Netting around hives

[simonorchard]

Hi
I keep my bees in someone else's garden - the 2 hives are on a border facing out onto the garden so it renders that part of the garden pretty useless for anything else.

The owners have some little people visiting them next week who are likely to be running around the garden playing. My plan is to put some sort of netting in a U-shape around the entrance of the hives to force the bees upwards and out of the way of the kids.

How close to the hive entrance should I put the netting (i.e. can the bees do a vertical take-off and land??) and how high should the netting be. And what type of netting - should it be solid or could it be holey like the netting you use to keep the birds off fruit plants?

I was planning on using rasperry canes to hold the netting up.

Any advice on this please? Many thanks in advance

 

[Excession]

I use a 10mm net for birds which pushes 95% up and over, there's always a few that stubbornly go through.

With little ones about I would go full screen using a mesh liner.

Canes won't be strong enough against any wind though I would stake in something more substantial maybe fence posts using metal spikes?

Circa £50 for that solution...

Might be better for your wallet and the kids to move them offsite for a while?

 

[Davelin]

Greenhouse shading mesh is very good. Ideally 4-6 ft from front of hive, but bees will do VTOL if they have to. Needs some decent posts to support it if it gets windy.

 

[VEG]

Scaffolding netting works well.

 

[JKWebber]

I used a garden gazebo frame 2.5 metre square, attached screening around sides with tie wraps, moved one wall right up to back of the two hives, pushed the bees up fine

 

[Poly Hive]

I would suggest that it is inevitable that one or more kids will get stung.. dying bee in grass... bang...

Move them out. Or risk losing the site.

PH

 

[jackbee]

I would suggest that it is inevitable that one or more kids will get stung.. dying bee in grass... bang...

Move them out. Or risk losing the site.

PH

you're such a cheery chappy PH

 

[richardbees]

I use blue scaffolding 'debris' 2M netting all round my urban apiary to 'lift' the bees. It's dirt cheap on Epay and very "floaty" compared to the old green type. However, raspberry canes really aren't enough - you can buy 2" square fence post supports from B&Kew and use estate agent signboard posts as corner supports.

The bees will happily live with the screen 4ft from the entrance as long as you give them time to learn it's there To achieve this; put the netting up in the evening after they've stopped flying and stuff the hive entrances with dried grass......it makes them stop and re-think (make sure it's cleared by the evening!)

Incidental stings from crawling/dying bees outside the cordon can be minimised by not opening the hives while the children are in situ.

Don't skimp on this or you could find you've lost your apiary!

 

[Nellie]

I did similar, but with 7ft 75x75mm Wooden posts and metal spikes into the ground with full on insect netting. Held up to the recent winds surprisingly well though it has stretched a bit.

Definitely not a budget solution, but it's more than done the job of both forcing the bees up over head high and giving a much greater degree of obvious protection/screening. There are a few nasty little gits behind it who made coming anywhere near the hives a misery before but there's no problem now.

My neighbours since I put it up are much happier, none of them had complained but I thought if I didn't do something it would only be a matter of time and working near the hives was far from a pleasant experience for us and I didn't want anyone else to view being in their own space with the same dread that we were starting to.

And definitely agree that they need time to adjust to the fact that their flight path is now 5ft higher than it was before, we had a little cloud of confused looking bees batting into the mesh for about a week.

 

[E1M]

Hi,
I wonder what the ages of the "little people" are?
We had two of them visit two weekends ago, aged 6 and 4. We warned them of the dangers, they saw us suit up and did not go near.
We also have a wood burner, and when they have visited in the winter, again last weekend, they were told of the dangers and avoid it. These little angels are really inquisitive. I imagine your concern is because your hives are not on your ground. How about an electric fence?

 

[psafloyd]

Scaffolding netting works well.

 

[DulwichGnome]

I have used 50x50mm posts in metal spikes, gravel board at the bottom and 47x18mm at the top and as struts. This site has bird netting doubled up as the host did not what scaffold netting. It took a few weeks before they stopped trying to force their way through.

Mike.

 

[SteveJ]

I have scaffold netting wound mine. Its a bit finer mesh. I can work right next it and they ignore me.
View attachment 6711

SteveJ