How much space is needed between hives?

[Ron Young]

I have one hive now and would like to split it out next spring. I know I would like to have at least two hives, and maybe three. I build a frame for the hives to sit on, and am sure that it will accomidate two, but I am not sure about a third.
If I only put two hives on the frame, the entrances will be a little over three feet apart. If I do three hives, the hives themselves will be only 10 inches apart, with entrance openings about 1 ft. apart. Is this sufficient for three hives, or will drift and robbing be of concern?

[size="1"][ September 14, 2006, 01:09 PM: Message edited by: NCBeginner ][/size]

[SilverFox]

Mine only sit about 3-5 inches apart. You can also draw/paint a different design/shape over the entrance to each hive, I've been told that bees can reconize shapes and designs.
You could also aternate the entrances, one faceing front and one facing back.

[Ron Young]

I had thought about facing the middle hive to the opposite direction, however, it would then face to the North and never get sun into the entrance. In addition to that, all of our bad cold winter wind comes from the North. I would like to keep them facing South to Southeast.

[SilverFox]

All mine face east, all our bad storms seem to come out of the south.
Try the shapes and designs.
I've known some that have their hives in the shade and they seem to do well.

[size="1"][ September 14, 2006, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: SilverFox ][/size]

[wade]

I've stacked 3 hives on top of one another, each entrance facing at least a right angle to the one below/above it. It was temporary because I had more hives than stands. They did fine although there'e no way to know how much drifting took place. But when I combined 2 of those hives, the one that got its entrance repositioned was quite confused for a day or two. Bees would come in and hover around where their entrance used to be, then somebody would figure "the heck with this" and fly into the solid side of the box, where the entrance used to be. It cracked me up. Bees will trust their GPS or whatever the heck they orient to before they will trust their own eyes. For awhile the confused bees would land where their entrance used to be, then walk on the box over to the new entrance on the other side- there was a line of bees doing this. I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you NCbeginner.

[Michael Bush]

Most of mine are touching each other.

[Tia]

I like them far enough apart that I can set down the outer cover right there and stack the boxes on top (don't have to bend over to the ground). That way I can also lean the inner cover which is always covered with bees against the adjacent hive instead of putting it on the ground, leaning against the stand so that the girls can crawl over to me, up my foot and into my pantleg! I like keepin' 'em off the ground while I'm working them! To see my beeyard, go to http://www.ncneighbors.com/media.wsi...620&media_id=1

[carbide]

Not to change the subject, but Tia after looking at the picture of your beeyard doesn't it get difficult to manipulate honey supers on top of your hives if you have three or four of them stacked on? It seems to me that your hives are a little bit high off of the ground. Is there a reason you have them so high?

[power napper]

Tia--I do not see any chairs or gliders or hammocks in your beeyard, where do you take your power breaks? Nice yard. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Tia]

Carbide, yes, a very good reason. Core Sound is right across the road. The stands are 21" high; nonetheless, Hurricane Isabel put 16" of water into my hives! It was really interesting, because I had put cement blocks on top of each hive and evacuated, and when I came back and went inside the boxes to see how the girls did, I knew it came up 16" into the boxes because that's exactly how much of the comb was clean as a whistle. The girls just polished everything that had been underwater! Yes, harvest is a pain. I stand in my wagon to get the top supers off!

Power napper, it's a big yard. If you go 50' to the left side of the hives, that's where my bee shed is, and there's chairs out there where I work on frames and have a side view of my girls coming and going. If you go 20' to the front, that's where my chicken coop, garden shed and half-acre veggie garden are with lots of chairs and a market umbrella so I can sit and watch the bees, chickens and birds. And immediately in front of that, there's a half-acre wildflower meadow with the girl's watering hole and a nice covered glider where I watch the girls gather water. Powr breaks are a necessary for me!

[power napper]

Atta girl Tia! Knew you would have the facilities for power breaks!