What kind of mite? You’re in Australia, right?
Hi @chau06 , I’m a 100% certain that he meant hive beetle.
@bonun , I’ll edit this post to answer questions later on today, cheers
Just for the sake of educating, please forgive me for explaining… 
Mites are arachnids (spider family) and have 8 legs. Small hive beetles only have 6 legs, so they are not arachnids or mites.
SHB are numerous in Australia and the USA, not so much in Europe. Varroa mites are completely different and are numerous in the USA and some parts of Europe, but not in Australia yet, as far as we know.
I don’t want to be picky, but using the right name for a problem helps others to help those with questions. Being clear is key to getting a good answer to a question
@Dawn_SD @chau06 Whoops! Sorry for the confusion, yes I meant beetle. No Varroa at all, they haven’t snuck through our borders! Was very tired yesterday plus I have the dreaded COVID, just slipped up
@JeffH thanks Jeff
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I really hope you feel better soon. That is one heck of a nasty bug!
Thanks Dawn, you’re always good help in these forums
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Hi Tom, you’ll need to read what I said earlier in this thread, otherwise I could be repeating myself. Moving 3 frames of brood to the weaker hive in one go can lead to hive beetle damage if there is not enough bees to look after & defend it. One frame every 10-14 days, especially if the frames are full of brood, will be more appropriate.The population will grow with the emerging bees.
One way to acquire nurse bees while avoiding the queen is to locate brood frames with mostly open brood, before shaking the bees back into the brood box. Then place the brood frame above the QE for a couple of hours. During that time, nurse bees will move up to care for the brood. Then you can remove the frame with nurse bees, knowing that it will be free of the queen.
will do, will give boths hives a rest for a week then employ this strategy. I doubt the big hive will swarm before then since I found little evidence. The smaller hive should be fine as well now that I have reduced the beetle (made sure I was right this time!) numbers. As for those queen cups I do not know what to do if the queen is lost, but will check them next wednesday.
Some frames in the big hive were 90% capped with brood so it should be perfect.
I’ve also been having a look at this calender to plan ahead:
It says in summer to check the hive every 3-6 weeks. I know some beekeepers leave their hives for that long. I assume some of you do. I must ask, how is that possible?
I know going into Autumn the bees population is reduces, but how could one be sure they do not swarm or have any beetle/moth issues? I know it takes 16ish days for a QC to develop, but 3-6 weeks is obviously much longer.
I ask since I personally wouldn’t mid waiting that long, since it can be hard yakka going out every 10ish days, and sometimes I don’t have time. Just as a new beek, I would like some insight so I feel comfy leaving them that long.
Sorry for going off thread just wondering.
Thank you so much
Hi Tom, that 90% capped brood frame will be ideal to place in the weak hive, because a lot could be emerging in a week’s time. Depending on when they were capped of course. You should also factor in that the bees in the weak hive will slowly die off, especially if there is no bees emerging to replace them.
Sorry to read of your Covid, I hope it’s not too nasty & you recover well.
cheers
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So I thought i’d ask you one quick question instead of making a new thread,
I’ll be doing the brood transfer on wednesday. Now I was preparing to make a small bee yard soon, but these beetles came up so I decided I’d wait.
I’m moving my main big hive up to the small one. I have got some weed mat and mulch to put underneath them as well as some cinder blocks. Should looks nice.
Anyway, should I move them seperatly, so they do orientation flights on different days? Or just move them both to the new yard on the same night? Thanks
Hi Tom, it wont matter when you move the hives, the bees that have done orientation flights will return to where the hives used to be. You’d get away with a short move, but not a long one. You can move them about a meter a day, or you could take them about 5 miles away for a couple of weeks, before bringing them home to the new bee yard.
You are absolutely right. In the swarming season you should inspect the hives weekly if you want to prevent swarming.
If the queen is clipped you can let it go for two weeks, though in this case you will lose the queen but not the bees if they swarm.
After swarm season you still need to inspect regularly but not so often. Swarming can still happen but the risk is not so high, but you should still check for disease reasons and also to check for stores etc.
Interesting. The new Hive location is around 500 meters away, just thinking what my options are, would it be possible to move them comfortably that distance?
Not really Tom, like I say, you need to take them about 5 miles away for a couple of weeks, then bring them back to the new location, so they can reorientate to that location without returning to where the hive used to be.
Just had a talk with a local beekeeper who I’ve been getting local information from. He’s happy to take my bees for a holiday for a few weeks. He’s 20+ KM away so it’ll be great.
Since he’s a beekeeper he can also keep an eye on them which I’m more comfortable with than just leaving them with family friends who don’t have experience.
Will hopefully move them this weekend after I do some of this brood exchanging on Wednesday to help reduce the numbers on the big hive and increase on the small hive, thanks Jeff! 
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You’re welcome Tom. About 25 yrs ago I scored a hive by using that strategy. A bloke paid me to put his colony into a decent brood box because the other one was rotten. Then he wanted me to take it about 500 meters to a new site. So I took it to my main apiary site for 2 weeks, then waited for the bloke’s phone call (as arranged) to tell me that his new hive stand was ready. I never received that phone call. I used to know his box because it had a short bolt in it. One time when I fixed up a lot of my boxes, I removed the bolt, patched the hole & repainted it after treating the timber with copper naphthenate. Now I haven’t got a clue which box was his.
Good news, both hives are going much better, gave a single frame of capped brood to the weaker hive, will check them in two weeks. Both doing much much better than last week.
Will be moving my bigger hive to my beekeeper friend this weekend
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