furball Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 Total newbie, ready for booking a course but would appreciate some advice first. I have a long 90ft x 25ft with a garden path running up the centre. Not used by postman but used by us and visitors. On the left side of the garden I have a 2ft high raised bed running the length of the garden full of bee friendly flowers that i would like to put the beehaus on. The banking has a 6ft fence along its full length but has a neighbours 30ft high fir tree hedge growing above it, this runs for about 30ft of the length of the garden but is behind the fence. The ground underneath is dry and doesn't get dripped ondue to the angle of the hedge. There is a treehouse on the right hand side to shelter the beehaus from wind and the garage is a few feet behind it. If you have read and followed so far, thank you. The bees have to fly high on 3 sides. The front of the hive would face up the border in order to get the sun but would mean the garden path would only be 12 feet away but to the right hand side of the beehaus. The decking/house would be 80ft -90ft away. if i put a netted trellis in front of the hive to make them fly above head height they will be inline with the height of the decking but if i don't the flight path would be body height for anyone in the garden. So honest answers please, is it a no win situation or can i keep bees. Many many thanks for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted July 17, 2017 Share Posted July 17, 2017 If your bees are calm then this shouldn't be a problem. If you have an aggressive colony then they are not suitable for back-garden bee keeping in any event. In my experience, you can put up netting, trellis and all sorts of things but the bees will follow the most direct path to where they want to go. I carefully sited my hives facing the wall of my neighbour's summer house so that the bees would fly up and over it. They just turned round on exiting the hive and flew straight over the back! If the flight path is directly across the garden path, washing line etc then even a friendly colony is likely to collide with people and even if they don't sting, it's quite unpleasant to keep having bees pinging off you as you walk past. I can't work out from your description quite how that would be, however you say the path is 12 feet away, I work in my garden within 12 feet of the hives and hardly know they are there. If the house is 80-90 feet away the bees will have dispersed by that distance so it should be fine. I would urge you to join your local beekeeping group to get advice and support, and it's always wise to have an eye to the future - e.g. if the bees did suddenly change in temperament, is there somewhere you could temporarily remove them to, so it's good to know some local beekeepers. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
furball Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 Thankyou so much for your reply, thats very reassuring. The bees will be 12 ft away from the path and parallel to it not flying across it. I am booking classes with a local beekeepers association and will take advice on buying a calm nuc. Giving myself until next spring to learn as much as possible before embarking on this adventure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
