How to introduce bees to HIIVE?
There is a chapter dedicated in the user guide:
https://www.hiive.eu/index.php/hiive-userguide13/
Also here is a nice video, made by Ante, how he introduced a swarm to his HIIVE:
Feel free to comment, share your experience or ask a question!
I put a swarm of honey bees in my new HIIVE 5 weeks ago and introducing the swarm of bees into the HIIVE was very easy with the instructions from HIIVE. I opted for the method of having my swarm of bees walk into my new HIIVE and it was a fun and interesting experience. Sometimes it can happen that not all the bees go into the hive and get stuck in the bottom of the HIIVE. This can result in the bottom part of the container not fitting together completely on the HIIVE. This was a problem I had with HIIVE. The solution to the problem was that I waited about a day for the rest of the swarm of bees in the lower part of the HIVE to move to the upper part of the HIVE. This allowed me to attach the lower part of the HIIVE with the missing container and the bottom of the HIIVE was completely sealed. In the further weeks that my bees spent in HIIVE, they built a lot of combs and collected a lot of pollen. Here are some pictures of the first introduction of the honey bee swarm into the HIIVE and the later development of the honey bee colony in the HIIVE.
Hi, just wanted to share my experience with bee introduction to the HIIVE.I have removed all 3 segments at bottom and tight the knot around the pole. Queen inserted through the holes to brood chamber and queen separator applied. Bees sprayed and laid on the sheet. The entrance anyway clogged and bees managed to get in fully next day.
After 2 days bees were all around the flight deck and few inside. I assumed they are overheating inside so I open 2 of 3 bottom segments and they went in again. It seems that the swarm was too big for HIIVE with no combs. Do you know what is the ideal size of the swarm for settelling new HIIVE.
Hi Sisel666,
We had a similar case once before. We solved it by gently closing the buckets with as many bees inside as possible. When you close the buckets, make sure to make slight shaking movements so that the bees move out of the way and not too many get squished.
kind regards
One more thing.
In our case, it happened when we inserted the bees on a really hot day. If you describe that the bees are staying outside because of the heat, I assume it is very warm where you are.
Given the volume, it cannot be said that it is too small. We have had very, very strong colonies in HIIVE, and space was never the problem.
It is likely related to the warmth. Additionally, only one bucket should be opened, as the bees might not accept the hive if the entrance seems too large for them to defend.
As mentioned, try to move as many bees as possible inside with the buckets and close the buckets.
Best regards.
Hi Apis,
bees were already in the broom chamber completely and HIIVE fully closed. And next day was outside temp. 28°C and they all go out of the HIIVE.
These days are again very hot, close to 30°C. I will try to close the buckets again and lets see.
Thanks
Yesterday evening bees closed in with all buckets all bees inside. Temp in the evening 28C dropped during night to 20C. In the morning bees covered flight deck again. Guess in the evening most of them will be out. 
It sounds like you open and close the hive frequently.
We recommend placing the bees inside, closing everything up, and avoiding disturbances for at least a week.
Frequent openings might cause the bees to perceive the hive as insecure and potentially evacuate.
Let the bees do their thing. During hot weather, it’s normal for bees to form a beard at the hive entrance.
Best regards
Dear HIIVE community,
I would like to give you an update on my hive in HIIVE. First of all, Merry Christmas if you celebrate Christmas. This year my bees have built almost half of the combs in the brood chamber and with the freely built combs have shown their true bee nature and their ability to do what is possible when they are free to build their own form of combs in HIIVE. However, I also had undetectable varroa pressure, which is very unusual when keeping honey bees in modern magazine hives. I think some reasons for this are that HIIVE helps the honey bees to have a stable microclimate through well insulated hemp wool and that the bees can build their own free wax combs (because with their own free wax combs the bees can influence the microclimate and ensure the best wax form for a stable microclimate in their hive). Before the onset of winter they were healthy and had a good supply of honey (last check of the bees in the HIIVE on October 27). I will also post the photos I took in my HIIVE on October 27. Unfortunately, I cannot upload a video of my HIIVE to this website. In the coming days I will check my bees in the HIIVE and keep you updated on this website of the HIIVE community.
