Stoopid Question...

[Merlinspop]

Maybe I give the wind too much credit, but I've always wondered how hard does the wind have to blow to cause stacked hives, such as Warre and Langs, to blow over? I've only got one hive and it's a TBH. Obviously, they have to be generally pretty stable, or else the designs would have been abandoned or changed long ago. But the tall, skinny Warre's seem particularly top heavy and vulnerable. Where I live in the Eastern Panhandle of WV, we get some impressive wind (not just storms, but just windy days) that regularly blows over driveway basketball goals and pulls siding and gutters off of houses.

Thanks,

Bruce

[Mbeck]

I don't know the answer to wind speed, here is a link to check out

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?259640-hives-and-high-winds-question&highlight=Bucket+hurricane

[MrHappy]

Just a guess, but I think it's all about the footing. Especially if you bolt down the bottom, once they seal everything up it will be hard for anything to knock it over, even human. I just helped a mentor unseal his hive after 6 months of winter and it took 3 of us with tools prying for 5 min to be able to get it apart. They can really lock it down if given the chance.

[Tom B]

Because all of my hives are in out-apiaries, I tie all my hives down with a cargo strap. Even if the whole she-bang tips over, it will still be in one piece.

[Box]

Warré him self , advises small metal plates used to link the boxes together .

[Michael Bush]

We get 40 mph often. We get 60 mph periodically. At 40, a stack of empty boxes often blows over (even if propolized well). At 60 sometimes the hives blow over and sometimes they don't depending on how they catch the wind. Generally if they are short enough they don't... I try to keep mine low to the ground and up against each other.

[A. S. Templeton]

I have a special base on my hives that allows me to pass a cargo strap with ratcheting tightener through the roof eves-gap and around a solid 2x4 integral to the base. The 2x4 is nestled between a pair of cinder blocks. When the strap is tightened, it ain't going anywhere.

That said, an unstrapped hive is also proof against wind if: 1) there be plenty of stores weighing the stack down, and 2) Friction between boxes be high (good propolization).

This spring I had a 2-box Warre stack partially blow over (saved most of the colony tho) because they had exhausted their stores. Next to it I have a 5-box Warre I let overwinter without harvest; never budged in same wind storm that got the 2-boxer.

/AST

[forgeblast]

I have a four stack warre out now we had 47 mile an hour winds a few weeks ago it was fine.
I have a 2'' wide ratch strap that holds them all together.
The base is 4x4's sunk into the ground 12'' and the base screwed into them. It holds it fine.