In this final episode of his apiary series, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey explains how to relocate an apiary a short distance (about 50‑60 m). He begins by outlining the classic 3‑foot/3‑mile rule: colonies can be moved up to three feet and will return, but any move beyond that requires a minimum of three miles to allow the bees to re‑orient. For summer moves, he advises a two‑stage process: first move the hives to a temporary site at least three miles away for roughly six weeks, allowing older bees to die off and younger bees to become oriented to the new location, then move them to the final site. In winter, he recommends waiting for a prolonged cold spell (2‑3 weeks around freezing) and moving the hives directly to the new location without an intermediate stop, as bees remain clustered and will not fly away. He discusses practical handling tips—temperature considerations, avoiding overly tight clusters, and that strapping isn’t necessary in cold weather. Finally, he explains why the new site is superior: better forage, reduced risk from storm‑damaged trees, and increased honey yields. He encourages beekeepers to move in winter to avoid the more complex summer protocol and ends with a call to subscribe.
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Today is the last ever video in this apiary. I'm going to talk to you about how to move your apiary a small distance. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. I'm going to talk to you in this video about why I'm moving this apiary and talk to you about all the important steps to take into account when you're moving an apiary a short distance. So I'm sure everyone's aware of the three foot or three mile rule. What it basically says is you can move a colony of bees up to three feet in any direction, and the bees will find their way back in. Anything over three feet, if you're going to go over three feet, you need to go at least three miles. That's the basis of the rule because if you move it say four or five feet away, the bees just can't work out where it is. But if you move it over three miles away, they're so discombobulated they don't know where they are, so they reorientate. back to that new position. That's the rule. Obviously there's a little bit of play in those distances, but that is what they say— 3 foot or 3 miles. So when you're moving an apiary a short distance like I'm doing here, my bees are there and I want to put them over there. They're going about 50 to 60 meters away from where they are. There's 2 ways that you can approach this. If this is the middle of the season, it's July, it's Sunny, or if it's in Wales, it's rainy but it's still July, then you cannot just pick up your colonies and take them from apiary point A over to apiary point B. You will lose a lot of bees. All of the older bees will die because you'll take your colony, take it from there, put it over there, all the bees will fly out and they'll just go back to the original site. You'll end up with lots of clusters of old bees and no beehives. Not something that you want to do. So if you're doing this in the middle of the summer, what you need to do, really, really annoying, you need to take those beehives and you need to move them away, up to 3 miles away for around 6 weeks. And again, you can probably do it after 3 weeks and you might get a little bit of drift. I'd say to be safe though, 6 weeks is a really good figure to make sure that the majority of the bees in that colony have died and been replaced with younger bees that are gonna be orientated to your semi-position, Before you bring them back to that new position. So it's a 2-stage approach. You've got apiary A, apiary B, and then you need an apiary C as a 6-week stopgap. That works, and that works really, really well. However, in the winter, you don't need to do it that way. What you need to be looking out for in the winter is a nice 2 or 3-week cold spell. You want a prolonged cold spell here. Don't think it's going to be 2 or 3 degrees over a weekend, that's an opportune moment to go and do it because you'll move them over on that weekend and then Monday comes and it's 15 degrees and all the bees will just fly out of the beehive, go back to their original spot, and in the winter they die even quicker. So you're looking for that prolonged period. That's where I am at the moment. I've made the decision, I'm moving them from there, I'm putting them over there. It's about 10 degrees today, little bit of bee activity. Not much, but on the horizon it doesn't look too cold either. So I'm waiting for that cold snap. I don't need it -10, -20 degrees, doesn't need to be that. I want it around freezing though. I want it so the bees are in a tight cluster, but not a super tight cluster. There is a risk here that if you get it too cold, when you move them, if you drop the bees, the cluster could fall off like that. They can't make their way back up onto the frame. These are extreme conditions I'm talking about, unlikely to see those in the UK. So if you're gonna make a move in the UK and you're aware of the 3-foot or 3-mile rule, it doesn't necessarily apply in winter, but you're looking for that 3-week gap of relatively cold weather, as close to freezing as possible. Once you find that gap, first day, take your bees from site A, place them over to site B, You don't even need to strap them in. The bees aren't going to be flying when it's 0 degrees. You might get a couple come out, but you can afford to lose a couple. And that is it. That is all I'm going to do. So this video is the last video that you're going to see in this apiary. I might do a little bit of the actual challenges of moving them from there to there, but believe me, it's going to take me about an hour just to pick up some pallets, pick up some beehives, put them in their new position. But oh my God, the new apiary is so much better. The reason I'm at this apiary is the forage is incredible. But there's a lot of negatives to it. You look at the trees in the background there, absolutely battered during the last storm. They're falling down onto the colonies. Now I've got other colonies around here in open sunshine, and they work so much harder than the bees that are tucked away out of the sun. So I'm really, really excited because I'm gaining 2 major benefits here. One, I'm not going to get my bees crushed when the next storm comes along, and 2, I think I'm going to see a big increase in honey yields. So there you go. If you're thinking of moving your bees, do it in the winter. It's so much easier. The 3-foot, 3-mile rule doesn't apply as long as you get that prolonged cold snap. Get them into a suitable location while you've got the time. Don't wait until it's nice and warm and the bees are flying again, because then you need to go down that 6-week route with an additional apiary in the middle. Becomes a real faff. So I hope you enjoyed that video. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time. Bye.
