Full sun all day to help combat small hive beetle.

Avoid low spots that collect cool or damp air, particularly in the morning.

Easy access for wheeled vehicles, trust me.

Southern or Eastern exposure.

Somewhat sheltered from prevailing winds, particularly in winter.

Ideally within a mile or two of a major or multiple major nectar sources.

60 years here with bees.... alot more work keeping them alive than when i was 16 but still fun. Go to smaller honey boxes than brood boxes. You will thank me as you get older.

Also in setting up your hives do not build you stands to high, After putting 2 brood boxes on the stands then putting the honey boxes on top they can get tall, heavy and hard to manage. I like to build my stands by placing concrete blocks flat on the ground and setting a pallet on top of them. This makes them about 12 inches tall. 4 hives will fit on 1 pallet .

this might not matter for everyone and all situations but i didnt notice it mentioned prior and that would be 24 hour access

#1 rule…I never put a hive anywhere I can’t drive to. I’m not dragging hives and full supers around on dollys. Hives shouldn’t be down in a bottom. I face my boxes East- Southeast. If you can get the morning sun on the box, they’ll start working earlier. I like a few trees behind the bear fence, block some of the hot afternoon sun. Also blocks the cold West, Northwest winter wind. I like to have a decent size spruce tree within a stone’s throw of the hives….makes a good landing zone if a hive throws out a swarm. At all my beeyards, you gotta have a bear fence. So I like to have 110 power available. I’ve never found solar charged fencers that will light you up like my 110 volt units will. You’ll taste your fillings when they hit you.

Definitely full sun. I just moved a late swarm from a swarm trap into a 5 frame nuke with shallow honey supper on top. That swarm trap is in a deer stand In the woods and it had quite a few hive beetles it. I put 2 hive beetles teaps in it and put it back in the tree. I don't have time to move it to my out yard untill Monday. I don't think they will have enough time to build up for winter but swarms build out frame fast and I'm short on built out frames. Maybe with heavy feeding and candy boards they just might make it? they just

Lots of folks are overwintering nucs.

That what I heard. I have had 100% success over wintering in 2 8 frame deeps with candy boards. But never tried anything else. This year I'm going to be trying an singl 8 frame and a shallow honey supper on a few because I'm low on bult out foundation. A few in 2 8 frame deeps, some in 2 10 frame deep and 1 10 frame deep and a shallow honey supper.
Feeding heavy now.

I'm currently trying the oxalic acid pads Randy Oliver has been talking about. We'll see.

I've had good luck in the late fall with the oxalic vaporizer...but this far north we get broodless just before the snow flies. Spend a little more on a good vaporizer and you can do a hive in a little over a minute. Bob Binnie has had good luck with this method as well, In Georgia. But like you suggest, Probably not the best option for anything other than broodless. The pads might be a hit anytime, though. Randy seems to think so. Pretty easy to make up, but nothing is as simple as Formic Pro (and it's effective, or course).

For some reason the oxalic pads are to inconsistent here.

I know both Bob and Jennifer. Bob is a few hundred feet higher in elevation than most of the rest of the state plus runs carnie and carnie x caucasian both which will shut down brood better than the more common Italian. His location is more like states to the north than the rest of the state.

Jennifer is trialing an oxalic pad product out of Chile now. She is also promoting caging the queen for midsummer/post flow oxalic and says she is using it in her own personal operation.

I'm considering the vertical excluders bluesky sells and caging on drone comb for a two in one trapping and treat.

Just haven't pulled the trigger yet on drone brood trapping since I would need to go through and cull out all other drone comb in what I already got.

I’d like to build a Layens Hive and Layens swarm trap. The Layens 6 frame swarm trap is equal to 3 - 5 frame nukes giving swarms a little more room.

The larger 14 frame Layens hives only need to be checked in the spring and fall. They’re built with 1.5” lumber so they over winter better.

Should be an interesting project.

https://horizontalhive.com/

The layens fascinates me as it has some features I think is good for the bees but has two that I don't.

Large comb, Dadant was right bees do better on uninterrupted comb. The insulation factor of thicker walls better matches what I see in natural cavities.

However, most natural cavities are vertical but bees do okay in horizontal so minor issue.

I do have issues with lack of regular inspection and management though. They are livestock and need cared for to be productive.

I know one bee keeper that figures its natural selection. If you have a swarming problem we'll let them go its not genetics you want anyway. The same with mite resistance an so fourth. Keep and Brees the bees that do well and dot wast time on those that don't. I see the logic in it yet still do all I can to keep my hives healthy and thriving. I'm also still learning a ton each year. But it does help me when I lose a hive becuse I really like my bees and they are more than just live stock more like pets to me. So while it very may have been a failure on my part like loosing a few hives to laying workers when I didn't keep up on my spring inspections. The fact is the bees didn't correct the problem them self so were those genetic traits I wanted?

Nature vs nurturing has been an argument in a lot of circles. I think it's somewhere in the middle . I don't want to have to fight to keep them alive but do want to give them every advantage I can.

So they need management but management causes some problems like mites becoming resistance to treatments. Maybe breeding for hygienic bees is better than chemicals ? Then again no one wants to have their yard near one with a bee keeper that won't take care of his bees. You don't want his problems to become yours.


I have watched nurse bees pull brood out of their cell and toss them. I was guessing maybe it was because of mites. My last mite check went well nothing needed treatment. I'm about due for chaeking again.
All my bees have been from swarms. I did requeen with purchased queens on 3 hives this spring. None still have those queens. I have had better luck letting them Raise their own. I was just trying to save time and a honey crop during the flow. Turned out to be wasted money. I should have just let them Raise their own. Mext year I'm going to try to keep several nukes so I always have a good queen when I need one.
See alway more to learn. I love bee keeping.

do you think there are more "wild" honey bees around or more managed hives?

If more "wild" hives than natural selection is working it would seem and maybe it would be better find and take wild bees from wild hives.
If "wild" haves are rare than maybe they do need more care.

Yours and others thoughts, thanks, interesting stuff to read from a non-beekeeper.

Oh lort, here we go again.

profit wise, what would you be looking at per hive for a business? of course it varies but average...

There is a decent profit that can be made with bees. But you can also spend a lot of money on them equipment and bees are not cheap. Best advise is get a few hives and learn as much as you can about beekeeping and grow into a business.

All my bees I caught from swarms on my farm and out yard location or a few places friends let me put out traps. There are a lot of bee keepers around me. 6 including myself that I know of within 1.5 miles. So my swarms Mya be from other keepers or feral I have no idea. Probably both.

I got 2 swarms from my out yard this year and there are not many bee keepers in that area I know of. It's more of a forest area right next to a large state forestry area.

I have only been messing with bees 3 years so honestly don't know a ton. But between those that make their living or great submittal income there is a lot of disagreement between ideas and also a lot of cross over.. Each had their own personal experience spacing decades and what works best for them.
Two guys that started our bee club couldn't agree and now the one that did start it no longer attends. People get in dug in on their methods. But Just becuse something works for you in your area with your system does not mean that will be the best thing for someone else.

I try to lesson to all the guys with experience and learn from them and try different things. I finally am getting enough hives wher I feel I can experiment with different things just a little. I do believe you have to stay on top of mites, hive beetles, and how your queen is doing if you want to maximize your efforts.

The guys that let mites go unchecked can cause problems for neighboring bee keepers. I only mentioned the guy that goes with natural selection because the queens I bought were advertised as muts breed similarly for years in remote Areas of Canada. Well those were a failure for me this year so not great in my area I guess.