How many hives could I put on an 450 acre farm.

[Curly green fingers]

Hi I've been offered to put hives on a 450 acre farm in North Herefordshire there just about to plant 150 acres of field beans , the rest of the farm is all arable.theres lots of forage and there willing to plant cover crops clover , fields of borage and whatever I can suggest.
This farmer is a very good friend of mine .they allso have cider apple and Perry pear orchards.
I plan to speak to my association director for help and see if we can get a local bee farmer involved.
I'm very keen and would look after the hives .
The farm is 40 minutes away from me .
Thoughts pls..

 

[beeno]

Sounds great, but heck of a lot of work. However, if a bee farmer is involved should be ok.

 

[Finman]

.
No one knows...
- how many hives place already has on foraging distance
- does field bean really give yield
- what else bee plants there are inside a mile radius

Try with couple of hives. Bring more if it seems good.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Perhaps I'll be giving up the day job, I know it will be a lot of work , I want to work with bee's permanently anyway if I can make it viable.

 

[Ian123]

To be honest if it was me i would be inclined to keep the spot myself, but would rather depend on how many hives you intend to build up to.The farm itself is obviously not huge and any hives located on it would forage across the whole farm as all will be easily in flying distance!!!!. When doing pollination particularly for fruit, farmers in my experience like them dotted round the place but obviously for you 1 easy access site is better. At peak times when crops are flowering the site could obviously support any number of hives, but if yours are there full time then that should be your consideration....If you really are interested in sharing i would simply ask a mate or association member to drop a few in for the main crop flowering times and would even think about dropping them in a different spot..Not sure what you mean by you would manage them, i know of few who would want to drop hives in and let another look after them. In an ideal world to fit both i would think a dozen or so at a couple of spots each end of the farm, try and find out but i suggest thinking twice before inviting the world and the dog to the party

 

[Curly green fingers]

.
No one knows...
- how many hives place already has on foraging distance
- does field bean really give yield
- what else bee plants there are inside a mile radius

Try with couple of hives. Bring more if it seems good.

The forage is very good . I plan to find out if there's any other beeks near there first before I commit

 

[Poly Hive]

I strongly suggest you read Manley.

PH

 

[Murox]

How many colonies per Acre ?

Hi I've been offered to put hives on a 450 acre farm in North Herefordshire there just about to plant 150 acres of field beans , the rest of the farm is all arable.theres lots of forage and there willing to plant cover crops clover , fields of borage and whatever I can suggest.
This farmer is a very good friend of mine .they allso have cider apple and Perry pear orchards.
I plan to speak to my association director for help and see if we can get a local bee farmer involved.
I'm very keen and would look after the hives .
The farm is 40 minutes away from me .
Thoughts pls..

This may be a worthwhile read even though its USA it gives some indicators/ideas and you may be able to find similar information with UK data. http://treefruit.wsu.edu/orchard-management/pollination/honey-bees/
"A two-story colony with at least 20,000 bees will normally provide adequate pollination for an acre of tree fruit. Although one colony per acre may be sufficient during most years, it may not provide enough bees during a cold, wet spring when weather conditions provide for only a limited amount of bee foraging. Therefore, we suggest the use of two colonies per acre to be sure that adequate numbers of pollinators are present even during poor weather."
If there is good early and late forage available around the farm location - go for it. As the owner is a personal friend I would also suggest that you keep things close to your chests.

 

[Curly green fingers]

To be honest if it was me i would be inclined to keep the spot myself, but would rather depend on how many hives you intend to build up to.The farm itself is obviously not huge and any hives located on it would forage across the whole farm as all will be easily in flying distance!!!!. When doing pollination particularly for fruit, farmers in my experience like them dotted round the place but obviously for you 1 easy access site is better. At peak times when crops are flowering the site could obviously support any number of hives, but if yours are there full time then that should be your consideration....If you really are interested in sharing i would simply ask a mate or association member to drop a few in for the main crop flowering times and would even think about dropping them in a different spot..Not sure what you mean by you would manage them, i know of few who would want to drop hives in and let another look after them. In an ideal world to fit both i would think a dozen or so at a couple of spots each end of the farm, try and find out but i suggest thinking twice before inviting the world and the dog to the party

I get what your saying it will be a permanent site I've 6 hives and hopefully will have twice as many as that next year or more I don't really want to get others involved . I'm willing to invest in the project and grow the amount on the farm long term .
Thanks .
Cheers poly I wondered if you'd gone into hibernation .

 

[Millet]

Don't forget Curly the bees will not just forage on the one farm.. ... the surrounding farms and countryside will also have forage of some kind so the area you have could be huge if you spread the hives out if you go for it..

 

[Poly Hive]

Basically, they are covering 3 square miles ish.

