Camouflage roofs

[Swn58]

Your apiary looks beautiful.

Keeping them under the canopy probably helps stop scum bag tea leaves spotting them with google earth too.

My Apiary at the farm is in the middle of nowhere luckily. It takes an age to get to, which adds to the security, along with the 'herculean' effort required to get the hives there in the first place. Retrieving frames of honey is equally knackering. I hoped when planning this that it would put off any would-be thief. It would require very hard work, with the very real danger of getting badly stung, to nick 'em!

 

[enrico]

One thought that this discussion raises for me is the question, "How helpful would it be to the bees if they were sheltered by a roof?"
I have found it interesting that Jeff Horchoff, "Mr Ed", from Saint Joseph's Abbey in Louisiana has a "shelter shed" roof for a number of hives (I think it may be about twenty hives). I do not know what proportion of his hives are sheltered, or how many are exposed to the weather.
Here in Australia, where summers can be quite hot, a roof could provide shade to protect hives from direct exposure to the sun.
Maybe the benefit in other places might be to protect them from rain. Another benefit may be to provide shelter for the beekeeper when inspections are done.
I imagine that this approach might have the greatest value when hives are set up in a permanent location. This might also be the greatest reason to provide "camouflage" from aerial observation.

Often thought about making one.....never got round to it!

 

[beekny]

And presumable that is with Italian bees?

Not all Italian,

Quite a mixed lot.
The original hive was from a cut out that had lived in the wall of an empty house for several years,
The few queens I purchased over the years wear a mix of Carnies and Italians, with a preference for Carnies as they were a bit more frugal with stores over winter. (Lows sometimes -32C)
The Italians were the smallest minority, most were mixed race locals bred from my best queens.