If trees could walk

“Christmas? That’s 10 months off. Surely there’s a quicker way?” My bee-buddy was dismayed.

“We could move them all to the Chilterns,” I suggested, “That’s well over 3 miles.”

“No way!” he exclaimed, “It would take days to transport all these hives up there.”

We had a conundrum – how to move 13 bee-hives 100 yards from one side of an orchard to the other. Conventional beekeeping wisdom states that you should only move a hive 3 feet every three days, or you should move it more than 3 miles away.

The logic is simple: In the wild bees nest in trees and trees don’t walk. Consequently once a bee has learned where home is it always returns to the same spot; move the ‘tree’ and the bees are totally lost.

Fortunately these ‘rules’ are baloney. I convinced myself of this a few summers ago when I moved my hives 10 yards. If I had followed the book the move would have taken a month. Instead I waited until dusk when the bees were all home and then moved the hives to their new location, taking care to pile a load of branches in front of the entrances before leaving.

The following morning the bees were confused by the mayhem outside their hives so they spent time examining what had happened. In the process they quickly learned the new position of their hive before going off to forage.

In winter time the situation is even easier. During cold snaps the bees remain huddled together in the hive and they soon forget their bearings, so when it warms up they have to spend time re-learning their location.

Rather than taking 10 months to move the hives 100 yards we simply loaded them up on a tractor and trailer and took them off to the new apiary. The weather forecast suggested it would be cold for several days, so most of the bees would forget about their old location. Even so,we decided to leave some old crates leaning against the hive entrances to confuse the bees, just in case there were any smart alecs in residence.

Some beekeepers absolutely refuse to believe you can do this. But the logic is simple: Trees do occasionally ‘walk’ – they fall over!