I have searched this topic, and had most of my questions answered. One thing I was wondering that I did not find the answer to was orientaion. If I am taking a hive from one spot and moving it a few yards away in the same apiary to another hive, do I need to do anything for the bees I moved to help with their orientaion until they acclimate to the new hive?
I have done one or two combos, but they were placing swarms with existing hives. No worries about orentation those times.
Everything else is pretty much what I have already experienced. Some type of entrance for the top hive. One sheet of newspaper between them. Queen right on the bottom. Give em few days.....
Thanks for input!
I've made a couple of 'short moves'. I put a branch partially blocking the entrance to force the bees to reorient. It didn't work perfectly as there were some bees hanging around the old location for two days but they survived and did well in the new location.
Move at night so when they come out in the morning they will start to re orient to the new location. Also that is right about putting a branch or something in front of the entrance so they see it and know something is different.
It may go easy, but be prepared to find many bees going back to the old site for a few days. When this happened to me, I freaked out because I had clusters of bees all over the place for about 4 days. Then things calmed down and everything was fine.
I block them in for a day and then open the entrance that night. If the weather is too hot I will not block them for a whole day or I will wait to move them.