bees and sheep

[Cuckmere couple]

chatting to a local farmer about a new apiary site on his land and there is a good field which sometimes has sheep grazing...hes happy to electrify or stock fence around the hives

i read a thread from 2011 on this forum whihc seems to say the above would be fine

would people concur? my wondering was whether they could be a bit like horses and the bees could target them if in flight path etc

any thoughts or experience (it must be quite a usual potential combination)

 

[Ian123]

Should be fine…..had bees in fields with horses and sheep.
Give as much separation as possible. Ensure animals can get away from hives ie….the rest of the field!
Face hives into the hedge so no direct line of sight for guards and hopefully pushes any flight path up…I find they just pop around the hive though worst case stick some scaffold netting or camouflage up at the rear.

 

[rusper]

chatting to a local farmer about a new apiary site on his land and there is a good field which sometimes has sheep grazing...hes happy to electrify or stock fence around the hives

i read a thread from 2011 on this forum whihc seems to say the above would be fine

would people concur? my wondering was whether they could be a bit like horses and the bees could target them if in flight path etc

any thoughts or experience (it must be quite a usual potential combination)

We keep sheep, and find that electric fencing is not 100% effective, but I have never seen any problem with stock netting. The bees don't seem to worry the sheep (they graze right up to the fence) and the bees seem to take no notice of the sheep. There is less than 1metre between the hives and the fence in some places.

 

[Murox]

Sounds good. Sheep and other animals will rub on the hives, but a bit of stock fencing like you have mentioned should stop that and any other four legged things too.

 

[pargyle]

One of our association apiaries is in a field that usually has sheep in it .. fenced off with a stock fence but the sheep graze right up to the fence and there has never been a problem with the bees.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

As others have said, no big deal about mixing bees and sheep, they both take no notice of each other but sheep are clumsy and rather stupid creatures so will us the hives to lean on/scratch (I've ended up with a hive in the river once when sheep found their way into my friend's orchard) so a bit of simple fencing to stop them doing that and you're fine

 

[Wilco]

Had them in the same field before. Keep them fenced off and try to have the flight lines not coinciding with where the sheep are as collisions can occur and if a bee gets stuck in the sheep they may sting. It's pretty minor. The other issue I had was my sheep liked coming close to me so if you have a grumpy colony you're inspecting and a sheep wanders past the bees may consider them fair game.

 

[enrico]

The only problem I have found with horses and sheep is when grazing they occasionally pick up a bee collecting water off the grass and get stung on the lip! they don't like that much!

 

[Anduril]

Bees and sheep are fine, the only problem I had once was, one of them, the ram, headbutting the car, it made 2 lovely dents, one on the drivers door and the other was on the front bumper.

 

[blackcloud]

If the grass is rich and nutricious you'll need wellies all year round -I used to let someone graze their tups on my patch
But not for long

 

[robinharman]

I've got two sites with sheep wandering around the hives in reasonable sized fields and never had problems.
I had a third, as in the photo, with barriers and they were fine though the lambs did sneak under and were occasionally stung. Some of the larger 'sheeps' as Gabriel called them pushed the barriers to source greener grass. Those stung soon scampered off having learnt their lesson.The owner later made some kind of Romanian stew or sold them before moving onto dog breeding.

 

[Garry R]

Sheep and bees seem fine although my bees have netting around the apiary but the sheep get within a metre of the hives. Not a problem IMHO.

 

[protheroe]

as stated above.Bees are fine with sheep but sheep will knock hives over if not fenced.Horses are a pain.I started a new site last year and two empty hives were toppled and smashed by the horses.The bees there aren't exactly chilled,they're quite stroppy,the weather was nice at the time so the bees would have been out in force but it didn't deter the horses.I had put a wooden fence up but the ground was too hard for posts so fence was a bit flimsy and the horses knocked it down.I've braced it all now so no more problems.

 

[Erichalfbee]

as stated above.Bees are fine with sheep but sheep will knock hives over if not fenced.Horses are a pain.I started a new site last year and two empty hives were toppled and smashed by the horses.The bees there aren't exactly chilled,they're quite stroppy,the weather was nice at the time so the bees would have been out in force but it didn't deter the horses.I had put a wooden fence up but the ground was too hard for posts so fence was a bit flimsy and the horses knocked it down.I've braced it all now so no more problems.View attachment 35483

That all looks pretty neat and a lovely site

 

[Xander]

Plenty of space between hives and fence there looks a nice open site.
For the posts you need a digging bar and a fencing maul.

 

[Anduril]

as stated above.Bees are fine with sheep but sheep will knock hives over if not fenced.Horses are a pain.I started a new site last year and two empty hives were toppled and smashed by the horses.The bees there aren't exactly chilled,they're quite stroppy,the weather was nice at the time so the bees would have been out in force but it didn't deter the horses.I had put a wooden fence up but the ground was too hard for posts so fence was a bit flimsy and the horses knocked it down.I've braced it all now so no more problems.View attachment 35483

In one of my apiaries the farmer said he would put fencing around the hives, this consisted of one strand of electric fence. A short time after I could see the telltale signs of sheep after they had rubbed themselves against the hive, then later in the year, one hive had been kicked over by a horse. It was all intact due to it being strapped up, but the roof was now the floor and the OMF was the roof. Also it had been raining, which had gone inside the hive. But the bees survived.

 

[protheroe]

Plenty of space between hives and fence there looks a nice open site.
For the posts you need a digging bar and a fencing maul.

Yes I've sorted it now since it was trampled.Just got to fill it up with more hives this spring.This site works out well as i have another two sites about a mile+ in either direction so less travel time.

 

[user 20297]

I find that it's OK as long as they stay this size and there's good fence between them and the bees.

 

[MillMeadow]

There's no such thing as sheep proof sadly

They are like water, given enough time and they'll find a way in.

 

[Murox]

There's no such thing as sheep proof sadly

They are like water, given enough time and they'll find a way in.

I'm sure you are right, the sheep around here seem to spend their days looking for new ways to die.