Kind regards
Sinan
The development of my honeybees in HIIVE from spring to summer
Hello HIIVE community,
I hope you have had a good start to spring with your bees in HIIVE and are now having a good time with your honey bees as summer approaches. My honey bees have successfully wintered over the cold days and the honey bee population in HIIVE has slowly grown. In the first picture you can see how my honey bees huddled together at the end of February to keep the other honey bees and their brood warm. When the weather was warm on some days in February and March, some bees flew out of the HIIVE. The second picture is from February and the third picture is from March. They both show the flight of my honey bees from the HIIVE. From January to the end of March I had doubts whether my honey bees would live or die in the hive. But my honey bees showed at the end of March that I was wrong with my doubts, because they developed very well at the end of March, such as the bee population has increased and they are slowly building the wax combs in the HIIVE. The fourth picture shows the development status of my honey bees in the HIIVE at the end of March. At the beginning of April, I gave my honey bees in the HIIVE vitamin sugar water once and continuous feed dough. I wanted to promote the health of my bee colony and be 100% sure that they would not have any supply bottlenecks in the HIIVE. As a result, my honey bee population in the HIIVE exploded and the combs that were built to mid-height in the brood chamber of the HIIVE were built to the floor in the brood chamber of the HIIVE. The fifth picture shows the situation where the combs were built to the end of the brood chamber in the HIIVE. This resulted in me placing the honey room on top of the brood chamber to reduce swarming and to harvest some honey from the bees later. All the while I have been giving forage dough to reduce the stress on my honey bee hive caused by the honey production in the honey room in the HIIVE. The six pictures show that my honey bees have built some combs in the honey room. The seventh picture shows the fly activity of my honey bees in the HIIVE at the end of April. Yesterday, on the second of May (the eighth picture shows), I observed a behavior on the outer hive of the HIIVE that I have only observed in natural honey bee colonies from a tree cavity: Some honey bees responsible for collecting nectar and pollen in my colony were no longer foraging , but engaged in social gromming. This means that the honey bees rid each other of mites. This behavior has been seen where the bees live in a natural environment and have not been enslaved to produce large quantities of honey for humans. This means that my bees have a security of supply from honey and have more time to groom than to ensure a security of supply from honey in the hive. I hope you enjoyed reading my text and I will keep you updated this year.
Yours sincerely
Sinan
The numbering in my text has not been set correctly due to the incorrect order of the images on the website. The numbering of all images in the above post starts with the last image from bottom to top. This means that the first image is the third image from the bottom. This means that the second image is the second image counted from the bottom and the third image is the first image counted from the bottom. The fourth image is the fourth image counted from the bottom. The fifth images are the six images counted from the bottom. The six images are the six images counted from the bottom. The seventh images are the seven images counted from the bottom and the eight images are the eight images counted from the bottom
Hi there!
in a few weeks I will install a hiive in my garden.
I will take the bees from a standard hive (Langstroth) on 5 frames with brood and honey, plus the caged queen. I would like to insert the queen without putting her inside the new hive together with the cage.
How do I transfer the bees?
Thanks 
Hi @Massimo ,
It will not be possible to transfer brood. I would just take the bee mass and build a new swarm with the caged queen. If it is a new queen. If it is the old / current queen I recommend to build a new swarm with her uncaged and let the whole colony “walk in”
If you transfer her with the cage best option ist to place the Queen cage in the top of the breed room. You can pull the cage up with a rope from the bottom and then attach the cage with a small wire or something with the red silicone sealing. If you do it this method you will be pretty sure the colony will go in and stay.
Just double check that the cage is open and the bees can eat up the candy 
Here is a good video, how Ante from did it:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5d-TdrIv43/
It explains the process visually very good!
Regards
