Moving bees short distance

[Light]

I have about 30-50 wild blackberry bushes roughly 1/4 mile from my hives.  Would it make any difference to move a hive right beside the bushes?  I've read they can forage up to about 4 miles.  For wild blackberry when would should I watch for that/take the honey off to get it as pure as possible?

[Michael Bush]

Bee generally don't forage much past one mile.  But they CAN forage four miles.  But only if they are really desperate.  I'd put them within 1/4 mile if you really want them pollinated which is where you already have them.

[Paul33]

Hi Light,
   this might be a dumb point but over here we say that you can move a hive either a foot or a mile - nothing in between or they get lost (because of the way they navigate).

So whilst it might appear to be only a small distance it might be sufficient for you to end up with piles of bees on the grass where the hives were and empty hives where they are now.

Just my two cents and please correct me if I'm wrong.
Paul.

[justgojumpit]

what you can do is move them one mile away from the blackberry bushes and then a week later, 1-1/4 miles to the blackberry bushes.  just a thought  ;)

justgojumpit

[JP]

A quarter of a mile is 440 yards, I would suspect they will go to the blackberries just fine if they want to. Moving them closer is no assurance they will work them anyway, so I would leave them right where they are.


...JP