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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Last post by animal on Today at 11:11:10 pm »made a general check on things today and all looked fine. They're not building comb as fast as I expected them to but they are making progress.
Changed out the oil pan because it had just gotten too nasty looking to tolerate. Found out that I need to change something about it as the wood tray underneath the aluminum insert was full of water... no damage or discoloration though. Lots of dead hive beetles in the garbage now ... fresh oil and new pan for more to die in.
A good hour later, I was on the couch and noticed the cat was staring at me, moving it's head around and acting weirded out. After awhile, felt a little tickle on my shoulder .. a very small worker bee. It walked right onto my hand, so it got delivered back to the hive. They seem to do this kind of thing a lot, hitchhike into the house. Cat doesn't like it. Wife doesn't like it. Might have to get a bee suit after all, to make it easier to shed them.
Changed out the oil pan because it had just gotten too nasty looking to tolerate. Found out that I need to change something about it as the wood tray underneath the aluminum insert was full of water... no damage or discoloration though. Lots of dead hive beetles in the garbage now ... fresh oil and new pan for more to die in.
A good hour later, I was on the couch and noticed the cat was staring at me, moving it's head around and acting weirded out. After awhile, felt a little tickle on my shoulder .. a very small worker bee. It walked right onto my hand, so it got delivered back to the hive. They seem to do this kind of thing a lot, hitchhike into the house. Cat doesn't like it. Wife doesn't like it. Might have to get a bee suit after all, to make it easier to shed them.
) The bees won't have trouble finding the new hive location if it's moved about 3 feet or less, but any farther away than that and the bees won't be able to find it reliably. However, if you lock the bees in overnight, so none of the foragers get left behind, and move the hive several miles, everything will look so different that the bees will memorize the new location. So unless your property is VERY large, moving them to another location will probably be a gradual process. There are some ways to try and get bees to reorient to a new location, like putting a branch in front of the entrance to confuse them, the success of which is variable based on what I've heard, but I've never tried it myself. 
