Trading places to equalize the bee yard

[tillie]

I am thinking of moving my very, very strong hive and trading places with it and the hive beside it (3 feet away) which is much smaller.  If I do that so that the foragers return to the place rather than the hive, thus increasing the population and strength of the smaller hive, I have a question:

Both hives are on a screened bottom board and a slatted rack.  As I take the hive apart, can I move Hive One onto the slatted rack and bottom board of Hive Two and vice versa or does the entire hive need to switch places?

Linda T in Atlanta

[fermentedhiker]

I don't see and reason why the bees would care.  Maybe it would even help because the returning foragers would have there hives scent on the old bottom board.  Do what ever works better for you.  The couple times I've swapped locations it has worked very well.

[Thymaridas]

I often swap hive positions to help a weaker hive, but I also swap bottom board because of my hive management system. I stencil a hive number to the bottom board to identify the hive. Then I have a Database that I keep all hive info in and what I do to the hive.

I carry a voice recorder with me and record my manipulations and put them in the database at the end of the day. It keeps me organize and I know what has been done to each hive.

[annette]

Trading places really helps lots. I did this with a small nuc to build them up.