Where to site the hives, from a newbie

[waxymud]

Hi,
Now winter is just around the corner, clearing ground for positioning my hives should be easier, I hope! with the vegitation, brambles and weeds not growing so fast.

I have found two possible locations on our farm that are shown as A and B on the map.

Site A is on raised ground, the road to the north of it sits in a dip. I has trees to its south and the farms vegtable garden to the east. Fields to the west.
It is protected from west winds by the trees but exposed if the wind changes to a north wind. It gets the early morning sun (when there is any). By mid afternoon it is in the shadow of the trees. The area is currently grassed over

Site B has a barn to the north, a row of conifers to the east, a maize silo to the south and feilds / grazing to the west. Protected from the north wind by the barn but exposed to the west winds. South facing, it gets sun over the conifer trees by mid morning. The area is currently over grown with brambles and a few large bushes.

Both are protected from grazing livestock.

A is near the road and could attract attention, thieves, or vandals.

A has a track very close by for access. B means driving into a field but it is well drained of water.

B is close to the maize silos for the cattle feed and is visited daily by a tractor when it comes to get its fill. Silo is the beige oblong directly south of B. It also gets restocked every year during the 2 days of harvest in early to mid October.

So which would be best for installing a couple of hives? If all goes well and I expand it might go up to 10 if I get that lucky in a few years or more!

Alternatively, looking at the photo do you see another possible location? I caneasily answer questions about the surrounding area of any suggested locations.

Thanks.
(Ground level pics in a hour once the camera batteries are charged)

 

[oliver90owner]

If I could see an 'A' or 'B' on that pic, it might help. But there are ways of overcoming any minor points - screening for instance.

RAB

 

[drstitson]

ia area A is that sheep, pigeons, ducks/geese or mushrooms we can see???

 

[waxymud]

If I could see an 'A' or 'B' on that pic, it might help. But there are ways of overcoming any minor points - screening for instance.

RAB

A is at the top, B is the one towards the bottom. When I edited the photo they were large enough; However the finnished photo does seem small!

 

[waxymud]

ia area A is that sheep, pigeons, ducks/geese or mushrooms we can see???

Nope, none of the above! Since the plane did the arial photos for google earth, the bother in law chopped a few trees down. The photo showed trees untill I coloured it in differently and tried to make it look like the dried grass fields nearby.
There are no sheep at A. There are chickens and ducks in the trees / wood. Just next to the detached red tiled roof building, 2cm South of box A, in the wood / tree line.

 

[Moggs]

Hi WMD (ahhh maybe that's not such a good abbreviation...)

There is an interesting publication issued by 'the Association' that you can google - try searching for 'siting an apiary' and it will deliver.

 

[tonybloke]

If I could see an 'A' or 'B' on that pic, it might help.
RAB

you must have the same trouble with red/green as I do !!

 

[oliver90owner]

you must have the same trouble with red/green as I do !!

Snap! Yep, red/green colour-blindness! Just cannot see it. Is it red or is it green?

Regards, RAB

 

[victor meldrew]

you must have the same trouble with red/green as I do !!

Snap! Yep, red/green colour-blindness! Just cannot see it. Is it red or is it green?

Regards, RAB

You've torn up your driving license I hope .
Sometimes colours are stacked in a different order when it comes to temerary lights

John Wilkinson

 

[tonybloke]

small areas of red don't stand out on green, john. I can still see a bloody traffic light !

 

[eric]

yea but what colour is the light ??????????????

 

[hedgerow pete]

either spot will do but there is another couple of areas that appel to me other than your choosen spots.

the only down side of plot a is the road and the fact that the small paddock will be out of bounds for most animals whilst they are there.

there is no real down side to plot b, except you have not built a shed to store all your bee keeping stuff in and there are brambles in the way,

if you look at the photograph in the poly hive started thread about his wintering stocks you will see he has all his hives in a row , to one side of a field??

personaly on your photo there is a field to the west on a sight line directly behind the main house and by the looks of it i would install a row of hives there with a dumby hedge infront to hide the hives and to offer wind protection,

there also seems to be a white pile of some thing leading south of the copse, i that it it is some form of rubish hard core piles i would consider along them aswell, using them as a wind brace

 

[oliver90owner]

Sometimes colours are stacked in a different order when it comes to temerary lights

Don't try to be silly. Anything other than the official order would simply not be recognised as legally binding.

 

[tonybloke]

let me try to explain, I can see that the front lawn is green. I can see that a traffic light is green. I can see that a sheet is red. I can see that a traffic light is red.
I might not see a red button dropped on the lawn, though !!

 

[eric]

What about a red lawn mower ?

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

What about a red lawn mower ?

That would be like James Bond's invisible car I imagine

 

[victor meldrew]

small areas of red don't stand out on green, john. I can still see a bloody traffic light !

Tongue in cheek
Wait until you get to my age , you may find yourself saying "WHAT BLOODY TRAFFIC LIGHTS ?" a little to often

John Wilkinson

 

[victor meldrew]

What about a red lawn mower ?

Ruffled feathers
Some folk are as nesh as carrots !

John Wilkinson

 

[oliver90owner]

eric,

One big problem is apparently matching colours for clothes. My wife is always telling me 'those clothes don't go together - they clash' and 'this goes with that because there is this or that colour in one of them'. I, for the life of me, cannot see what she sees; I choose matching clothes and get laughed at!

I once had a job where one product test result was in black and the odd one of another product was in red; later results/additions by me were likely all black because I did not notice any difference between the inks/writing. I only covered for the fellow who normally did it (when he was on holiday, or sick), but I surely made a mess for him! It was a nice easy job but I needed a different choice of colours - which he vetoed, as his books had been like that for the last twenty years or so!

I used to be used as the 'resident guinea pig' at one place. Whenever they got the colour-blindnees books out, I was invited to say what picture I saw. The students thought it hilarious that I saw a different picture to them. Until one of them agreed with me! We both got laughed at then.

All good fun, and the students at least could believe there was a problem and we were not just making it up. If there was no colour blind students in any particular cohort, we used to get one in from another class, temporarily, just to prove the point.

Regards, RAB

 

[Russel]

eric,

One big problem is apparently matching colours for clothes. My wife is always telling me 'those clothes don't go together - they clash' and 'this goes with that because there is this or that colour in one of them'. I, for the life of me, cannot see what she sees; I choose matching clothes and get laughed at!
snip snip
Regards, RAB

I see another wife's turned into your mother?