View Full Version : how many hives?
I live up in the NW in the Southern Cascade mountains. Usually the main nectar flow doesn't start until June and it goes through July in my area. Mainly it is blackberries and pennyroyal. How would a person be able to judge how many hives an area could support? This area is also abundantly supplied with wild flowers etc. The nearest 'city' is 30 miles away.
------------------
the ~ox-{ at www.singingfalls.com (http://www.singingfalls.com)
twlankford
05-31-2004, 12:47 PM
It is recommended in my area that one site can support 20 to 30 hives. Bees can forage up to a radius of 4 miles from their home site;so you never no exactly how many other beekeepers there are in "your" foraging area.
[This message has been edited by twlankford (edited May 31, 2004).]
thanks for the reply. Actually there are only about 200 people in a 15 square mile area of me and only 2 bee keepers with 6 hives all tolled. The "local" professional bee keeper lives an hour away and puts his hives down in the lower-sooner blooming regions about 20 miles from me. I'd like to manage about 5-8 hives and wondered if they would be supported here. There's a lot a old growth forest in the area but open on the settled areas.
------------------
the ~ox-{ at www.singingfalls.com (http://www.singingfalls.com)