A natural box of bees-Best way to move them? Wild Hive

12 years ago

I have wanted to have bees for years, just never got around to it. A mouth ago I found a hive on my property in an old wooden fruit bin made of wood and wire, I check on the hive today hoping it was still there and to get a better closer look. The bee hive is in an old wooden ammo box (about 24"x10"x10") that was left in the bin 10+ years ago, I though this was awesome the bees are package up for me very easy to get to (no trees to climb or cut, no building to take apart...) "BEES IN A BOX"

I need a plan to get move the hive in a new hive. I have beekeeping stuff on order, ordered mann lake pf100 and pf120 read good thing about them. So if they are ferro maybe they like the smaller cells and stay.

I was trying to think of a way I can do it with little disturbance. Could I cut a hole in the bottom board of the new hive, then take the ammo lid off and put the hive to the bottom of the new hive forcing them through the new hive.

The ammo can currently sits with the top up and a slightly opened where the bees enter and exit through the top. I am not sure what I can expect when I open the lid, are the combs going to be stuck on the lid or are they going to be stuck everywhere locking the lid on.

Should I just open the hive and cut the combs off and relocated them in the new hive removing some frames to get them to fit? Do I need to find the queen and cage her?

Should I lock the new hive up to force them to build in their new home? I was going to leave the new hive in the same spot as the old one, is that a good idea? I am not sure if they are ferro or not, does it matter?

I really donÃ¯Â¿Â½t want them to pickup and leave.

Can I use a queen excluder on the bottom of the new hive to keep her in?

Thanks for any ideas you have

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Comments (2)

Konrad___far_north
12 years ago
Good for you!
I wouldn't cut out comb...risk of killing queen.
Open one side of box, top or bottom which ever works best, then set it on top of brood box. If it happens you have to turn upside down the box even better, they move out more quickly but nurse bees would stay for a while tending brood.
If the box doesn't cover brood box, you could cover the rest with cardboard. Put a frame feeder into the brood box and feed & feed until they drawn at least one deep super,...if that's
what your intentions are? Here we go with two deep.

Setting the box over the frames, you can't use the inner cover,
that's fine, set the box to one side that you have access to a couple of frames, [move cardboard] to fill your frame feeder and check frames for progress. Make sure you seal up any
entrance to the box, they now have access from your main entrance, [bottom board] ..you might need a reducer, especially when traffic is low, helps against robbing.
Konrad___far_north
12 years ago
Oh...sure let them stay at the old place for a while, no need for
queen excluder. Check with your local bee club on how many
brood boxes they operate and cell size, goo with the flow, no need go special....sometimes it works against you and cost more. good luck!
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