Moving hives. What are some ways to move hives.

[Yankee11]

Now that we are up to about 40 hives and 7 out yards. I am starting to move hives around from yard to yard. 3 yards in natural habitat and 4
yards in crops areas. soybeans, cotton etc.

Thought we could get folks to share ways to move hives around.

OK, go...

[blueblood]

I haven't moved more than one hive at a time but I have seen folks use skids to load multiple hives.  You have to have a skid loader of course to make this all worth the while.

[Woody Roberts]

I'm just getting started in the outyard game. So far I've only moved young single deeps to the new yards and will split from there.

If I had different places to move them to for different flows I think I would look at strapping them down on a trailor semi permanent and just move the trailor when need be.

If in bear country I would look at a stock trailor. The kind that has the cage over the top but is not enclosed so to speak.

[apisbees]

Yankee thanks for starting this a a thread of its own.
Tec will chime in here as he has experience moving hives on the commercial scale by the semi loads.
I have mover a lot of hives but as double deeps in to orchards for pollination and back out again. With the pollination sets the hives or pollination units are made up with at least 5 good frames of brood and a bee population that will cover at least 8 frames. Due to the intensity of the flow a lot of space need to be available for the queen to lay and the bees to store nectar. So the top super is pretty much empty going in. The hive weighs 60 lbs. and due to watering taking place it is nice to have the hives up on a upside down apple bin  to keep the water from spraying in the hive. Orchardest like to have the hives placed through out the orchard part way down rows so carrying the hive by hand from the truck deck to the bins is necessary. The hives coming out of the orchard cam weigh from 150 to 175 lbs so the weight can becomes an issue also. I am still fairly young and fit so I still grab and carry the hives the short distance from the truck to the hive location. to keep the bees contained in the hive I use a #8 mesh the length of the entrance and about 4" wide and fold it over the side of the hive to get a straight 90 deg. fold then bend it the fest of the way so i have a 180 deg round screen to tuck in the entrance. the inner cover is placed on the hive with the winter entrance up and the hive cover pulled back closing of any space the bees could us as an escape. The most important is having the hives secured so all the components of the hive stay in place. For this I use 1/2" plastic strapping with a tensioner and clips. When lifting and carrying a hive by yourself the last thing you want is for the hive to twist and allow spaces for the bees to escape.



I have also moved hives into the mountains in search of fireweed honey. Moving of hives is stressful on bees  and the smother the ride the calmer the bees will stay. 50 miles of rough dusty extremely bumpy roads makes for cranky bees when they are released. You still have to put up an electric fence with annoyed bees coming out of the hives and then cutting the straps so honey supers can be added to the hives before leaving them to do what they do best, collect nectar. Hauling bees on a trailer is much rougher than an s truck due to the fact that trucks have shocks to dampen the rough ride where a trailer with the leaf springs give a more jostled ride. A tandem axled trailer is better than a trailer with a single axle but the smother the road the better the tire for the bees. I have seen hives jostled so bad that the comb has broken out of the frames and the top bar tabs have been broken. Go slow and easy on rough roads and across fields and the bees can handle it.

due to the fact that most of my hive movement is pollination and hand placement of the hives. I have always just carried them the short distance from truck to pallets. I have always just placed the hives on pallets it keeps the hives 6" off the ground and doesn't require making permanent stands. If you can make the bee yard large enough so you can park your truck or trailer in the middle then the hives can be offloaded and loaded with less carrying distance. This not only assets when moving hives but also when supering the hives and pulling full honey supers. Keep enough room between hives or pallets of hives to allow for easy movement and that you have clear walk ways and not having to clime over or trip on things while working the bees.

I will stop this post here. stay tuned for chapter 2

[Yankee11]

Ok Apis,

I don't want to change the subject of this thread but you said something that I have a question about. These hives I have just moved came from a strong
flow. These hives are very full of bees and brood.

Now I am setting them on top of another strong flow, Soybeans ans cotton that will be going on into fall. Should I be worried about swarming again and should I maybe pull some frames of brood from the deeps and start some nucs to give these strong hives some room in the brood chambers. I will for sure go through and pull any all honey frames that are taking up laying frames.

Just wondering about swarming.

Thanks, and back to our regular scheduled program, "moving hives"

[apisbees]

Biology of beekeeping. Two things have happened. 1 the summer solaces so the days are getting shorter and this will trigger the bees to start confining the queen and her egg laying. The second is busy bees do not swarm near as much as bees with little to do, make sure the brood chamber is not plugged up, the queen should have 12 frames that she is laying in. If she is clogged give her an empty frame or 2 in the top brood super and keep the empty supers piled on top so they are not forced into storing the nectar in the brood chambers.
It seems that bees swarm about when the honey flow finally arrives. But in reality the hive decides to swarm when the population has expanded and the increased flow has not started to support and keep the hive fed and keep the bees busy. Once they start the swarming process there is no stopping it. But if you get them on a good flow, and as long as you have provided a place for them to store the honey by supering in a timely manner they will stay busy and not think of swarming.

[Yankee11]

Thank Apis,

Back to moving hives.

Do you move yours at night, early morning etc. I guess I could close them up with screen at night and actually move them first thing in the mornings. That way I am removing entrance screens in daylight instead of darkness.

Lol, I don't mind bees landing on me during daylight, but something about having bees crawling on me in the dark and getting into my truck that I don't care for.  Good way to have a wreck on the way home.

Tip: if you here them buzzing in your vehicle at night. flip on the dome lite and they will go right to it.

I made the mistake the other night and left my truck door open while removing entrance screens and they filled the cab of my truck up.

Another Tip: close your truck door at night. 

[apisbees]

Another tip place the hives and don.t have the light from the headlights or back up lights shining at the hives and they will stay at the hive. Also a puff of smoke will turn the bees around so the entrance screen can be removed with out the bees boiling out.
I tend to do it all in one step wait for it to get dark enough to put in the entrance screen and move the colonies right away. And pull the screens then the hives are set down. I don't mind if some bees want to come in the truck with me. I as so don"t mind if i get stung neither.

[Yankee11]

Nice, thank -you.

Well I just the 4 hives placed in the new yard we placed last Tuesday night. They already have a super full of nectar. I was pulled comb just extracted.
I have 2 supers sitting on each hive and they they are starting on the second super. 7 days. Wow.

I was not planning on extracting again until fal,l but no way I have enough supers at this rate.

Here is another yard started. They cleared the fence row last week. Looks like there is room for 40 more hives now :-) room to grow.