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Trin Jul 2020 6:08pm, 5 Jul 2020 2,476 posts	Quote Pin Trin Honey bees can actually fly up to 5 miles from their hive, but obviously the closer they can get what they need the better 😉
xt350 🇳🇿 Jul 2020 8:07am, 6 Jul 2020 1,308 posts	Quote Pin xt350 🇳🇿 I will be honest bees can fly for 5 miles, however they very rarely venture that far. I teach if you move a hive it has to be at the basic minimum of between 3-5 km. A Italian Honey bee will usually fly up to 2 KM one way foraging and they use landmarks for navigation, so if you move the colony only 2 km away the bee may recognize a certain landmark and head off back to the original site, when they get there; they have no hive and die. So if the hive is 5 km away they fly 2 km one way then they have a 1 km buffer so reducing the chances of bees getting disorientated. Never move a hive more than a meter if moving in the apiary. Have a look at Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand, 4th ed Matheson and Reid, 2011 page 120. and bbka.org.uk I went into my hives yesterday and i'm glad to see both colonies are strong and have been using the honey stores i left on, i did take an outside brood frame out and put some sugar syrup in, just to supplement them. we are 6 weeks away from our first honey flow of the year.. the willow.
Trin Jul 2020 8:24am, 6 Jul 2020 2,477 posts	Quote Pin Trin Interesting xt, although that may be the theory, we have in the past successfully moved our hives well over a metre within our apiary, and although it's a large area it's certainly not 2km.
xt350 🇳🇿 Jul 2020 8:46am, 6 Jul 2020 1,311 posts	Quote Pin xt350 🇳🇿 as long as its not too far to confuse the returning bee it should be ok within the apiary, just as long as the bee can recognize the landmarks it should return ok. I personally don't move more than a few centimetres, but that is only due to my apiary being only 10x10 mtrs in size, so don't need to move too far.
Boffin Aug 2020 4:23pm, 8 Aug 2020 3 posts	Quote Pin Boffin Not seen this thread for some time... you have been busy bees 🤣 Going back to Minnie and raising a queen over buying one... personally I would always opt for raising one - if only just to observe the Biology it is a worthy endeavour 🙂 Right or wrong I have the view a locally raised bee is better adapted to the area and any micro-climate. Added to that imported bees are asking for imported pathogens. Wonder how the garden nucleus faired and if a queen was bought or raised?
xt350 🇳🇿 Aug 2020 6:06pm, 28 Aug 2020 1,438 posts	Quote Pin xt350 🇳🇿 we shall see this spring / summer as i am going to try and raise my own queen for the first time this year. we have started our honey flow now and the bees from my hives have been going about their business with early gusto.
xt350 🇳🇿 Oct 2020 10:35pm, 1 Oct 2020 1,465 posts	Quote Pin xt350 🇳🇿 Sunday, going to split the big hive... wish me luck
Cheekys Dad Oct 2020 11:59am, 10 Oct 2020 322 posts	Quote Pin Cheekys Dad Just this thread so saying hello. A bit of a newbie in both senses so looking forward to useful advice & chat
Trin Oct 2020 12:34pm, 10 Oct 2020 2,703 posts	Quote Pin Trin Welcome to the thread CD 😊
Winniefree Oct 2020 9:50am, 11 Oct 2020 1,784 posts	Quote Pin Winniefree Raised eyebrows at Tesco last night buying 14kg of sugar for winter feeding.