T & M Weatherhead wrote:

> > 1. Do you have any suggestions on closing and
> moving bees using trailers.
>
> The easyest way is to use a smoker and the bees
> will move in very quickly.

I hope everyone had a blessed festive season and I
would like to wish everyone a very prosperous and
joyful 2001.

We move many hives on small 1 ton pick-up trucks,
loading 30 per trip. Because of the habits of Apis
mellifera capensis - who decides it's nicer
outside the hive than inside while you drive
along, and flies off the load - we have to close
our hives up. We also have to pass through many
urban areas in our delivery routes and capensis is
a little defensive at times.

We use ordinary woven nylon fruit and vegetable
bags (orange bags) as closures. They are easy to
fit as they assume the shape of the entrance, let
lots of air through and allows for water to enter
the hive when we hose the load down. Ordinary
silicon sealant is used to fill the finer cracks.
Our bees will find any small hole and POUR out.

We used to work with smoke but have found that,
due to the gorging of the bees and the movement of
the vehicle, the bees will often overheat and
vomit, causing severe stress, and collapse of the
comb and/or the colony (even with full foundation
wired with four strands).

We close after dark, before sunrise or during
inclement weather, wet the load and drive like
lightning. This also precludes the use of a
trailer as the time to complete  the double load
often leads to overheating as well.

Top-hive travel screens are not an option, our
winters are cool and damp.

A number of beekeepers are now incorporating mesh
floors. Our bees collect a lot of propolis though
and quickly seal an entire gauze floor.

Robert Post