Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: leechmann on March 27, 2009, 12:38:12 am
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I have another new guy question. What happends if I set up my hives on my 10 acre piece of land, and for the sake of this discussion, say my neighbor gets into bee keeping and he sets up some on the next 10 acres piece. Will the bees try to rob from each other, or will they just compete for what necture is available? So I guess what I'm asking, if the hives are within the 2 mile ranging distance, will that be a problem?
Thanks You
Leechmann
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I have another new guy question. What happends if I set up my hives on my 10 acre piece of land, and for the sake of this discussion, say my neighbor gets into bee keeping and he sets up some on the next 10 acres piece. Will the bees try to rob from each other, or will they just compete for what necture is available? So I guess what I'm asking, if the hives are within the 2 mile ranging distance, will that be a problem?
Thanks You
Leechmann
I'm in a situation very much like you describe. There is another beekeeper about 8 city blocks from me, well within the foraging range of our respective bees so they do compete for the available forage. There is a 3rd beekeeper a little overa mile away. Robbing most likely won't occur, but there is always exceptions, especially in the case of a hive failure where the remaining stores are robbed out. It is more critical to have adequate forage. Within the city and our combined forage range there are over 500 fruit tress, and every home has small flower and/or vegetable gardens. It hasn't been an issue as the forage is adequate.
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The bees are no more likely to rob the hives on the other acreage than they are to rob the hive next door. Assuming no dearth and no failing hives and you reduce the entrances on the weak ones in the fall, it shouldn't be a problem. Assuming you leave a hive open too long or a weak one too exposed, the ones right next to it are likely to rob before the ones in the next yard.
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Ok, thanks Brian and Mike
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Most beekeepers really do not realize how close many times that bees are being kept by another beekeeper. I hear all the time about "Nobody close to me keeps bees" and upon looking on the states master list, there is a guy a quarter mile down the road. Most people know about the beeks going to the county meeting, which amounts to about 1/4 of the beekeepers. The rest may be registered, but except for the state and inspectors, other beekeepers would never know. And then there are the up to 50% of all hives, apiary locations and beekeepers not even registered.
I would not worry about it. Unless some guy has a holding yard and dumping 500 hives down the street. ;)