the edge to get out...works great!

 

[Swiftwisdom]

Hi John,

I have faced this same predicament myself, because i didn't have another yard or location. In short, you can either just move the hive and let the field force find their hive via pheromone. Those that dont will drift into other hives that may welcome them with all the goodies they have with them. Otherwise, you can wait till its almost dark and you feel you got most of them in and lock the entrance and just move them. The next morning, and it doesn't have to be first thing either, you can place some bush or brush or some object directly in front of the entrance so to force them to re-orient.

To give yourself added peace of mind, just place a nuc with a few frames at the previous location, if you find some that went back to the original location you can dump them in their permanent location later. But you may find yourself doing this quite a bit. I would just let them find their home on their own. They can and will find it, but it will look alarming to you. But be brave, they know how to find home. Trust in your bees!
Good luck.
SW

 

[John Scifres]

Thanks. I will try that.

 

[ForrestB]

I loosely pack grass in the opening and put something in front of the hive that they have to crawl around to get out ....never had an issue doing it that way.

My hives are on a stand so I lean a telescoping cover against the front and they really have to crawl around the edge to get out...works great!

+1

I use grasss, leaves and some branches, no problems.

 

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmoving.htm#between

Move them. Put a branch in front of the hive. Don't put anything at the old location. In two days they will have it sorted out.

 

[NewJoe]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmoving.htm#between

Move them. Put a branch in front of the hive. Don't put anything at the old location. In two days they will have it sorted out.

exactly....if you leave a box at the old location...some will definitely return...I have tried it before, but I will never leave a box at the old spot again!

 

[John Scifres]

Thank you all for the advice.

Follow up questions:

Should I do the move at the same time that I transfer the frames from the nuc to the deep? Is that too much at once or will it aid in reorienting?

 

[Michael Bush]

>Should I do the move at the same time that I transfer the frames from the nuc to the deep? Is that too much at once or will it aid in reorienting?

Confusion is your friend when trying to get them to reorient.

 

[John Scifres]

Allright then. I'll wait until I am ready to hive them Thanks again!

 

[John Scifres]

I moved the nuc this morning and placed the branch in front. They seem to be doing OK with lots of comings and goings. I have the full deep ready to go and will transfer this afternoon sometime. I'll try to get some pics or maybe video. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[JWChesnut]

In the future, put the old hive in your selected "new" location, and then build the nuc in the old hive's spot.
This equalizes the foraging force nicely during the make-up phase.
You still must transfer nurse bees into the nuc --- the field bees don't have as much capacity to produce royal jelly and do all the other hive tasks.

You also must move the (potentially heavy and irritated) old hive. This however can be done by individual boxes, and restacked, since you will be digging through the boxes anyway to get the perfect comb for the new nuc.