Keeping Bees near a road

[Pumpkin Becki]

OH is still really keen to have a bee hive at the new house. We like the look of the Top Bar hives, but were wondering if there are any restrictions on how far a hive has to be from a road?

The road in question is an A road with a footpath which runs along the side of the garden (we have a six foot high panel fence). The other side of the garden is flanked by a Parish Hall. The total width of the garden is approx 13 metres. if we put the hive in the middle of this, by the back hedge do you think we would be okay?

[Headfry]

hmmmm, tricky. Would they get hit by the cars....you may loose quite a few...
What about people walking would they get caught up in the flight paths of hard at work bees! They can fly very fast and direct when there is a honey flow on!
I am not sure how busy either the road or footpath are, so you would need to think about it with due care.
Have you any pics you could post?
Don't give up on the idea....bees are fab! love mine to bits....
here is silly clip of my weekends 'bee work'

Bee update from this end...

Went in Sunday (what a smashing day) Loads of bees flying.

The brood is FULL of stores only a small part of a frame carrying brood. Atilla is looking good.
Had to lift said FULL brood box off so I could check the super that is now underneath it.....
Almost made me cry just trying to lift it, I cant do that again, it was so heavy.....crazy!
Super was almost brim full of stores. How I got the brood box back on I will never know.
I had to do it in two stages, rest it on the edge of super then re lift it to get it fully on. Closed up the hive walked away thinking ....
What if I squished 'Tilly' in my poor handling, so back to hive open it up AGAIN...there she was well and running about! phew!

I am such a KEEPER OF BEES!!!!!!! (its a kinda 'put down' between Oxon bee keepers!)

I cant, keep the hive this way about....I think I need to move the super back onto of the brood. I am happy to run with brood and a half but cant take the weight of a brood box packed full of stores.
I guess in the summer months it wont weigh so much, as I hope it will be full of brood!

I still have thousands of bees...wall to wall bees in fact, with every brood and super frame being covered! If only this was early spring. Ho hum, always next year- fingers well crossed.

[Pumpkin Becki]

Ooh, I supose I was just thinking about people encountering bees as they walked past, not that the bees might end up as road kill!

We will be quite rural, so plenty of crops, flowers and hedgerows within a half mile radius, I suppose I need to consider where the bees are most likely to use as their food source - may be I can encourage them not to cross the road if there is enough for them on our side?

[Headfry]

If the road is fairly quiet I cant see a problem. You wont be able to control where they go I am afraid- they go where the honey flow is strongest and will travel up to a 3 mile radius of the hive (some say 5 miles) I doubt they will touch your garden if there is a rape or broad bean field close by - sorry!
Do you know of any local bee keepers that can look at your proposed hive site?

[shirlthegirl43]

Nice to read that your bees are doing well Headfry, I had been wondering after your scarey time a few weeks back.

[Headfry]

Thanks Shirley, good so far.
It will be back to the same worry of getting them through the winter. I think it's the time bee keepers worry the most!
Sadly not enough bees around in the summer to start off my 2nd hive....sat most of the year in the dining room. Maybe I will be lucky this coming summer.

[JILLY JACKSON]

Headfry,your bee update was very readable.I think it would be of great interest to us all if you wouldnt mind ,writing more updates from time to time it would open up the world of beekeeping in a small way to those of us "wanabees".If you have the time please that is.Thanks!

[Stacey Steve]

Sure I read in Ted Hooper's book that if you turn the entrance toward the hedge, then the bees have to gain altitude when leaving the hive, which takes them above people's head height and the same on the way back in.

Could be wrong, my memory is not all it was you see.

[Pumpkin Becki]

Sure I read in Ted Hooper's book that if you turn the entrance toward the hedge, then the bees have to gain altitude when leaving the hive, which takes them above people's head height and the same on the way back in.
.

...thats interesting - I think we'll have to have a chat with the local beekeepers association just to bee sure (hee hee, see what I did there? )

[shirlthegirl43]

Thanks Shirley, good so far.
It will be back to the same worry of getting them through the winter. I think it's the time bee keepers worry the most!
Sadly not enough bees around in the summer to start off my 2nd hive....sat most of the year in the dining room. Maybe I will be lucky this coming summer.

Pardon me for showing my ignorance, but if you have lots of bees in the one hive, can't you put the other hive next to it and they will colonise that one too?

[Plot17B]

Hi PB,
Stacy Steve was right about using structures to get the bees upwards asap. Your 6ft fence will be perfect for the job and will get the bees to cruising height and over the cars - will still be losses against lorries/busses/tractors etc, but hopefully not too many. Should be just over average person's head so perhaps not too much trouble there? Are there some trees/shrubs along the fenceline too?

You mentioned about whats on left and right of you - what's behind you? Is it more gardens or open fields? The latter would be perfect of course as you could "aim" the hive entrance over there. The bees would fly wherever they wanted though so they'd still exit, do a circle to orientate and fly in a direct line to wherever food was, road or no road. :-)

Hi Shirl - They never quite do what you think/hope/plan...... :-)
if the bees swarmed they might notice the new hive and populate it, leaving a new queen & colony in the old hive. Or u could artificially swarm them (basically fool the bees into thinking they've just swarmed by moving brood boxes between hives etc). But got to time it right in the year so both colonies & the queen are strong enough for the winter months... it's prob better to wait for the next season and to swarm or nuc it.

Good to hear all is well HF - how many frames of brood are there? Is Queen still laying?

Cheers!

P17B

[beesontoast]

OH is still really keen to have a bee hive at the new house. We like the look of the Top Bar hives, but were wondering if there are any restrictions on how far a hive has to be from a road?

There are no legal restrictions, just sensible precautions. If someone complains to the local council that your bees are causing a nuisance, they will write to you a polite letter and ask you to move them, but as long as you arrange things so that they have to fly upwards over hedges or fences, you will be fine.

I would not have entrances facing a hedge - at least, not at close range - as I presume you will want to trim the hedge occasionally, and bees are not keen on people rearranging their immediate surroundings - especially not with power tools. Also it is a good idea for the entrance to get some sun during the day.

[Pumpkin Becki]

There are no legal restrictions, just sensible precautions. If someone complains to the local council that your bees are causing a nuisance, they will write to you a polite letter and ask you to move them, but as long as you arrange things so that they have to fly upwards over hedges or fences, you will be fine.

I would not have entrances facing a hedge - at least, not at close range - as I presume you will want to trim the hedge occasionally, and bees are not keen on people rearranging their immediate surroundings - especially not with power tools. Also it is a good idea for the entrance to get some sun during the day.

That's all really good news Beesontoast. There is a very tall Leylandii hedge between us and the neighbour behind. I think we would put the hive sort of infront of this with the entrance facing away from the hedge (making the entrance south-east facing).

Do you think the top bar hive would be best for us? I've been looking at the site you suggested previously (it might even be yours!) and it seems to fit our small scale and ideas of keeping bees as naturally as we can and with as little 'fiddling' as possible?

[Flytrap]

Hi Pumpkin Becki,

Did you know that you can win a Top Bar Hive from Beesontoast's site at the moment.

Not that I want any more competition as I want to win one

Flytrap.

[Pumpkin Becki]

Hi Pumpkin Becki,

Did you know that you can win a Top Bar Hive from Beesontoast's site at the moment.

Not that I want any more competition as I want to win one

Flytrap.

Cor thanks! I'm going there right now!!