nelletap
House Bee
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2010
- Messages
- 409
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Great Kingshill, Bucks, UK
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 2 - and a promising bait hive
I am a bit of a newbie. When I was told at first that having at least two hives made sense (combining week colonies, coping with swarms ++) I thought it was a step too far - one step at a time. Now I have my first colony and am enjoying them I'd like to be really sensible and logical to plan the next steps. I think I am very fortunate; we have a fairly large garden (about half an acre?) and then at the bottom corner, through a short avenue of holly bushes etc is an area we call the pan handle which is wilder, south facing, 'walled in' by mainly evergreen shrubs/hedges and adjacent to fields usually with cows. At one time it was a tennis court so you can imagine the size. The entrance to the panhandle is wide enough for a car but I think we are more likely to use a garden tractor to carry heavy equipment.
The only existing hive is labelled 1; I had prepared a site at the bottom right for proposed site 2 but I think the track down to that is uneven and might not be easy for either the tractor or a trailor so I am thinking of making a collection of three as shown starting with hive 1. They would all be south, south east or south west facing and I could get behind all of them. If I went further then another 3 may be possible further back as indicated. However, advice is welcome indeed craved. I think I have sketched the hives a little too large in proportion to it all, and probably the length should be a little more. We do want to have a garden fire somewhere in the panhandle to allow for garden waste. It is mostly level if a little uneven where moles have been active. At the very bottom near to the fields the ground rises a little due to grass cuttings over a few years. I have some sand left from some building renovations and some spare paving slabs so I have levelled an area of about 2 paving slabs size for each hive and have planted some bee friendly plants and added a garden seat so I can watch them.
Hopefully I can add a picture here so it makes sense.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=256517&id=507721787&saved#!/photo.php?pid=7087300&id=507721787&ref=fbx_album
The only existing hive is labelled 1; I had prepared a site at the bottom right for proposed site 2 but I think the track down to that is uneven and might not be easy for either the tractor or a trailor so I am thinking of making a collection of three as shown starting with hive 1. They would all be south, south east or south west facing and I could get behind all of them. If I went further then another 3 may be possible further back as indicated. However, advice is welcome indeed craved. I think I have sketched the hives a little too large in proportion to it all, and probably the length should be a little more. We do want to have a garden fire somewhere in the panhandle to allow for garden waste. It is mostly level if a little uneven where moles have been active. At the very bottom near to the fields the ground rises a little due to grass cuttings over a few years. I have some sand left from some building renovations and some spare paving slabs so I have levelled an area of about 2 paving slabs size for each hive and have planted some bee friendly plants and added a garden seat so I can watch them.
Hopefully I can add a picture here so it makes sense.
Last edited: