Hive locations

[johna]

Where do members consider the best locations are for apiaries and hives.

 

[RoofTops]

Towns and cities and London probably best of all. Lots of flowers and the honey will be good flavour due to the variety of sources.

For those out in the sticks look for places with overgrown ground and deciduous woodland nearby. Farm fields are good when there is a crop in flower. Pasture will only be useful for short periods, for example when the dandilions are in flower or if there is clover and the temperature is high enough for the nectar to flow.

Physical factors include access and security. Being able to take a car next to the hives is perfect. Also, having the hives close to home helps. If you are having to drive 30 minutes to visit a couple of hives the economics of it become very questionable - even more so than normal beekeeping!

I don't like north facing sites but south facing sites need to be sheltered from the wind. Ground should be well drained. I had bees in a small quarry once - it was very sheltered but it had standing water in winter and the bees did not thrive.

The only true test of a site is to put bees on it but the above factors plus lots of others are a way of at least assessing and discarding the hopeless sites.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Sites where the bee's do well and they get good yields year after year,where the bee's winter well and away from people,also as out of sight as possible.

 

[Finman]

* no other's bees
* 2 - 3 mainflow plants abundant (rare )
* Effective foraging distance under 1 km
* hive site warm and wind protected
* I may drive with car on site
* good fertilization in fields/robust growth
* good car road to site
* soil not easy to dry up

 

[johna]

Not under power lines or near mobile phone towers.Not in frost pockets.Away fom or fenced off from farm animals.

 

[Brosville]

If you believe that mobile 'phone masts are dangerous to bees, then you ban all mobile 'phones from anywhere near the hives........
here's a cut an paste of "why" from a previous discussion about the subject -

- transmission "falls off" as the square of distance, and that the mobile phone mast is using very little more power than a 'phone, we get the following - say the top of the mast is 30 feet away, that equals 360 inches, the square of which is - 129,000 - so the power from that mast at 30 feet is probably one one hundred and thirty-thousandth....... of that which you'd receive using a mobile phone if they were outputting the same power-...
"if you take the fact that the average 'phone mast is emitting a whole 20 watts, and a mobile 'phone may be emitting 2 watts (typical figures), there is a factor of 10 between them - using my example, simply divide 130,000 by ten (to give 13,000) - so if a mobile 'phone mast is dangerous at 30 feet, a mobile 'phone is 13,000 times more dangerous at an inch (from your brain)............ and everyone worries about the mast, few about the 'phones.....

As "fall out" from these sums, if we really believe the radiation from mobiles to be dangerous (and I really don't dismiss the possibility for really close-up use), then we should be campaigning for MORE 'phone masts.......
Mobile 'phones vary their power, according to how far they are from the mast - in a strong reception area, with a mast nearby, it will only be using a few milliwatts, whereas if it is a distant mast, it'll ramp up to a full 2 watts or thereabouts - if you look at the maths, it's the really close use/power where it is most likely to be dangerous, hence we really should be campaigning for MORE masts..........

(I don't want it to be true either, but you can't alter physics or maths....)

 

[BKF Admin]

but you can't alter physics or maths...

You can if you are a mobile phone company
They can publish 10 papers for every one that says they do any harm.

(Sounds just like a few other companies I can think of that sell chemicals).

 

[Brosville]

I'm not by any manner of means suggesting that the masts are "harmless", but common sense suggests that IF they ARE dangerous, then mobile 'phones are FAR more dangerous because of the rapid "fall off" of power with distance....and the typical distance they are used at.
It's simple maths! Who's to say that CCD isn't caused by the mobile 'phones carried by the US beekeepers? (more likely than the mast hypothesis)......
To perspectify it - I have a mobile 'phone, and use it - occasionally, but am deeply suspicious of the potential damage it may cause if used over a long period of time, an inch from your brain - especially in a poor reception area like here (as they are permanently on "full tilt" to "get out" to a distant 'phone mast).
I think people look at the masts as "alien and scary" and "putting out radiation" - which they are - but if they're dangerous, mobile phones are umpteen times MORE dangerous - you see kids with them clamped to their ears and their parents don't bat an eyelid, but they'll get all aerated over the mast a hundred or more yards away (which is plain barmy).
As I said, I don't like mobile 'phone companies, or their ability to have carte blanche over planning, but if the masts are dangerous.............

 

[Firegazer]

As a physicist and ex-telecommunication engineer, I have to agree totally with Brosville's analysis.

I attended a meeting once where phone handset makers were trying to build a clever mesh antenna into the phone so it would cope better with a big bag of water (that's your brain) on one side of it. It proved too tricky, so the strategy became "turn the power up, so it doesn't matter"

FG

 

[grizzly]

Where do members consider the best locations are for apiaries and hives.

