Do bees get on with horses?

[nimosowner]

I have been offered a site for my hives on a local farm. The site is triangular, about 8 metres on each side. The south facing side looks out on a large fruit orchard, the other two sides have a livery stable and a field where horses are grazed. Horses also occasionally graze in the orchard .There is a large mature flower garden close by and a disused quarry full of wild flowers which also has horses.On the face of it an ideal site but I am worried about the proximity of horses. The site is well fenced and the horses could not get near the hives but as people are paying for the grazing I would not want to cause problems. Any advice would be welcome.

 

[BBG]

They get on fine until the horses irritate the bees then it's Armageddon.

Horses are a heat source much as you see in the 'Predator' films. So when bees see this mass of heat and they're in the mood to sting, it's Thunderbirds are go!

http://tinyurl.com/77jxbpn

Read this and don't put your bees near horses would be our advice. We do know someone who has her bees near her horses and no problems so far....

Numerous stories here:

http://tinyurl.com/7aqby23

The one in E Sussex was dramatic.

No, don't.

 

[johnfly]

i have never heard of that, heat source makes bees attack, i have hives with horses close by and a load of other animals including humans, as long as they do not touch the hives or get very close, should be ok

 

[Winker]

My Bees love living next door to horses. I live in an area where there are more horses than humans. I have 3 hives that live no more than 30 feet from horses stables. only problem i have is that the bees love and i mean love, drinking from the wet horse crap.

 

[blodwen]

I can only speak from my (limited) experience. I have grazed my stallion on the ground surrounding my 'hive area' for the past 4 years - fenced off so he cannot get to within 20ft of the 3 hives. Always been absolutely fine until I had a queenless hive last year. They got nasty and one humid day they truly attacked him. He required emergency veterinary treatment and I haven't risked it since (apart from cold days when they aren't about)

 

[Browntea]

I know of a wild colony in the walls of a barn that's had horses in it for the last 20 yrs, bees are very happy as are the horses

 

[The Cumbrian]

I have no experience of horses and bees but having had a look at the link which says "Plenty of stories here" a couple of things spring to mind.

1. With the exception of the one about four horses all the others are of incidents with Africanised bees in the USA.

2. There is a suggestion that the British horses were stung after hives were damaged. This suggests to me either the horses managed to break into where the bees were or vandalism of the hives caused the bees to attack.

I can't think of a logical reason why bees would attack a horse rather than say a bullock or for that matter a large heat source such as a group of learners standing close together watching a demonstration at a hive.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

So consensus seems to be that normally they are fine, but if the bees turn, which they surely can, the horses could be in trouble.

Sounds like a big risk

 

[Luminos]

Not this old chestnut again... (chestnut, geddit??)

 

[Skyhook]

Not this old chestnut again... (chestnut, geddit??)

(G)roan

 

[user 6228]

Arrange so that the bees cannot see the horses from the entrance of the hive and that they will normally be flying above the horses. The bees mentioned in the barn wall above may have this condition satisfied.

 

[CB008]

My bees are next door to a field belongoing to a livery stable and I have horses daily going back and forth with no issues - yet !

 

[BeeJayBee]

Hives are put onto the New Forest for the heather harvest. There are a lot of ponies on the Forest. I've seen NF Ponies happily eating grass and gorse a couple of feet from a group of unfenced hives, I can't imagine they'd do that if they were likely to get hurt.

 

[BBG]

Finman might say.

Ahh! UK bees UK horses - special case to all this.

--- --

Winker:
My Bees love living next door to horses. I live in an area where there are more horses than humans. I have 3 hives that live no more than 30 feet from horses stables. only problem i have is that the bees love and i mean love, drinking from the wet horse crap.

It's believed to be medicinal.

 

[Easy Beesy]

Risky - if they were my horses and my bees then no problem - I know and understand the risks from both sides but my horses and someone else's bees or my bees and someone else's horses - I wouldn't chance it. You got to weigh up your own situation, I'm afraid.
Eb

 

[AnotherNewBee]

I can't help thinking that provided there's enough distance and a fence between the hives and the horses, and the flight path takes them over the horses heads, the bees won't feel threatened. Bees aren't going to kick a fence over, so I think the more pertinent question has to be "do horses get on with bees?"

IMHO as a (currently) armchair beekeeper.

 

[Surreybeekeeper]

My original apairy site had horses to the front and back. I did build a small fence in front of the entrance to encourage them up and over and there were no problems.

I also went and spoke to the owners of the two stables and made sure they were happy with the arrangement which I am ever so glad I did. Made everything a lot more open and acceptable and they felt fully informed.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not this old chestnut again... (chestnut, geddit??)

(G)roan

Once it starts trying to stop it is like flogging a dead horse

 

[Anduril]

There is a horse in a field next to my bees. Bees have to fly up ten feet in the air before they fly into any fields. No problems at all.

 

[Winker]

Finman might say.

Ahh! UK bees UK horses - special case to all this.

--- --

Winker:
My Bees love living next door to horses. I live in an area where there are more horses than humans. I have 3 hives that live no more than 30 feet from horses stables. only problem i have is that the bees love and i mean love, drinking from the wet horse crap.

It's believed to be medicinal.

Thats how they make manuka honey then