How many hives per area

wightbees · Mar 7, 2012

I have just had a look and reserve a small paddock and was wondering just how many full colonys i could put there.I know it depends on whats forage there is for the bees but is there a general rule of thumb ?
Its close to a nature reserve and forest and is easy access for the 4x4.

Any thoughts welcome
WB

Stephenw · Mar 7, 2012

Heres a rule of thumb for fruit tree pollination, hope this may be of some help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_tree_pollination

Steve

Poly Hive · Mar 7, 2012

Put down five one year, then ten the next. See what happens. Do remember they potentially are foraging 7 sq miles.

Manley thought it took a good five years to assess a site.

PH

wightbees · Mar 7, 2012

Ok thanks .
As the bee flys ,so to speak.It does cross another Apiary.So that might be the way to go PH.

BILL.HEARD · Mar 7, 2012

Poly Hive said:
Put down five one year, then ten the next. See what happens. Do remember they potentially are foraging 7 sq miles.

Manley thought it took a good five years to assess a site.

PH

Stephenw · Mar 7, 2012

wightbees said:
Ok thanks

No Problem

Steve

oliver90owner · Mar 7, 2012

Heres a rule of thumb for fruit tree pollination, hope this may be of some help

Fairly (in fact - entirely) useless as an indicator for the number of colonies an area will support. OP needs to be aware of crop rotation, if appropriate. Apple trees (single crop) do not supply forage for bees apart from a short period in spring. There needs to be a sufficient supply for all the bees' foraging season Orchard growers actually pay for pollination,so the beekeeper is supplying a service which would not be economic without redress for the time and effort.

Poly Hive is right. 'Suck it and see'.

Stephenw · Mar 7, 2012

No bother RAB.

Steve

Nic Rhodes · Mar 7, 2012

'Coastal' regions are different again as my bees cannot forage in 'all directions' but only where there is land which reduces the hive population density also. Islands might be similar.

wightbees · Mar 7, 2012

This site is about 1.5 miles inland,but near a large river.Hoping there will be alot for them
there to get on with .I will do as poly has said and try 5 or 6 hives there and hope for the best.My mum is getting involved so this will be interesting

BeeJayBee · Mar 7, 2012

wightbees said:
I have just had a look and reserve a small paddock and was wondering just how many full colonys i could put there.I know it depends on whats forage there is for the bees but is there a general rule of thumb ?
Its close to a nature reserve and forest and is easy access for the 4x4.

Any thoughts welcome
WB

I asked a not dissimilar question a while ago, maybe some of the answers might be useful to you http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=15112

Black Comb · Mar 8, 2012

Bailey advised maximum of one colony per 10 square kilometres.
So, you need to know if there are any other hives in the locality. Not always easy to ascertain.
Just can't find which of his publications this originates from.
My source is Yates.

YorkshireBees · Mar 8, 2012

Not that it gives an accurate picture (as it's dependent on beekeepers registering and or adding all their hives / locations) however I have notice on beebase it now tells you the number of colonies within a 10KM radius of the location of your apiaries (if you have added the location accurately!).

In my case my 3 apiaries have 109,114,120 colonies within that radius!!

Of course my 13 colonies are included in those figures!

Still it is more information than I previously had.

**Added** I know that some beekeepers do NOT use beebase and others don't believe in suplying Fera with the information such as location.

drstitson · Mar 8, 2012

109,114,120

surely some mistake - there's only 3,000,000 in the whole of the USA!

Monsieur Abeille · Mar 8, 2012

drstitson said:
109,114,120

surely some mistake - there's only 3,000,000 in the whole of the USA!

You're not suggesting that Yorkshiremen are prone to exaggeration!?

fiftyjon · Mar 8, 2012

drstitson said:
109,114,120

surely some mistake - there's only 3,000,000 in the whole of the USA!

No that's the number of bee's.... :sifone:

Winker · Mar 8, 2012

YorkshireBees said:
In my case my 3 apiaries have 109,114,120 colonies within that radius!!

.

those are the map coordinates of your apiary yeah?

johnandyrob · Mar 8, 2012

It tells me their are 36 apiaries within 10k radius. So their are 35 too many and if their was only mine I have too many hives according to Bailey.

drstitson · Mar 8, 2012

how does one access that data on beebase? (as a registered user)

Finman · Mar 8, 2012

drstitson said:
109,114,120

surely some mistake - there's only 3,000,000 in the whole of the USA!

Other numbers are somewhere else

.

How many hives per area

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