I have been offered a 5 year old hive of bees that have been in the same place in middle GA. I need to move them to my place apx. 20 miles away. when should I make this move. The temps are suppose to be in the low to mid 50's this weekend and lows in the upper 20's to low 30's. this hive is 5 deeps high. and has not been worked in 2 years. tons of bees flying. the boxes are in poor shape and I am going to have to swapout boxes. should I wait for another week or two or do the move this weekend. I have a hive near the river that I am going to start harvesting starter hives from in two weeks :-D. I have built the crossover tube for the mouth of the hive and am set to place the external box on to harvest apx. 5-10 pounds of bees. using brood as the lure. I have use this method before in VA. and we would harvest 3 hives per year off of one wild hive. makes for a good strong bee source. (back on subject) with this weather here it has me confused on timing. :?
thanks
john
Move them when it's cold out and the bees aren't flying. That way you can move during daylight hours.
I would knock them down to 1-2 boxes before hand and wait a day or two bafore moving.
Scott
I was planning on dropping them down to one box each. but with the cold coming in I was concerned with freezing them I was planning to divide them late in the evening and lock them in then move them in the late morning the next day. I am concerned about the travel cold getting them.
thanks