I am reminded by Ann's pictures, of another minor point to pre-think. At
some point you will want to open the hives, or at least watch their
entrance. Make sure you have a place to stand which does NOT place you
directly in front of the entrance (in the bee line). Stings on ankles are
extremely painful! This is one of the tradeoffs with my hives which is not
ideal: I have a row of hives and if you stand near one, you are in the bee
line of another. But there are only so many ways you can arrange them.
You will also need a little area to the side where you can place things -
for example a small table or large chair on which to place your tools etc.
Paul
On Sun, 15 Sep 2019 at 15:08, Ann Welch <ann.welch123@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Or even peak ha ha. Brain failure today lol
A
On 14/09/2019 20:58, Oxnatbees wrote:
Karen, here's a bit of a late reply. There was a meeting today (more on
that in a blog post). It went on much longer than anyone expected!
*> I’ve been given the go ahead for up to 3 hives on my allotment! (I’m
starting with 1 next spring!)*
Congratulations!!!
*> I am hoping to tap into your expanse of knowledge regarding facing
position and best location to benefit the bees.*
*> I have a corner plot with a large hedge along one side and a barb wire
fence between my plot and a horse paddock on the other. To complicate
things there is a children’s park about 100m (the opposite direction to the
paddock) away which I have been asked to mitigate against bees heading for
(not sure that’s possible?!) *
Most people in the northern hemisphere point their hive entrances East or
South East* if feasble*. I suspect it doesn't really matter and you see
them pointing in all directions. The idea is that the morning light comes
in and wakes them up early, then they go out and get more nectar. Now, they
definitely get up earlier. I rotated my hives 45 degrees to test this and
the bees immediately began flying half an hour earlier. Whether this means
they get more nectar is questionable though! If you watch honeybees they
are very scent-driven and they do not land on flowers in shade, the flowers
must be sun warmed before honeybees feed from them. (Whereas bumblebees are
not put off by cold.)
What is usually more important is the flight path. So for example Ann
Poulter had some hives in a side passage next to her house. It was shady,
and the bee entrance could only face one way, but the bees were fine.
So, most important is whether the flight path of the bees crosses a path /
area used by humans. Almost as important though is whether it is near
horses. That's because unlike most animals, if a horse is stung it does not
run away. Its instinct is to kick out, This could knock over the hive. So
you want the hive at least a few feet from the horses.
One trick people often use is to put a head height barrier in front of the
hive entrance. For example a fence or hedge. This forces emerging bees to
climb above head height before flying on. They tend to cruise at that
height - presumably it takes more energy to move up/down than fly
horizontally.
Of course a barrier like this can shade the entrance. But as discussed
above that is probably not too important. I was going to use a bean fence
in front of one (plans changed) - I reckoned this would let some light
through but discourage the bees from barging straight out. It's the last
few feet before the entrance that are where stings happen, partly because
the traffic is concentrated there, but also because the bees zoom straight
in / out and don't expect to find a mobile object (you) in front of them.
As it is an allotment you will be near the bees, and sweating. You can
expect the bees to find you are a delicious salty drink. You don't want
their entrance to face a bed you will work a lot. Helen pointed out a while
ago, don't grow plants with pungent saps neat the hive because if you crush
them it alarms the bees.
Here is a factor you may not have thought of: ideally the entrance should
be a good distance above the ground, for example 12 to 18 inches. If it is
down near the ground, it will be in the zone where damp and mist accumulate
overnight. Also if you have a stand with legs, you can wrap copper tape
round the legs to stop slugs creeping up.
Also in our climate, you ideally want the hive to be in shade from noon
on. Do you have any trees on your plot or next to it?
Can you tell us -
- what type of hive you will be using
- which directions (north etc) the sides are on (send a sketch?)
- how big the plot is - if it is small it may constrain you
*> The final point raised by our council was regarding competition for
food with “wild” bees (yes I explained that all bees are wild!!) and
whether I can do some planting to mitigate the honey bees effect on other
bees food sources. I have to be honest this is not something I’ve given
much thought to but any thoughts on this and any planting suggestions would
be welcome.*
Hmm well some plants are no use to honeybees with their little short
tongues, but fine for bumblebees and butterflies. Red clover? I'm hoping
someone else can answer this query as it's not my area of expertise.
Paul
