Brad Henry writes:

> I have located a hive that is in a woodduck
>box, about 15 feet up a tree, over water.  I would like to transfer this hive
>into a standard hive body that would end up being only about 200 feet away
>from it's initial location.

FWIW, Brad, here are my comments.

 I think the basic steps outlined of sealing the box and physically
transferring comb is the sensible procedure.  I agree this is a brutal
exercise but have done this a number of times and find the bees settle down
very quickly as long as the queen is not killed accidentally in the crush.
Have a bucket of water handy to rinse off the sticky residue and do not
bother keeping sealed honey.

However I think you will have to move the duck box initially to a site at
least 2 miles away, transfer the hive and allow them to orient on new
location for, say, 4 weeks, before transferring back to proposed site as
otherwise all field bees will return to tree and become agitated at loss of
hive.

Can you enclose duck box in large bag for duration of move?  This will need
to be done after all bees have settled for night.

A less traumatic way to move the bees, though with loss of brood, is to
place the duck box in a water proof container at the new site, such as an
old bath or trough, place the new hive body on top with no barrier between,
and gently flood the container.  The bees will walk up, abandoning the
brood, as the water rises.  They are very placid because no enemy has been
identified and you do not have the make-shift frames to cull at a later date.

Good luck,

Betty McAdam

HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
J.H. & E. McAdam<[log in to unmask]
http://kigateway.kin.net.au/hogbay/hogbay1.htm

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