How to move a small bee hive

[ScotHill]

We found a very small bee hive under our shed after knocking it down - they seem pretty docile at night, can we just scoop it up with a spade and move it somewhere else in the garden? There's few enough bees around here as it is so don't really want to dispose of it.

[ScotHill]

Yeah we don't need them evicted for a while yet, can cover them up. How long would a hive tend to last? It's literally about five inches across and no more than an inch deep so can't be many bees in there.

[ScotHill]

As a down side I now have the song Honey To The Bee by Billie fking Piper going round in my head for the last twenty four hours.

[ScotHill]

shih tzu faced said:

Put the little buzzy chaps up in a B&B while you move the hive

We're on a tight budget and the extra cost would sting.

[ScotHill]

I was wondering how long it would take until someone mead a joke.

[ScotHill]

LordHaveMurci said:

U Ok hun?

Sorry, I'll be fine, just seeing a big queen get serviced by a large group of males took me back to my days in Brighton is all.

[ScotHill]

Scotland.

[ScotHill]

Nimby said:

The rule with moving honey bee hives is "less than three feet or more than three miles" otherwise fliers try to return to the old site. I don't know if that applies to bumbles too.

We could probably do three feet a day, it doesn't have far to go.

[ScotHill]

Jaska said:

Could you get in touch with a local bee keeper/honey company? In my experience they'd be more than happy to take them if they're the producing kind

From photos on the local page they don't look like honey bees, someone above described them as bumblers so we'll probably just move them around. The local group's email address is [e-mail].

[ScotHill]

In digging around the site we've realised that the hive is in the middle of a concrete slab, so we can move the slab without disturbing the bee structure at all. Hopefully a couple of scooches and a shoogle and it'll be out of the way and they'll be none the wiser.

It being World Bee Day on Friday put my initial plan of pouring boiling water on it in perspective.

[ScotHill]

shih tzu faced said:

Isn’t that some kind of special toilet for cleaning your bum?

Not with boiling water, I hope not.

[ScotHill]

Simpo Two said:

The usual answer to this is to call a beekeeper who will take then away and add them to his stock somewhere else.

They're a tiny group of non-honey bees so no beekeepers are going to be bothered about them. Can probably move them a foot every couple of days, if they struggle with that then no wonder they're going extinct.