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Offline Finally Home

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Planning ahead
« on: March 11, 2014, 09:09:34 pm »
Thinking out loud here.  Just had a guy (Mike) offer to let me put a couple hives on his property.  He's near a county park with lots of wildflowers and such.  2 of my surviving hives were swarms caught last year.  Was thinking of splitting them and taking one or both the splits to Mike's place. His place is close to an hour away.  Not sure how often I can get there.  Will they have to be fed sugar water? I can give them some extra drawn comb when I split. I will be able to stop by every couple weeks to do inspections. I haven't talked with Mike yet, just his son. I want to get some thoughts before I talk with him.  He has a huge garden on his land so he's hoping they can help him as well.

Any thought provoking thought's for me to ponder??   
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Offline Perry

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Re: Planning ahead
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2014, 09:15:15 pm »
A good yard is a good yard, especially if they want the bees.  ;)
The only thing that I will mention, is that my hives that are the farthest away from me, never get the same attention as those close to me, no matter how much I try.
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Planning ahead
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2014, 09:20:37 pm »
An hour away seems like a long ways. I don't put any further than 15 min drive, but then theres a lot of farm country here.  So it depends on your ability to keep up with them.
   They will need more checking at first, once well established maybe not as much...   Worst case scnario is that if you decide you cant make that kind of trip every two weeks you can move them back home...
   On the other hand..  if it doesnt work maybe Mike would be interested in learning, and keeping them there?
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Offline riverbee

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Re: Planning ahead
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2014, 09:41:38 pm »
"Was thinking of splitting them and taking one or both the splits to Mike's place. His place is close to an hour away.  Not sure how often I can get there.  Will they have to be fed sugar water? I can give them some extra drawn comb when I split. I will be able to stop by every couple weeks to do inspections."

yes you should  feed 1:1 sugar water with a spring divide.  your divides will have the forager force greatly reduced. give them a jump start with some feed, especially if you have no honey frames to give them or have foundation to be drawn. 

like  lazy said though, you will need to check them in the beginning to make sure everything's okay. so many variables of what can go wrong for a divide to fail, queen problem, critter problem, mite problem, nectar dearth, etc. once they are established and built into a double deep, then a super maybe, not so much.

good luck!

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Offline iddee

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Re: Planning ahead
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2014, 10:09:34 pm »
Save time, save money, save headache.... Give him the bees.

Better yet, just say thanks, but no thanks.

30 hives, maybe so. 2 hives, absolutely not.
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Offline tecumseh

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Re: Planning ahead
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2014, 05:55:15 am »
Again I would NOT disagree with Iddee on this issue.  Fuel cost would simply make such an endeavor a no go in terms of cost and time.

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Offline apisbees

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Re: Planning ahead
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2014, 03:43:34 am »
Due to having to check a new split to check for the queen and that all is OK in the split you would be better moving the old queen portion to his place and keep the new split at your house. But before that Listen to Iddee's advice, unless the location is at your family location that you would travel to regardless if you had bees or not an 1 Hr drive is to far to make a special trip.
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Offline minz

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Re: Planning ahead
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2014, 11:11:09 pm »
I had a pair of hives 30 minutes from here in an apple orchard.  I had to 4wd up to the top of the hill in an apple orchard.  I checked them about ½ of everything else.  Found that besides the trip distance and scheduling to get up there I usually did not have what I needed.  Caught one of the swarms, lost the other. They never requeened themselves.  I put two nucs back into them to get them going, a bunch of feed and still lost them by December.  But that is my story, your mileage may vary.

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