Flight path obstacles

[EdNewman]

Hi All, hope your bees are flying strong on this lovely weekend?!

I have my two hives at the bottom of the garden in the veg patch. The bees have never really bothered me and wife too much whilst doing veg gardening, but the kids are wanting to help out with the gardening more and they are a little bothered by the bees (both love helping with bee inspections as long as they are in bee suits!).

The bees always leave the hive in the same direction so I am thinking of putting some fine scrim netting (the same stuff that goes round trampolines, not sure what it's proper name is) across their path to a height of about six foot to force them up and away.

I am a little concerned that as the netting is fine it will catch a lot of bees for the first few days that it is up. Am I right to be worried, or are the bees more intelligent than me?

Cheers,
Ed.

 

[EdNewman]

Sorry, should have added that the netting would only be 2-3 foot away from the hive entrance.

 

[alanf]

Not a problem. Hedges have been used about a yard from the entrance for years. We use the "debris" netting used for scaffolding, it comes 2m wide and is reasonably UV resistant if it's out all the year. It's also really good at windproofing, around the hives is much less blustery than outside. Just make sure netting doesn't flap around.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I am a little concerned that as the netting is fine it will catch a lot of bees

Might look fine to you or me but probably looks more like a load of RSJ's to the bees - they'll just fly out of its way (which is the effect we want! )

 

[EdNewman]

Great,thanks for your help.

Ed.

 

[Davelin]

You may well find a few sitting on it for the first day or two, but they will very quickly get used to it and fly straight over and down.

 

[tudorcd]

When bees come out for orientation flights they often fly into netting but soon learn if they survive, and not many come to grief.

 

[itma]

Note that the 'obstacle' does not have to be bee-sized mesh.

Even a trellis, with holes you could put your hand through, soon becomes regarded by the bees as something they should divert around (or over). This was confirmed by experiments at LASI, reported last winter.
It was speculated on here that the bees might have an instinctive concern that the gaps would be ideal places for spiderwebs, and thus a danger to be avoided.

//PS - On a windy site, I was much impressed by the still air inside some farmers' windbreak mesh. It would seem ideal for apiary use.