Hive location advice needed

[Camperman]

Good morning

I'm a little excited this morning as I am about to put the base slabs for my stand in place.
This feels like a nice milestone.
My dilemma is:

We only have an average size garden so location for my single hive is very limited.
I want to place it facing a large bamboo plant which has been 'trained' and restrained into a bit of a flat wall to send the ladies high or at least away from the neighbours garden.
How close can I put the hive to the plant?
It will have a picket fence to its left side (6-8 inches or so??) and a lawn to the right, from which side I hope to work.
It will be in a good spot to catch the sun, but will be facing roughly east south east.
Its a cedar national and the stand has a landing board (if that makes a difference)
The furthest away I can place the hive is about 10 feet and I can obviously go as close as you like.

Sorry its such a basic question but I might be able to put a second hive behind if its close enough to the plant.

Thanks

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Hi Peter. While not addressing your individual questions, and not wishing to dampen the enthusiasm, have you thought through the ramificaitons of keeping in a garden - certainly possible but may not be as straightforward as you think.

Suggest (if not already done) you check out some of the previous threads on the subject such as http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14664 and http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=13902

 

[Black Comb]

6 feet will be fine.
I endorse what MA says and also would add that keeping just one hive is not advised. I would say at least 2.

 

[RoseCottage]

Welcome aboard...8)

Have a think where you could move your bees to if they lose a queen and turn stroppy while making a new one.
This happens often enough to beekeepers and if you have plan b that can be used for temporary or permanent deployment your beekeeping will be less loaded with concern. It should be around 3 miles away. If you can find somewhere to start with less chance of bothering folk then that doesn't need to be any distance at all.

All the best,
Sam

 

[susbees]

Welcome aboard...8)

Have a think where you could move your bees to if they lose a queen and turn stroppy while making a new one.
This happens often enough to beekeepers and if you have plan b that can be used for temporary or permanent deployment your beekeeping will be less loaded with concern. It should be around 3 miles away. If you can find somewhere to start with less chance of bothering folk then that doesn't need to be any distance at all.

All the best,
Sam

to a point....it's often after the new one's made that the trouble starts.

There's a big step between a docile nuc of bees and a double brood of stingers who need to be moved immediately until you can get an experienced beekeeper in a double layer of clothes and beesuit to dequeen and requeen for you.

Been there. Done that. We were lucky in that we have our bees on a field of our own but the bees from hell were removed by a very experienced beekeeper who gave us some nice ones in return. Others on here have had a rougher time as newbees with bad bees and as Sam says in a garden situation a remote out apiary away from houses etc, footpaths, horses, allotments and so on is essential.

Are you intending to talk to your neighbours first?

 

[Winker]

to a point....it's often after the new one's made that the trouble starts.

There's a big step between a docile nuc of bees and a double brood of stingers who need to be moved immediately until you can get an experienced beekeeper in a double layer of clothes and beesuit to dequeen and requeen for you.

Been there. Done that. We were lucky in that we have our bees on a field of our own but the bees from hell were removed by a very experienced beekeeper who gave us some nice ones in return. Others on here have had a rougher time as newbees with bad bees and as Sam says in a garden situation a remote out apiary away from houses etc, footpaths, horses, allotments and so on is essential.

Are you intending to talk to your neighbours first?

I am just going into me second year of beekeeping. I started with 2 hives in my garden, one really nice hive and one hive from hell. I had to move the hive from hell within a week of getting it into a field last June. I still have the hive from hell and they still scare the **** of me every time i open them. There was one day i had to drop everything and just run. I ran for about 400 yards and i still had 500+ bees dive bombing me. Just shows haw fast a hive can go out of control.

 

[Poly Hive]

What is your plan for the fiesty one this year?

PH

 

[Travelator]

As a rule of thumb, I reckon you need a 6-foot exclusion zone around bee hives. Standing two hives close together is fine, but you need to lay out your apiary so that no people or animals ever need to come within 6 feet of a hive unless they're doing some beekeeping.

I'm sure many people will point out that you can break this rule using combinations of docile bees, tall fences etc., but I think it's a good place to start.

