Locating your Beehaus
The position you choose for your bees is very important. You can place
your Beehaus in a variety of places, from rooftops to a country orchard.
Choosing the right location will make it much easier to manage bees.
Once you have put your bees in location it can be slightly complicated to
move them, so it is worth giving it some thought. Here is a rough guide:
General concepts
1. Choose a quiet, level location away from busy footpaths.
2. Ensure you leave about 2m of space in front of the hive entrance to
give the bees space to fly out. You can encourage your bees to fly up and
away above head height by placing an obstacle (such as a hedge or fence)
a short distance (i.e 1.5m) from the hive entrance.
3. You should try to shelter the entrance of the hive from the prevailing
wind to make it easy for the bees to take off and land.
4. Ideally you should have a water source, such as a pond, bird bath etc
near the bees but not within 3m. If this is not possible, don’t worry, the
bees will find water locally.
5. You should avoid locating your bees near horses (which bees don’t like),
high voltage power lines, children’s play areas or under trees.
At a later date, you may want to move your bees to a different location.
For example: if you are moving house or rearranging the garden.
The simple rule is: You can move a beehive less than 1m or more
than three miles. This is covered in more detail on Page 45.
Garden locations
Country apiaries
You can keep you bees in an apiary. You should not have more than
5-6 colonies in a single location as there is unlikely to be enough forage
for the bees.
This is a poor apiary layout. There is no shelter from the wind and the
hives will look almost identical to the bees. The bees could drift into
the wrong hive by being blown off course while landing.
This is a good apiary setup. The hives are out of the wind and randomly
ordered so the bees can easily identify their own hive.
Rooftop locations
A) and B) are good locations as the bees have a clear flight
path. C) is a poor location, as the bees will fly straight into the
neighbour’s balcony.
You can keep bees on a rooftop or balcony in the town or
the country. You should check that the roof is able to take
the weight of a full colony with honey (approx: 200kg).
As you would in a garden, you should give the bees room to fly out of
the hive. You can locate a hive up to 100 storeys off the ground.
A
B
C
A
B
HOUSE
Generally it is a good idea to place your beehive at the bottom of
your garden unless this is very close to a busy part of your neighbours
garden or near a public footpath. You should ensure you leave space
for access to your Beehaus. You should be able to stand or move
around easily. Try to avoid cramming your Beehaus under a bush or
low tree or behind a garden shed.
Position A is a good spot at the back of the garden. Out of the way of
path and trees, but sheltered from the wind.
Position B is a poor location with the bees flying close to the lawn
and path.
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