Siting a hive in a home garden

I would like to keep bees at home, the wife and I are having a bit of a discussion over where to site the hive. My ideal place would be within 1.5 mtrs of a garden path that is well used but she is worried that the bees will not take kindly to foot traffic so close. I had thought that facing the entrance away from the path may help.. any one with any thoughts ?

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  • We had bees that distance and they were fine but sometimes they got caught in my hair. I never got stung but now have made a bit more room for their flight path. They drop down as they are coming into land. Ideally you need a few more metres from the garden. I just took to weeding the grades close by at night.

  • I am facing a similar set of circumstances. The main features seem to be

    • have as much sun exposure as possible
    • protect from southerlies
    • consider the flightpath

    I have friends who have the hive on their decks and some have hives under the bedroom windows, both without ill effects. More information on my considerations are on my blog at NZ Beekeepers

  • Thanks for the quick replies.

    I think that facing the hive away from the path is a partial solution, our 800 square meters is slowly turning into the farm I always dreamt of owning if only I'd started saving at a younger age ! Eventually there will be a high hedge around the hive site but for the time being I'll build a temporary fence at a decent height.

    One last question, the hive will get morning sun on the side, and evening sun on the front , do you think that the bees will mind ?

    Really looking forward to bee keeping, will be nice to see bees in the garden again..perhaps this year I'll have plums on my trees.

  • I agree about the wind break - Trellis or Brushtics fencing 2 m tall. This will direct the bees up over your head. This said they can be a bit protective over their hives in late summer and you will notice a bit of insect traffic in the area. I had my hives sited behind a trellis screen behind our chook houses and the only time they were a problem was when the hive had a lot of honey on it in late summer. You could walk up to the hives from behind and stand within a foot or so of them otherwise with no hassles. We also had a large plant saucer of water with rocks and twigs in it on the roof of one of the hives as they look for water in summer and will annoy you around any taps or shallow pools. This was topped up in the evenings when the bees were quiet. Washing lines are the other consideration as they defecate on leaving the hive so dont have the hives in such a place that they fly out over your or your neighbours lines when leaving the hives. The little yellow spots are a beggar to wash out.
  • Good bees shouldnt sting passers by but at that distance they will fly into your head quite a bit. More a nuisance than anything. v
    can't stress strongly enough the importance of getting good, calm bees though.
  • I have our hive in the garden sited about 1.5 m away from the path. The bees are really happy and we have had no problems with flight paths etc. What i would suggest is that you make sure that the closthesline is not in the bees flight path. Of course a docile strain of bees always helps too.

     

    Good luck with your hive.

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