Bee-Engaged: An Average Joe Beekeeper’s View Block for Bee Re-Orientation (Short Distance Hive Moves)

The Average Joe Beekeeper’s View Block for Bee Re-Orientation (Short Distance Hive Moves)

Practical Beekeeping: An Alternative View on Hive Moving – No longer 3 inches or 3 miles

Summary:

Beekeepers commonly ask, “How can I move my hive?” with the answer being “3 inches or 3 miles”. I use an alternative method that allows me to move hives with little to no bees returning to the prior hive location whether I move the hive 5 feet, 100 feet or even a quarter mile.

The Method:

There is a saying that when you move a hive it needs to be moved 3 inches or 3 miles otherwise the bees will go back to the initial hive location. This requires that a short distance move, of say 5 feet, to be completed 3 inches at a time over 20 days. Otherwise, you need to move the hive to a new location – 3 miles or more away – for a week or two followed by moving it back to the same yard in the desired new location. If you keep bees in urban or suburban areas, moving bees to another bee yard may not be an option. So how do you get the bees to reorient to a new location?

Beekeeping books along with beekeepers’ advice and direction claim that by placing grass or branches in front of the hive opening on the landing board at the new location, one can cause the bees to reorient to this new location. But many folks report that this does not work consistently, if at all. Although it would appear to humans that the grass and branches are blocking the bee’s front view from the entrance and landing board, the small spaces we cannot discern still provide a bee’s eye view of their familiar landmarks around the hive.

If the bees can see still their landmarks from the vicinity of their new hive location, they will use those visual cues with their internal “GPS” to return to their prior home location. Even without a hive, they will congregate in the old location because they are still oriented to that spot. And when they can’t find their hive, the can become irritable and will sting anything or anyone in the vicinity of their missing nest.

To overcome the possibility of seeing through the grass & branches, I simply create a “view block” out of cardboard that the bees cannot see through (see the photo below with view blocks in place). Others have suggested placing an extra outer cover in front of the entrance or even a piece of plywood to create a view block. I usually don’t have extra outer covers or pieces of plywood hanging around my apiaries but cardboard is easily come by. Using a simple scrap of cardboard acts as a virtual “Brick Wall” in the bee’s line of sight causing the foragers to become disoriented and triggering new orientation flights.

The Procedure:

For a 10 frame Langstroth hive, I cut a piece of cardboard to a rectangle of about 24 1/4 inches wide by 6 inches tall (see the included diagram). I fold the ends on each side about 4 inches in from the end making a flap that leaves a front “wall” of about 16 1/4 inches wide by 6 inches tall.

I fold the ends on each side about 4 inches in from the end making a flap that leaves a front “wall” of about 16 1/4 inches wide by 6 inches tall. A couple of pieces of duct tape secure the two end flaps to the side of the hive (see the included photo).

For other size hives, you can just reduce the overall length of the cardboard to fit the front of an 8-frame hive and reduce it even more to utilize this “tool” on a 5-frame wooden nuc box. To perform the move, the bees are “locked” into their hive with an entrance reducer that has the openings taped over. Locking the bees in is performed the night before moving to ensure that the maximum number of foragers have returned by dark. This means that most bees are in the hive, but there may be a few that spend their evening on a flower. Once the cardboard view block is installed, the hive is ready to move. I usually wait until morning to move the hive as it is much easier to avoid unforeseen obstacles that might be encountered in the dark. I like to run rachet straps top to bottom on both the sides and ends to keep the boxes tightly secured from the bottom board to the top (outer telescoping) cover. I also run a horizontal strap around the sides after placing four pieces of wood vertically against the boxes (under the horizontal) strap to hold the boxes together to avoid shifting.

Upon moving the hive and positioning it in its new location, the entrance reducer that locked the bees in is removed. The bees coming out of the hive in the new location cannot see anything but the cardboard wall. Without their familiar landmarks in front of them, they reorient thus locking in their new location.

I have performed moves of inches, feet, yards or even a mile numerous times (10+) every season for close to ten years now and the bees reorient to the new location with none of the bees congregating at the previous hive’s location. Others who have tried this method report similar hive movement success. It’s worth consideration as it might assist beekeepers in moving hives without having to find distant locations or worrying about forager loss!