April 3rd 2024
As mentioned before, our next step was to get some bees on the site which has now happened.
Three hives have undertaken the journey to their new home, one from Godmanstone and two from
Wyke Regis in Weymouth.
We wanted to move them sooner rather than later as they are all building up. It is so much easier to move a smaller colony. One hive, however, was on double brood.
The hives were closed up the night before. As the morning was cloudy & windy, we didn’t need to move them too early.
However, the less time the bees are shut up in the hive the better. If you are moving hives on a warm day, you would have to move them very early in the morning or at dusk.
Most hives are now on mesh floors so there is always some ventilation. If they are on solid floors you would need to put a travelling screen on top instead of a cover board.
Transporting bees is always a risk, so it’s worth taking all precautions to keep the hive from moving about or getting loose in any way. Hive straps are an essential piece of equipment in this undertaking. A piece of foam can be used to block the entrance or an entrance block the wrong way round but still taped over and drawing-pinned down.
Another fairly essential piece of equipment if vehicle access is some distance away from the site is a wheelbarrow, padded with plenty of plastic sacks for the hive to rest on and try to stop as much jolting as possible.
So, finally all hives in place. Some were given a super with a few frames of stores. It was put above the cover board as we did not want to disturb them any more. The tape was removed and entrance blocks inserted properly. We waited to make sure the bees could fly in and out before leaving them to it.
