So i moved all of my hives on the weekend - probably about 300m from where they were - i put lots of grass over the entrance to try and confuse them and force them to do an orientation flight again but it appears that either the grass fell away from one, or a few, in the night or my idea didnt work. It appears that some of the field bees oriented back to the original hive location... now there's a nice bunch on a tree.
If they're collected (in to one of my weaker nucleus hives), put in a box and taken back to the rest of the hives will they stay there? If they're shook out on the ground in front of the hives will they go back in to a hive? or if i just leave them will they eventually go back to the hives?
Any suggestions much appreciated
Just leave them, they should figure it out. There will be some confusion and flying to the old location for 3 to 5 days or so, but they'll get it figured out and settle in just fine.
The method, as I have used it, is to put a branch with leaves in front of the hive entrance. That way they must fly through the branch and will reorient because things are very different when they come out of the hive. Once the grass fell away all they saw when they left was blue Australian skies, so they figured they were in the same place and went back where home was.
Jim
The purpose of the grass or anything that disrupts their exit from the hive is to get them to pay attention and reorient. They will still fly back to the old place first, but they will find the new place quicker if they took note of it than if they were paying no attention when they left.
the grass/limb at the entrance didn't really work now did it?
don't be surprised when some sage advice unfiltered via peer review doesn't work as some folks promote.
as to be expected Ray's advice is ALWAYS right on target. perhaps because it is based on long experience rather than wishful thinking?
Thanks everyone for your advice - the owner of the property i have the hives at is nervous about these bees on his tree... if they were collected and dumped in front of the hives would that speed things up?
Yes, if done at dusk.
Quotedon't be surprised when some sage advice unfiltered via peer review doesn't work as some folks promote.
as to be expected Ray's advice is ALWAYS right on target. perhaps because it is based on long experience rather than wishful thinking?
of course you have tried both and know which works and which does not? take a deep breath before you are so critical of those you probably know nothing about. there are variables in moving hives. timing and distance i have found the most important. some things work under some circumstances and not under others.
kathyp writes:
of course you have tried both and know which works and which does not? take a deep breath before you are so critical of those you probably know nothing about.
tecumseh:
sounds like you should reread your own comment and reflect on how your statement might just apply to yourself???
and to answer your somewhat silly and highly personally biased question... yes I have tried both. I don't really need to know someone personally to recognize bad advice. on the other hand after reviewing some poster's good advice followed by more good advice over a number of years you do build a mental model that some folks are excellent beekeepers and at the other end of the spectrum some folks resume must be in someway limited.
HOT BEES HOT BEES warning Will Robinson Warning
Hot Bees Get on your Veil light the Smoker Warning warningFixed :roll:
QuoteTommyt, that was Will Robinson, not Robertson
:-D :-D
no. just hot beekeeper tired of pseudo-intellectual crap. :evil:
Golly! I love these forums. :-D
I had no idea where all this was coming from :?. I was thinking this was a forum to exchange ideas and methods. So why all the attacks on our different methods :?. We all have different methods that work for us......OOOOOh, then I checked out the 'Social Room'. All this comes from political differences over there and then carries over to the beekeeping forums. Duuuuuuh.... What was I thinking?? I thought I could get away from all that crap by turning off the TV and coming here to learn something from the collective knowledge that is on this forum. Where the heck was my head?? :roll:......you do not have to answer that :-D.
While everyone is picking anyway, I'll add some of mine.......When I went to school we learned to always capitalize the first word in a sentence. My mother was a school teacher, back when teachers had some....we'll just say authority :whip: and we respected them (without learning to capitalize those words, we would not have made it past the 4th grade)............and Tommyt, that was Will Robinson, not Robertson (I watched that show when it was NEW and the brain cell that is incharge of remembering that name still works!) :brian:
But, I have got to agree with fish....I love this forum anyway.
>if they were collected and dumped in front of the hives would that speed things up?
Probably, but no guarantees. Old field bees are pretty attached to the old location. They will eventually find the new location or some other hive by circling in a outward spiral, but for some time the old bees, even after they know the new location, will fly back to the old one, and then turn and go to the new one.
OZ:
Everyone has their way of doing it, but here is mine.
What has worked for me every time is to put a big stick/branch etc blocking the entrance, so they have to crawl over, around, under etc to inside or outside the hive. That confuses the heck out of them (since it wasn't there before) and they will orient after they get airborne. it's a cool sight watching the masses reorient...
...DOUG
KD4MOJ
my experience is that when i moved hive short distances, the branch or reoriention thing never really worked for me, field bee's seem to always go to the old location, i have left some alone to see what they would do and they finally left after 4-5 days, but they were some upset bee's during that time, what have have found that i like when i move a hive a short distance is to move them at dusk and remove all the old stands or anything away from that area, if i move them in the daytime i will put a nuc there in the hives place and dump all returning bee's from nuc into the hive that night, sometimes there will be a large number, after this is done some return but after day or some the hive is going strong again! somethings work for some but this has worked for me, thats all!!