Woops

[wtiger]

I have a small problem.  I built a new hive stand with cinder blocks and 4x4's in a new and better location about 100 feet from the old location.  I moved the hives last night and then put a leafy branch in front of the hive to try to get them to reorient this morning, but left a nuc I made up about a week ago in their place.  I figured I'd catch some stragglers that went back to the old location to shore up the numbers in the nuc.  Well it seems like an  awful lot of the foragers are returning back to the old location and now the nuc is overflowing with bees.  Should I have not left something in the old location for them to go back to?  What did I do wrong?  Did I do anything wrong?  I know one thing I'll definitely be adding another 5 frame medium or 2 to the nuc within the next couple days and I'll probably start feeding the heck out of the 2 hives that I moved. 

update:
Put A much bigger leafier branch in front of the hive before I started working  They seem to be going back to the 2 main hives properly now.  The main hives are a little weaker, but the nuc is bursting with bees now.  I'm not disappointed with the results.  I questioned whether I'd put enough bees into the nuc to begin with.  That's not an issue anymore.  The bees in the nuc were not happy with me though.  I went out a little bit ago to have a look from about 20 ft away.  two of the girls though I was looking at them funny and one got me on the ear and I squished the other as I made a hasty and undignified retreat.

[sean]

Cant say whether or not you did aqnything wrong its how i moved some of my hives a few weeks ago. What i did do though was to leave an empty nuc box(no frames) in the spot i had moved the hive from. Went back a couple days after realized that the stragglers had taken over the nuc so i put some frames with brood in it have now ended up with an extra colony.

[JP]

By leaving the nuc in the original location, if I'm following you correctly, the bees would naturally fill the nuc, because they had orientated to the original location. I don't see it as a big deal, but I would not have left the nuc in the original location.

[Understudy]

If you moved the hive less than two miles they probably flew back. When you force a reorientation place a lot of small branches in front of the entrance(which you did).

If you don't need to leave a hive at old location that is great if you do need to leave one in case of a split or dive or similar, place the other hive facing a different direction if the other hive was facing east place the other hive facing north or similar. Make the entrance as small as possible by placing grass or hay clippings in it and then put the branches in front.

Now here is the one time I would also recommend briefly using a queen excluder. Put one on for a few days and then remove it. The bees will stick with the queen.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Currently in Chicago getting ready to go to Kansas City.

[wtiger]

ok thanks for the replies.  I'll remember these things for next time.