Goodbye Beechen Bees...

A couple of posts back, I talked about moving the nucleus to Joel's garden in Southdown.  This was part of a larger plan to move the whole apiary over to Joel's garden over the winter.  I've been moving various items (slabs, spare boxes of frames etc.) over the last few weeks.  On Saturday, having checked that the weather conditions were suitable (dry, cold, no wind) I decided that it was time to move the hives.  It was a two-person job, and with COVID still keeping us in lockdown, there was really only one option - I roped Mrs Beekeeper into the action.  She was... quite tolerant of being 'volunteered' for the task.

Moving hives is normally straightforward - you close up the entrance, tape up any bits you might be concerned about, and ratchet strap the whole thing together.  The rest is just lifting.  However, my hives use the double-walled 'WBC' design, which meant I first had to remove the outer walls, and strip them down from this:

To this:

Notice the hive roofs are different - I swapped them for national-sized roofs for the journey.  Once that was done, and the straps were on, we could start moving:

Carrying beehives up three flights of steps

Car loaded...

... and unloaded

We need a wheelbarrow!

Let's load it up...

And get moving

Hives in their new location

Need to re-assemble the outer walls of the WBC

Roof back on...

... and we're done!

So, is this the end of Beechen Bees?  Yes, and no.  It's certainly not the end of the bees - I will continue to look after them in their new location on Joel's garden.  But they're no longer next to Beechen Cliff, because the new location is in Southdown.  So, I'll be looking to re-brand this year, and will want a new name for the bees (and this blog).  I'm open to suggestions!