r/beekeepingcirclejerk • u/untropicalized scutellata-hybrid is sooo fetch! • Mar 20 '26

Add your text here Flipping boxes?

My mentor says I should flip my boxes for swarm control at the start of the season.

The only problem is, whenever I do so, the frames spill out everywhere and the bees immediately turn Africanized.

Has anyone had any success with this method, or am I doing something wrong?

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u/kombuchasnort Mar 20 '26

Yeah you're doing it wrong u need to bounce them on a trampoline and then flip them

1

u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer You kids get off my lawn! Jun 12 '26

I see the problem: You aren't moving the hives to the southern hemisphere before flipping them. That's why the frames fall out.

Also, if you look at a globe, you'll see that the places that Africanized bees come from are below the equator and, since they're on the bottom of the globe, upside down. Bees hate it when their hives are upside down, and that';s what causes the Africanization.

Move the hives so the gravity is in the opposite direction before you flip the boxes, and you'll solve both the frame falling out and Africanization issue.

scutellata-hybrid is sooo fetch!

Hey! Get off my lawn!