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Author Topic: NewBee Help! Where to locate my hives (to keep them out of neighbor's pool)???  (Read 5016 times)

Offline gtmylo

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Greetings to all!

I am a new beekeeper and I am trying to determine the best place to locate my hives. There are a couple of variables/issues that are conflicting with the basic information on hive location, so I am looking for some seasoned help :) I have a Langstroth Hive and am building a Top Bar Hive, and I need to locate both of them somewhere on my property...

First, my land has a drop off and slope... my house and backyard is located up at the top, in the back yard are my fruit trees and various plants I want the bees to be able to find to pollinate, then the back yard drops off steeply about 35 feet down, and then gradually slopes back 800+/- feet, down a nice, wide path through the trees/woods to a stream, where I want them to get their water. I would just keep the hives in my back yard, however, my next-door neighbor has a pool. Fortunately this is semi-rural New Hampshire, and the pool is a good distance away, but from my back yard the pool is much closer than the stream, and I obviously want the bees to use the stream at the back of my property, rather than my neighbor's pool. For this reason I figure I have to locate the hives down the path in the woods, but I also want to make sure the bees will make it to my fruit trees and plants to pollinate them. It will be a straight line to the plants, but they have to fly up a good 40 feet on the way.... I assume this is OK?

I also am concerned with how far away everything is for maintenance purposes. It is not the worst hike down to the stream, and for regular checks it should be fine, but I figure carrying hives, full honey supers, etc, it will become more challenging. Fortunately, I can use my lawn tractor with the pull cart if needed, so it is not a huge issue, but I do want to determine the best location(s) closest to the house, that will still ensure the bees use the stream and not the pool.

Then there is the issue of sunlight. Right now the trees have no leaves, so I think I can find the sunnier parts of the woods, but how much shade is too much?

I am going to (try to) attach a picture with estimated distances to give you guys a better idea, there are 3 potential locations, LOC1 in my back yard I figure is out, since the pool would be the absolute closest water source (but correct me if I am wrong!), and I feel like they would never fly way down to find the stream. LOC2 and LOC3 are in the woods, with LOC2 being about half-way between my house/plants and the stream, and LOC3 being the furthest from the house, but closest to the stream. Any of the locations can support both hives, as there is good room in each.

I am eternally grateful for any input on this. Thank you all!



« Last Edit: March 31, 2012, 11:25:56 am by Robo »

Offline yockey5

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Bees do what they want, not what you want them to do.

I would give them a good water source in the back yard. Do not worry about the pollination, they are good at finding the sources.

Offline bwdenen

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Ditto what yockey says.  You're on the right track regarding access.  As far as the water...my neighbor on one side has a pool so I installed a fairly large wate feature fairl close to the hives to try to keep them from the pool.  But, they went the other way, nearly 3 times as far and started congregating around my OTHER neighbors Koi pond.  Go figure.

Offline BrentX

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  The bees do best with lots of sunlight.  A little afternoon shade is ok, but under the trees will likely result in weaker hives with more problems.  I live in the forest.  I have tried keeping bees under the canopy.  The bees in a small open glade are consistently stronger than the hives under the trees.

Online Michael Bush

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Things bees like in a water source:
o  Reliability
o  Smell so they can recruit
o  Warmth so they can gather it on a cold day and not get chilled

A pool tends to have all of those.  So you have to compete with that.  You need water that meets those requirements and is even easier to find and perhaps exceeds those.

My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

Offline gtmylo

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Thanks for the help everyone. And thanks for your great site Michael, the Top Bar Hive I built was based on your Kenyan Top Bar Hive plans on your site... lots of awesome info there!

I have an Aquaponics system where I am raising tilapia and plants... water is warm, has a nice smell to it, and I hear from lots of people that the bees really like water from their systems, so maybe I will run a drip pipe off it and give them a little pool to see if they don't just take that.

Thanks again to all!

Offline BlevinsBees

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I have 8 hives near a pool and it's impossible to keep the bees out of it. I've set up water in between the pool and the hives and the bees just love the pool. However, if you're only going to have two hives, then I don't see where it's a big deal. Just do your best to provide water however you can and DON'T tell your neighbors you have hives.
President, San Francisco Beekeepers Association
habitatforhoneybees.com

Offline BoBn

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Thanks for the help everyone. And thanks for your great site Michael, the Top Bar Hive I built was based on your Kenyan Top Bar Hive plans on your site... lots of awesome info there!

I have an Aquaponics system where I am raising tilapia and plants... water is warm, has a nice smell to it, and I hear from lots of people that the bees really like water from their systems, so maybe I will run a drip pipe off it and give them a little pool to see if they don't just take that.

Thanks again to all!

Bees like moss.  They prefer moss or wet soil over pools of water.


I notice that most of the bees that are fetching water are very old bees.  They often hang around for 20 minutes or so before leaving to go back to the hive.
"Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one-half the world fools and the other half hypocrites."
--Thomas Jefferson

Offline BlueBee

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I agree with BoBn, bees prefer some water supplies MORE than pool water.  I never find more than about 2 dead bees in the pool, yet have hundreds, maybe thousands, drinking from pails of wet saw dust sitting back by the hives.  Constantly wet saw dust or peat moss works real well for a bee watering hole.

Offline Apis_M_Rescue

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All good tips & will relay to new keeper who's havin issues w/ neighbors jaccuzzi/pool, so far unbeknownst to that owner.

Cheers, Apis M Rescue
Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.  Proverbs 16:24

Offline Rurification

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Great pic, BoBn!
Robin Edmundson
www.rurification.com

Beekeeping since 2012

Offline BoBn

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Great pic, BoBn!
Thanks.
A moss garden is easy to build.
I bought the smallest fountain pump that I could find at Loews.
 I sunk a 12" section of plastic barrel in the ground for a reservoir. 
The pump sits on a brick underwater in the barrel to keep it out of the detritus.
An upside-down milk crate is over the pump.
Stones are stacked to cover the edges of the barrel and milk crate.
I drilled holes through the center stones for the water.
A tube comes from the pump up through the milk crate and stones

When the pump is running, water trickles down the stones.
 More pictures here (The 1st picture, I took today.  It is still disassembled for the winter and still has ice.)
https://picasaweb.google.com/113708807857871269885/BeeWater?authkey=Gv1sRgCP-62N-7uu7ZXg
The day that I started it up, I had bees stopping for water.

Last year almost all the rocks were moss covered.

Another easy to build, but brilliant & successful idea for a bee waterer I saw on one of these bee forums was:
A shallow plastic tray of peat moss kept wet with a trickle tube from a garden hose.
"Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one-half the world fools and the other half hypocrites."
--Thomas Jefferson

Offline backyard warrior

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  Constantly wet saw dust or peat moss works real well for a bee watering hole.
[/quote]     never thought about doing this thanks for the tip :)

Offline mudlakee

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Three miles away, only way to keep th em out of the pool. Good luck  Tony

Offline Teena

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I heard Don K "The fat bee man" say that they are after salt if they are at a swimming pool so put a small block of salt, like for a cow lick, somewhere in the bee yard for them to find.