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How high is(are) your hives that are healthy? How high is the stand not the stack of supers? Wood homes are 18 inches off the ground for ants and termites. Are your hives?
Height of healthy hive
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Well if the sky is the limit then i guess im glad they make step ladders! 
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Seriously? Seems like they would require a heigth of 12 to 15 feet and facing SSE.
My hives are 21" off the ground and still got 6" of water during Hurricane Isabel. We're only 3 feet above sea level, so we get some storm surges in bad storms. A cement block on top keeps them from floating away and the girls are smart enough to just move up into the overhead boxes to get out of the storm's way.
There goes that Subaru crowd again
After one year that I was putting supers on with a step ladder and all my hives blew over in a 60mph wind, I moved from 12" to 3 1/2". Mostly 3 1/2". To get things level sometimes it's only 1/2" and sometimes it's only 1 1/2" and sometimes it's 12" at one end and 3 1/2" at the other end...
So I guess the closest you offered is 0".
After I did that I also bought a toolbox that doubles as a stool and I use it almost all the time.
So I guess the closest you offered is 0".
After I did that I also bought a toolbox that doubles as a stool and I use it almost all the time.
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Thanks for the responses. Please use the heights as up to -- 0 is on the ground to 8 inches, 9 is 9 to 17 inches, 18 is 18 to 27 inches, sky is the limit is everything over 27 inches. No top bar beekeepers? I keep mine with the top at waist high so the base is at 2 feet. Langs at 18 so the top is just over waist high with normal super load.
My top bar hives are all setting on 4 by 4 blocks (3 1/2" high). When I put legs on them they blew over on a regular basis.
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Wow, that blows! Sorry just had to. So far it seems weather and convenience/lifting are the prime motivating factors. I have seen elevated platforms for bears and flood regions. The naturally grown group has some rules. I will have to research if they know why they have them. We do radon testing for homes and probably have similar ground contaminates, we do not even know about. To not do something because it is required of some, gotta know how that's working for you.
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Started out at about 16". Once they were supered up they looked pretty precarios. Switched over to 8". Solid.
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12 Posts
two concrete block high
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I went to the Certified Naturally Grown website and asked about their hive height recommendation. Reading the rest of their dos, donts, and maybes, it is expertly written and pretty much what a naturalist healthy beekeeper already does. They do not allow pallets for over 6 weeks in a year.
MB, I built a hive stand with steps because there are several families with kids at our bee workshops. It is almost 4 ft wide of 2 x 6 so it would take a cyclone to upend it. In a flood like one poster had, I suppose it would float too.
MB, I built a hive stand with steps because there are several families with kids at our bee workshops. It is almost 4 ft wide of 2 x 6 so it would take a cyclone to upend it. In a flood like one poster had, I suppose it would float too.
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