Due to a misreading of rather muddy platt lines, I calculated the back corner of my property wrong, necessitating movement of my bee hives by about 40 feet.
Moving bee hives is not quite as simple as it sounds, as bees get lost if moved very far — far being 10-15 feet. Another issue is that the hives are full and very heavy, necessitating movement one super at a time, which means maximum bee exposure and maximum bee anger.
In addition, the heavy railroad timber bases and boards that the hives sit on had to be moved, along with the rather elaborate three-sided windscreen.
Before anything began, however, I had to level the new location.
Long story short, I started the last move in the dark at 4 am, with a massive jury-rigged smoker to try to keep things calm. The entire job is now finished and I did not die. I think the bees will be ok — we’ll see in a week or so.
My small nuclear hive never raised a queen (I was trying to do a “walk away” split), and I am going to re-queen one hive which is a bit weak, and try again to get the nuc going with another transfer of bees from my *very* active big hive. By reducing the number of bees in that hive, and adding new queens to the two others, I hope to stave off swarming, which is always a threat.
Bees are expensive, malevolent, suicidal bugs that make diabetes, and but they are interesting!
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are moderated, and all zombies, trolls, time wasters, and anonymous cowards will be shot.
If you do not know what that means, click here and read the whole thing.
If you are commenting on a post, be sure to actually read the post.
New information, corrections, and well-researched arguments are always appreciated.
- The Management