However, the only way to test a site is to load it then load it some more until you see a lowering of the average.

FWIW I used to put 40 on an OSR site but that was when OSR really yielded unlike the stuff they sow now.

PH

 

[Curly green fingers]

Don't forget Curly the bees will not just forage on the one farm.. ... the surrounding farms and countryside will also have forage of some kind so the area you have could be huge if you spread the hives out if you go for it..

We walked the whole perimeter the forage is huge I need to find out if there's any beeks local first but I'm going for it I've not told the wife yet she is not going to like it one bit .

Basically, they are covering 3 square miles ish.

However, the only way to test a site is to load it then load it some more until you see a lowering of the average.

FWIW I used to put 40 on an OSR site but that was when OSR really yielded unlike the stuff they sow now.

PH

They don't grow osr at all thankfully . My friend will go halfs on any stock I buy so that's a plus . She wants to keep it native so to speak .
I've 6 brood/half colony's . What do you suggest to be the cheapest option poly? For increasing my stock I don't mind sacrificing my own honey crops .
Another thing I'm learning at the mo about queen rearing.

 

[Finman]

Don't forget Curly the bees will not just forage on the one farm.. ... the surrounding farms and countryside will also have forage of some kind so the area you have could be huge if you spread the hives out if you go for it..

Millet don't forget that Curly is not only beekeeper on those pastures.

You see in Spring, how much bees are on willows on warm day.

 

[Ian123]

Go to thornes winter sale and stock up on seconds brood frames and brood boxes, still not really a cheaper option than that

 

[For want of a better word]

Go to thornes winter sale and stock up on seconds brood frames and brood boxes, still not really a cheaper option than that

I would also look at Maisemores

40 colonies would be a good starter and then increase to 200 which is as many as you will manage.
Buy in packages with good quality Buckfast queens, and buy in queens to replace losses every year.
You will also need a couple of hundred mating nucs and one hundred nuc boxes.

And do not forget you will also need frames... plus somewhere to extract and a commercial extracting line... Lyson do some nice kit

A 4WD open back truck with a hoist would be useful.... as would a friendly bank manager, unless you can find yourself a a sugardaddy!

Chons da

 

[Curly green fingers]

Millet don't forget that Curly is not only beekeeper on those pastures.

You see in Spring, how much bees are on willows on warm day.

I've found out there's a apairy to the south of the farm on another farm and I'm going to speak to the beekeeper next week, apparently they have hives not sure how many but it's best I introduce my self and perhaps what our plans are.

 

[For want of a better word]

I've found out there's a apairy to the south of the farm on another farm and I'm going to speak to the beekeeper next week, apparently they have hives not sure how many but it's best I introduce my self and perhaps what our plans are.

Look at Beebase.....
You think you have all corners covered...
And then after a couple of years you will find the odd colony on the periphery of "your" site.... even bait hives!!!
Unknown unregistered beekeeper.... bringing in GNW disease... and GNW in the way of bees!

Just hope it is not Doctor Death!!!!

Chons da

 

[Curly green fingers]

I would also look at Maisemores

40 colonies would be a good starter and then increase to 200 which is as many as you will manage.
Buy in packages with good quality Buckfast queens, and buy in queens to replace losses every year.
You will also need a couple of hundred mating nucs and one hundred nuc boxes.

And do not forget you will also need frames... plus somewhere to extract and a commercial extracting line... Lyson do some nice kit

A 4WD open back truck with a hoist would be useful.... as would a friendly bank manager, unless you can find yourself a a sugardaddy!

Chons da

That sounds like a small mortgage . If I said that to my friend I think she would have a heart attack. I think we are more interested in having amms . Slowly building stock up . I don't want to run before I can walk . But I'm most deffo interested in starting with 20 hives split into 4 apairys spread over the farm .
I've finance's to go big but I need to see how many hives the farm will support and that means starting small and building it up .

 

[For want of a better word]

That sounds like a small mortgage . If I said that to my friend I think she would have a heart attack. I think we are more interested in having amms . Slowly building stock up . I don't want to run before I can walk . But I'm most deffo interested in starting with 20 hives split into 4 apairys spread over the farm .
I've finance's to go big but I need to see how many hives the farm will support and that means starting small and building it up .

Good for you if you are going to use Amm, perhaps you should start with getting on an AI course, and hone your queen rearing skills..
...It can be done ( I would not give up the day job, and as Finnie, my little snowpixie chum says... keep your wife in work!)

Yeghes da

 

[Curly green fingers]

Good for you if you are going to use Amm, perhaps you should start with getting on an AI course, and hone your queen rearing skills..
...It can be done ( I would not give up the day job, and as Finnie, my little snowpixie chum says... keep your wife in work!)

Yeghes da

I'm already on it my friend at my association .

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