Moving a Hive-Joe Komperda method

[royl]

I moved a hive using Joe Komperda's method early this morning. Basically, you shut in the the bees in the night before and then early the next morning you place a cardboard box around the front entrance to force the bees to reorient. I must be doing something wrong since most of the foragers are back at the original location. He said he has used this method with great success for hundreds of hives. I must have missed a step?

A pic of how I did it is linked.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vT6TbLAFpMj7dR8x9

[Jacobs]

It looks like you got it right. I moved a nuc using the same method about a week ago. Around 8-10 foragers would go back to the original location for 3 or 4 days. After that, I could see bees orienting to the new location as they emerged. It wasn't perfect, but it was easier than moving the bees a couple of feet at the time.

[royl]

How long did you keep the box on the front of the nuc?
I ended up placing an empty hive back where the org. box was located. Maybe a frame or two of foragers are flying around :-/

[Jacobs]

After around the 5th day, I removed the cardboard.

[reedyfork]

I am not familiar with this technique at all. Do you guys have a link to the method, instructions, theory? I have two hives at my house that I need to rotate and move about 3', so this might be very useful for me!

[Jacobs]

Joe cuts a strip of cardboard about 4-6 inches high. It needs to be long enough to go in front of the landing board and also go a few inches on each side of the hive. He tapes this strip so that the landing board is boxed in on all sides. The space above the landing board is open and the bees have to go up the front of the hive or up the inside of the cardboard to leave the hive. His thinking is that when the bees come out, they see a wall. They do not see the familiar landmarks. This causes the bees to re-orient. After 4-5 days the foragers, including ones that did not come out the first few days, have re-oriented and the cardboard wall can come down. You need to have any upper entrances/rotten corners closed in when using the strip.

I have found that some bees still go to the original site, but far fewer than when you move bees in 3 foot steps. It is far easier on me and works well enough that I will use it for short moves.