In a few days a beekeeper is retiring and my brother and I are going to be taking over his hives. We'll be moving around 50 of them around 50 miles. My concern here is that some of the hives have uncapped honey. I was warned that during a move the uncapped honey will slosh out of the cells and drain down the frames, and drown the bees. I was wondering if you guys had heard similar things, or if you had experienced anything like this. If so, what precautions do you take to counter it?
If it is possible wait till after the season ends and harvest the honey. Makes the hive lighter. at that time most honey will have been cured.
Seems I read some where bees do not capped cells that are not full size. not so. Partially filled cells are capped once cured if the bees are not going to use it right away.
If you can't wait till the end of the season then wait till about a week after the main flow has ended. :) d2
Quote from: chiaco on July 14, 2013, 05:40:22 PM
I was warned that during a move the uncapped honey will slosh out of the cells and drain down the frames, and drown the bees. I was wondering if you guys had heard similar things,
have moved 45 years hives and nectar has never drowned on bees. That is impossible even as an idea.
Last hive I moved 3 days ago and it had only uncapped nectar.
But if you should drive curves easily that there are no centifugan forges in your car!
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Ah awesome. I knew you guys would know. I was having a hard time google searching the information. Thanks for the fast replies :)
I move them all the time as you are proposing & have never, ever had any issues whatsoever. If any spills it will likely be such an insignificant amount that the bees will clean it up quickly.
...JP