Windbreak netting distance & height

[manek]

Aware that this has been discussed here before, but my question is slightly different. This last winter I lost three hives in one of my apiaries, all identical symptoms, and I'm convinced this was due to exposure: it's a windy site especially in winter. It faces south but that's also where the wind comes from.

I plan to re-stock it but want to prevent a recurrence, obviously, by installing windbreak netting. The apiary site is about 8m by 6m and surrounded by a wooden paling fence around three sides, and a hedge behind. It's not a public space and there are no bee flight path issues but I'm curious as to what height I should install the netting, which I think is the best and most cost-effective solution. The fence is about 2-3m away from the three hives (or will be once they're back in situ). WIll this be far enough or close enough for the netting to be effective?

Thoughts and experiences?

 

[Newbeeneil]

Aware that this has been discussed here before, but my question is slightly different. This last winter I lost tree hives in one of my apiaries, all identical symptoms, and I'm convinced this was due to exposure: it's a windy site especially in winter. It faces south but that's also where the wind comes from.

I plan to re-stock it but want to prevent a recurrence, obviously, by installing windbreak netting. The apiary site is about 8m by 6m and surrounded by a wooden paling fence around three sides, and a hedge behind. It's not a public space and there are no bee flight path issues but I'm curious as to what height I should install the netting, which I think is the best and most cost-effective solution. The fence is about 2-3m away from the three hives (or will be once they're back in situ). WIll this be far enough or close enough for the netting to be effective?

Thoughts and experiences?

This is what I installed along side a motorway slip road to protect a market garden.
https://northernpolytunnels.co.uk/paraweb

 

[Murox]

As you do not have flight path problems I would have thought just above the height of a hive would be sufficient as it is simply a windbreak. All my colonies are exposed to a lot of wind year round up here, westerlies straight off the atlantic. My hives are poly or well insulated homemade twin wall wood. I reduce all entrances to a thumb width in late August (wasps) and where fitted leave inspection trays in.

 

[Vanterrier]

This is what I have used. It let's air through but provides shelter against the worst.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/33351160...m_5H1q0RYO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
K

 

[Andy]

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/types/hedges/windbreaks-shelterbelts
This is a good starter for distances vs heights

 

[Antipodes]

all identical symptoms,

I am curious as to what the symptoms were?

 

[manek]

Thank you, that's very helpful.

 

[manek]

Symptoms? They were feeding on fondant until mid-December. Then early January I found a small huddle of dead bees on the brood frames, a few on the floor. No heads in cells. No varroa frass. Even the 14x12 which had been bursting with bees in the summer succumbed, despite having two supers nadired.

This was the three hives in an exposed apiary, while my other three in a sheltered apiary, are alive and filling up with bees. All got the same varroa treatments in summer (post-harvest), autumn and winter.

My conclusion - and that of a number of other members of the local group who suffered similar losses in December /January - was that the effect of high winds and heavy rain on exposed hives caused queen failure.

The colony just dwindled away.

 

[ericbeaumont]

the effect of high winds and heavy rain on exposed hives caused queen failure.

This doesn't ring true, Manek. A hedge on one side and fencing on the others sounds adequate, and winter weather won't cause queen failure.

What was the general colony set--up? Poly, wood, solid floor, single BB, insulated CB or open feed holes, age of queens and so on.

 

[peterbees]

This is what I have used. It let's air through but provides shelter against the worst.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/33351160...m_5H1q0RYO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
K

Thanks for the suggestion. I've just ordered some.

 

[Newbeeneil]

This is what I have used. It let's air through but provides shelter against the worst.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/33351160...m_5H1q0RYO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
K

This might well do a similar job at a tenth of the price.
https://www.diy.com/departments/oyp...esh-fencing-1mtr-x-25mtr/5056233250410_BQ.prd

 

[Murox]

This might well do a similar job at a tenth of the price.
https://www.diy.com/departments/oyp...esh-fencing-1mtr-x-25mtr/5056233250410_BQ.prd

Ive used this stuff as a temporary boundary fence, its mesh is too wide to be an effective wind break/filter - its also very 'floppy' needs a lot of stakes to hold it anything like 'rigid'.

 

[fian]

The optimal take-off angle for the bees is 35° above the horizontal of the spout. This means that for every 1m horizontally up to the fence, it can rise 0.7m above the height of the manhole. If you are thinking about a horizontal distance of 3m. The height of the fence should be 2.1+0.4-0.5 (height of the fence above the ground) = 2.5-2.6 m total.
If you want to raise the fence to a height of 3m above the ground, the distance between the fence and the front of the hives should be at least 3.6m.
Now, leaving aside the beekeeping issue and from a structural point of view, I do not think that the best way to avoid wind pressure is a fence, just two points:
A. Round post and if it is square, rotate it 45° so that the sides are beveled and it offers greater resistance.
B. The blinder the mesh, the greater the driving length should be and at least one third of the free length. If you plan a 3m fence, the posts should be 4 with one meter driven into the ground.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Interesting this thread 60% of my colony’s are on high ground and I’ve lost more colony’s on low ground over winter and also 75% have been hybrids.

 

[manek]

Deleted.

 

[hemo]

I can't see wet or windy weather affecting a queen bar for SS mating flights, otherwise a laying Q will lay what ever the weather and conditions.
There are many factors that can lead to colony demise or dwindling which are all known .

.Queen fecundity
.Varroa control.
. Stores.
. Virus.
. Nosema.
. Hive set up.

 

[manek]

This doesn't ring true, Manek. A hedge on one side and fencing on the others sounds adequate, and winter weather won't cause queen failure.

What was the general colony set--up? Poly, wood, solid floor, single BB, insulated CB or open feed holes, age of queens and so on.

Mine were all wooden Nationals on OMFs, all roof insulated with 50mm of Celotex - same as my other apiary's hives which survived and thrive.

As for what actually killed the colonies, can't say I'm absolutely clear about the mechanism but I am fairly confident that environmental factors were at play. It was similar to the way that other beeks in the area lost colonies - more than usual - at around the same time with similar symptoms. And given that all my hives are set up the same, the environment is the main variable.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Symptoms? They were feeding on fondant until mid-December. Then early January I found a small huddle of dead bees on the brood frames, a few on the floor. No heads in cells. No varroa frass. Even the 14x12 which had been bursting with bees in the summer succumbed, despite having two supers nadired.

This was the three hives in an exposed apiary, while my other three in a sheltered apiary, are alive and filling up with bees. All got the same varroa treatments in summer (post-harvest), autumn and winter.

My conclusion - and that of a number of other members of the local group who suffered similar losses in December /January - was that the effect of high winds and heavy rain on exposed hives caused queen failure.

The colony just dwindled away.

If you found dead bees on brood frames in January does this indicate you were opening hives at that time?

 

[manek]

If you found dead bees on brood frames in January does this indicate you were opening hives at that time?

Checking out the heinous crimes list? I don't open live hives in winter. I opened them up when I found they had stopped eating the fondant, and after I had determined - ear to the hive, knocking on the side, and using a stethoscope - that there was no life inside.

 

[Antipodes]

I don't open live hives in winter. I opened them up when I found they had stopped eating the fondant, and after I had determined - ear to the hive, knocking on the side, and using a stethoscope - that there was no life inside.

Were they quite packed with stores in autumn?