Some of the best honey i have had was from a hive in an apiary on the edge of a town, the hives there fair better than those in a totally rural location.
Greater diversity of forage and available for a longer period.

 

[johna]

When I posted this thread ,it was with a wish to give some positive information to beginners.I didn't expect it to become a dissertation about the strength of magnetic radiations fron phone masts.Can we please keep to the point of the thread and give USEFUL advice that may be of benefit rather than showing how clever we are.

 

[Poly Hive]

Well... your question was painted with rather a large brush and these thread tend to wonder off.


I think you already have most of the advice that is pertinent.

Permission, security access and sources are what should concern you.

PH

 

[johna]

I have been keeping bees for over 30 years and am aware of most of the pitfalls.As I said previously I think this forum should benefit beginners and not become a series of squabbles.Threads should stick to the point more.

 

[RoofTops]

Having just visited Finland I can suggest it as a very good place for beekeeping. Nine months of the year there is nothing for the beekeeper to do (almost!) then all hell breaks loose for 3 months. Lots of summer flowers in the area I was in, near Helsinki, and also lots of rose bay willow herb (fireweed) from where trees have been cleared. Long hours of daylight and water also always available. The beekeeping operation I visited only treat once a year for varroa, in the winter with OA trickle. I suspect the long winter keeps the varroa population down. Big areas of wilderness so organic beekeeping possible for those who wish to try.

Interestingly, they did nothing about the snow but left it on the hives, a metre deep when I visited. Hives, visible only as a small bump in the snow on pallets so air available under the hives and through varroa mesh plus the dry snow has air in it as well. The bees go happily through the long winter like this - after collectively consuming 60 tonnes of syrup.

Hives all poly of course. Many of the boxes below have frames of pollen and honey which are given to the colonies in the spring to get them started.

They can't get any Finns to work the bees so the workforce comes from East Europe and English used as common language. If anyone wants a summer job I can put you in touch!

 

[Tom Bick]

When I posted this thread ,it was with a wish to give some positive information to beginners.I didn't expect it to become a dissertation about the strength of magnetic radiations fron phone masts.Can we please keep to the point of the thread and give USEFUL advice that may be of benefit rather than showing how clever we are.

It confused me to but thats the way it it at times you have to try and steer it back onto track good thread all the same

 

[Brosville]

Hang on a cotton picking minute!
"Can we please keep to the point of the thread and give USEFUL advice that may be of benefit rather than showing how clever we are"

You made a statement that I believe may well not be entirely correct (or at the very least needed "qualifying"), and made out it was "good advice" - I politely pointed out that I didn't entirely agree, and the reasons for my point.

Had I "let it ride" and newbies had taken it as gospel they would be starting off with what may be incorrect or incomplete advice - I'm unrepentant!

To clarify - if you believe mobile 'phone masts are dangerous, then by the same token you leave your mobile 'phone at home, in the car, or switch it off anywhere near bees, as simple maths tells you the 'phone is probably MORE dangerous as it tends to be close to people/bees......

 

[Poly Hive]

I believe we have an Admin on the forum John to keep order.

PH

 

[BKF Admin]

Good morning PH...

Thank you for the introduction.

Threads do tend to go off topic at times,BUT I have been told many a time by new beekeepers that some of the best advice and golden nuggets are from threads that have information that have nothing to do with the thread title.

It can feel a little strange at times if you are not used to the format of the forum.

Another beekeeping forum are very rigid(I dont think there should be an F at the start of that word)about keeping on topic and the mods adhere to that rule,this forum is unmoderated and the rules are set by its members.

If the forum starts to wobble we have over 1500 members who are very quick to moderate themselves in pulling things back in line the way the majority want things done(Is it called a democracy?).

There have been a number of times that I have not agreed with certain ways the forum has gone but I like everyone else have to go with the majority,I believe that is the reason the forum is so busy and succesfull.

You may of upset a few members by starting a thread that you already had advice to give out,you may have 30 years experience but the forum has thousands of years combined as it often speaks as a collective.

You have to go with the flow,a thread may dilly before giving you the answer but it does work,It can feel strange at first not having members in authority guiding things but it does work and can even be fun,so kick your shoes off undo your tie and join in,this is the mess not the insepction ground.

 

[Finman]

They can't get any Finns to work the bees so the workforce comes from East Europe and English used as common language. If anyone wants a summer job I can put you in touch!

Problem is that the job gives only 3-4 months work and demands skills.

If you have skills, keep your own bee business. But if you want to learn quickly high level working. go to help professional in his work.

.

 

[Finman]

I agree those mobile phone towers are not good for bees. Here they are located on cliffy hills and there are no food for bees. I stay far away from them :Chevy_anim: Not even birds are singing there.