If you think about it, you will notice that you need quite abig garden to make this work, since your minimum apiary size will be 12'x12'

 

[drex]

Lots to be considered as you see. Most beginner books or courses deal with the generalities of siting. I cannot recommend highly enough.

My beekeeping is fun - sometimes a bit hairy. I do know that if I had to work in cramped conditions, or considering neighbours ( as I did last year when removing a hive from hell from a friend's garden), I would not enjoy it half so much.

In cramped conditions there is a danger of falling over boxes you have just removed or got out in readiness, or one feisty hive setting off its ( usually) peaceful next door hive.

However we have to work with what is available. Have you asked round locally for alternative sites?

get it right and you will have a lot of pleasure, wrong and you will have heartache and worries. That is not to say that even the best laid plans do not go awry, as the bees do not read the books!

Enjoy

 

[Luminos]

Quote Susbees:
Others on here have had a rougher time as newbees with bad bees and as Sam says in a garden situation a remote out apiary away from houses etc, footpaths, horses, allotments and so on is essential.

A picture of one of our donkeys in her beekeeping veil: not just a fashion statement

 

[Winker]

What is your plan for the fiesty one this year?

PH

I am going to work with her for the start of the year. She is a prolific layer and produced hard working bees. I got her as a nuc and within 2 months she had built up a full hive of bees that brought in 3 supers of summer honey. So i will split her off when she wants to AS, create 2 nucs out of the hive that's left (with bought in queens). Let her build up 4 frames of brood and re queen her.

Better to work with her and use her to make a few nucs before I requeen her. They may scare the pants off me, but they worked so hard last year compared to any other hive I had, I put up with the defensiveness, not this year!

 

[countryman]

camperman after all the donts how about a for first of all warn the neighbours you are getting them see what they say have the answers ready for them it is better warning them than after i put mine on the garage roof (10 at the moment but will reduce during the next month or so to orchards etc)but as everyone says have an emergency site ready incase one turns feisty and get it out asap (mind you it did stop the junk mail when he came up the drive)but its down to you how often you check them and spot the requeening the reason i have them on the roof it keeps them high and anyone using the garden are not in the flight line at all i know qiute a few who keep them in there gardens and no problems to speak of and the best bit of keeping them in the garden is you can watch them to your hearts content and it gives the best honey good luck for the future

 

[Camperman]

Thank you all for your help.
That thing about 12 beeks and 13 answers is ringing true

I will take a look over the replies a couple more times and work out
what im going to do.

Thank you all again.

 

[countryman]

12 beeks 13 answers

 

[Andy Duff]

12 beeks 13 answers

more like 12 beeks and 37 answers, all of which are right.

 

[countryman]

 

[rink123]

Hi Camperman , Sry But I am no pro at all of this bee keeping ,And I am Just like you. learning ,I have a small garden and neighbours on three sides of me . I have got my bees in a small enclosure as of yet I have had no stings and no upset neighbours

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

On a similar vein, I am hoping to site my hives in a small herb garden (within a larger garden).

This is a working garden, but I'm expecting there to be no real problem collecting herbs in the normal way.

But what's the position about those times when 'serious' work has to be done: pruning, rearranging pots etc. and in particular, more disruptive tasks like pressure washing the tiles, or drilling things?

Dusty.

 

[Queens59]

We keep ours within a fruit cage and the girls are fine...unless we want to pick gooseberries from 1 particular buch 3 ft outside the cage! They then go mental...but we can prune the hedge, pick strawberries & raspberries & cut grass all with no probs...but have to kit up to pick goosegogs!

 

[Travelator]

Re doing gardening work close to hives (ie within about 10 feet):
I find that as long as all the colonies are fairly civilised you can do pretty much anything you want, as long as you're reasonably quiet and slow-moving. You have to accept that there's a good chance that you will be forced to wear a veil or abandon your task and move a bit further away.
Two things that can annoy the bees quite quickly (fair chance of getting stung within 5 minutes):
- Mowing around the hives - wear a bee suit!
- Standing in a busy flight path by mistake.