Stacking Hives

[djgriggs]

Can anyone tell me what the best way to stack full hives would bee ? I am curious I have seen others stack by placing the hives gently straight down on top of each brood box and then sliding into place. I have then told that this way could kill / smash bees.. I am OCD for the most part and as I see lines in everything I am very anal about getting everything straight, which can be an issue especially if you need to be in a hurry or rush. I am curious could you  staple a couple of paint strips peaces to the sides and back of your brood boxes so that when the sides and back of the boxes meet the srips everything would be even and inline. or would this be a bad idea. ( does what I am asking make sense ) . your strip would over lap the bottom and above boxes...

[Hops Brewster]

I set my box on top of the other offset by 20 degrees or so, then rotate it into alignment.  My lines are the corners.
If you want to mark a few alignment stripes on them, do what tickles your toenails.

My OCD is counting.  I'm in the inventory management business.
"One little honey bee!  Two little honey bees!  BWahaha!  Three little honey bees!"

[Acebird]

Smoke and time.  Smoke will usually clear the top of the frames and box.  I admit in a breeze it is hard to get the smoke where you want it.  I hover with the box and drop the farthest edge first (usually the front of the hive) and past the front edge of the lower box.  Then lower the back edge.   Working from behind you can then smoke the gap so when you pull the box back towards you you don't shear off a bunch of bees between the two boxes.

[Beeboy01]

I smoke heavy then place the box with a 3/4 overlap on the lower super. Then slowly slide the top box into place gently pushing any bees out of the way with the top super. Still squash some but it's not like dropping the box without using any smoke.

[eltalia]

I set my box on top of the other offset by 20 degrees or so, then rotate it into
alignment.  My lines are the corners.
If you want to mark a few alignment stripes on them, do what tickles your toenails.

My OCD is counting.  I'm in the inventory management business.
"One little honey bee!  Two little honey bees!  BWahaha!  Three little honey bees!"

... an' the fifth little honeybee
..?
..?
..?
..?
..?
..?
..?
..?
Fails the Audit!!! Hahahhaaaaaa

Bill

[BeeMaster2]

I also use the smoke to move the bees down and then slowly bring the box down wiggling it in place to remove remaining bees.
Jim

[little john]

I smoke in order to get their heads down, then lower the upper box with a 15-degree (or thereabouts) offset so that the first meeting of sidewalls has a relatively small contact area.  Then, the upper box is rotated until it lines-up with the lower box.

It's not a perfect method by any means - as sometimes a bee will make a dash for the closing gap - but it works well most of the time.  With a bit of practice, it becomes easy enough to combine the lowering and rotating into one smooth action, when there's much less chance of shearing a bee in two.

To ensure that the boxes are lined-up (although I've never really thought much about how I do this before) - all I do is place my thumb and forefinger of each hand across opposite corners of the boxes where they both meet.  If line-up feels about right, and looks about right - then I just carry on ... 
When, over the years you've seen broken boxes, rotten boxes, hives tipped over and so forth - whether boxes are lined-up absolutely perfectly seems to be not all that important in comparison.  I do have my own obsessions, though - but that ain't one of them.
LJ