Moving hives 300 yards

[fatbactory]

Sometime over the next three months I need to move my hives from their location in a garden to a new spot about 300 yards away.  Now I know the 2 inches or 2 miles rule, so I was planning on finding an intermediate spot to move them to, let them sit there for a month, and then move them to the new spot.

The other day though, someone was telling me that it is possible to move hives a medium range distance if you force them to re-orient and that if you close up the hive and put feeders in it, wait 3 days, and then move them and place a branch in front of the hive they will re-orient in the new spot just fine.  I've found a little bit of confirmation of this on the BushFarms site but that's about it and my bee guy that I usually talk to says that he's never heard of the method before.  Does anyone know if this works or if there are other ways to move a hive a medium range distance?

[Hethen57]

You can do it...but I wouldn't do the intermediate step, it will just confuse things.  After the move, I might put an empty nuc or hive with some foundation back at the old location and you will pick up the stragglers, but most should re-orient if you can leave them sealed up for 12 hours or so, and then when they come out, they need to go past an unfamiliar obstacle which will trigger the instinct to re-orient to the new location.  It isn't 100%, but you shouldn't lose that many.

I have done moves like this with nucs, but am not sure how I would move a double deep hive without risking a disaster or a blown out back  :shock:

[Kathyp]

just move them.  close them up at dark and move.  they will re-orient the next day.  you  may place a branch or the like near the entrance as a kind of  marker of the new location.  some will return to the old site, but in a couple of days they will figure it out.  i would not leave anything in the old site to encourage return.

[Michael Bush]

It will be chaos for about 24 hours and confusion for another 24 and then things will be back to normal...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmoving.htm

[Hethen57]

Do you think it pretty much inevitable that the ones who return to the old location will die there, or will they search for the hive in a broad enough pattern to possibly find the new location?

The "catch hive" idea came from what I saw our bee supplier do.  After he had sold a bunch of bee packages, the escapees were just swarming around his parking lot in a frenzy, so he put out an empty hive and the stragglers settled into it...then he added a queen and had another hive, or maybe he had a caged queen in the box?.  This may not be practical for only a couple of hives, but might work with a larger scale move.

[Kathyp]

the catch hive would be a good idea if you were removing the other hives to a great distance away.  for 300 yards, it would only encourage the bees to return to the old location rather than settle in the new. 
a few will be lost.   most will find the new location.

[Scadsobees]

Leave your weakest hive behind and move them later.  They could be the strongest hive in a week.  :)

[iddee]

Yes, they will circle until they find a hive to go into.