Bees in the Chicken Yard?

[itsme]

I'm trying to figure out a good place for some hives.  Every time I think of someplace, I find some fault with it.

Right now I'm thinking of putting some on the south side of the lower chicken coop.  There will be plenty of sunshine and it will have some protection from the winter winds coming from the north.

Anyone see anything wrong with this?  Do chickens eat bees?  Do chickens eat red ants?  I know there are definitely some insects the chickens won't eat. 

Will the bees bother the chickens?  The entrance to the coop is on the opposite (north) side of the coop.

Thanks!
Bill in Missouri

[don2]

I would try to be away from the chickens. At any rate the bees will still go for the water and feed if you feed some type of ground feed.
The chickens might eat a few bees but don't think they would eat a great number. I wouldn't put them right up close. D2

[ricky_arthur]

Leave everything else aside, do you really want chicken poop all over hives?   cause they will get on top of them and then they will do what chickens are want to do. ;)

[iddee]

With 30 hives and 75 chickens running loose, all I saw was an absence of wax moths. Penned up the chickens and had moths within 30 days. Released the chickens and the moths disappeared. Never saw poop on a hive and never saw a chicken eat a bee.

[nietssemaj]

Last week we were plucking drone brood to try and knock back mites and I fed them to our chickens. A couple of bees were also hanging around the try of drone brood and the chickens specifically avoided the bees.

Since they don't have teeth to chew with perhaps they don't enjoy getting stung in the crop.

[Wolfer]

My bees eat the chopped corn right with the chickens. No problems!

[ScituateMA]

Chicken do not eat bees. I hVe five hives and 14 chicken.  No problem at all. I think it is even better that chicken can pick small hive beetle larvas up once they come out of your bee hives. Do it without worries

[T Beek]

I've only seen our chickens eat 'dead' bees in front of our hives…and not very often.  During the summer (w/ 9 degrees F and 3' of snow remaining mine are still cooped) they scratch their way on a daily journey around our several gardens…spend some time around the hives and slowly make their way back to their hootch…which is located roughly 100 yards from the hives.

Since we've never had colonies right next to our chicken hootch I have no advise to offer in that regard…..However, I believe a stinging episode would be inevitable and likely at some point if they're housed so close to each other.  Just my opinion.

That said; we've been considering storing our NUC's inside the 'storage end' of our chicken hootch for some time and after this winter it may become another Fall bee activity we add to the chore list.  :)

Chickens = less bugs in the garden, less ticks on the dogs and cats, free fertilizer, fresh eggs and meat, loads of entertainment and love……(Guinea's are great too and never mess with the 'live' bees….…but that could be an entirely new thread  ;)

[Michael Bush]

>Every time I think of someplace, I find some fault with it.

Everyplace has some fault.  I would never put hives next to animals who are confined.  They have to be able to run away.  If a stinging incident starts it will escalate.  I've had chickens and bees for 40 years, but the chickens can always run away.  I've had horses and bees for 15 years.  But again, the horses can always run away.

No place is perfect.  Here is my list of decreasing priorities for location:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#locating

[itsme]

Many thanks to all of the responses!

I think I'll go ahead and try some in the chicken yard and see how that works out.  The chickens can get away from the bees if they need to.  My only concern about that is whether they will run in the right direction and not into a corner and stay there.  I think they have plenty of room, so I'll give it a try.

Again, thanks to all respondents!  I really do appreciate all of the shared wisdom.
Bill in Missouri

[tandemrx]

I always have at least 1 hive in my small fenced back yard and have 3-4 chickens.  Hive is not right next to coop, but when I used a chicken tractor (mobile coop) I often put it very near the hive.

My chickens are often in the vicinity of the of the hive, scratching around for bugs/grubs but they never hang out right in front of it. They never seem to eat live bees or even dead bees.  I have dumped enough dead bees around and always figured they would eat up the dead bees but they never do.

My chickens love to hang out on my deck  :'(, and I have an indoor observation hive that has an outlet on 2nd floor above the deck.  So, there are always dead bees on my deck.  Chickens never touch them (wish they would clean them up, instead they just poop on my deck and make it a further mess  :'().

The chickens never seem to jump up on the hive, but my regular backyard hive has a "garden cover", so it is an angled copper roof and maybe that is why it doesn't appeal to them - they seem to jump on everything else.

If I lay a frame of brood with exposed larvae in front of them . . . . . well that is a different story.   :shock:  They LOVE to eat the larvae out of cells.  If I scrape some drone brood off a frame and larvae are exposed . . . . they will grab it and try to get at all the exposed larvae.  They haven't seemed to figure out capped brood though, they will only eat the larvae from cells where they can easily see the larvae.  But, the larvae are evidently like lays potato chips . . . they can't eat just one!

And for some humor to the chicken / bees combo.  My wife and I were trying to take a timer photo of us next to our backyard bee hive this past summer for national honey bee day.  We got photo bombed by a couple of our curious chickens who were inordinately interested in the camera sitting on a chair. 

Clickable image below takes you to the rather hilarious full sized version.  They were not photo-shopped in.  They just snuck up to the camera while the timer was winding down to shoot the pic.  I took about 3 pics and each time Gypsy went up to the camera after I ran towards the hive and looked cockeyed (hen eyed?) into the camera.  I actually didn't know they got into the pictures until I checked them later.

[Nyleve]

Ha! Adorable! Araucanas!