[FarmerGreen]

Newbie question. How many hives can you put together at the same location? I have an opportunity to use 60 acres to put my bees on. Right now I have only 3 colonies on my property. How many hives is too many at one location? Will too many hives decrease the production of each hive? The area is mountain land and heavy with under brush, wildflowers and trees, low human population density for several miles in all directions. A small, year-round creek runs through the property. This land is about 3 miles from my home. They used to keep cattle on it till about 15 years ago and since has not been used for anything.

 

[BeeAware]

It all depends upon the forage available within a radius of 2 to 3 miles. Too many colonies for a location can definately reduce the production per colony. I would think 20 to 25 colonies would be about right. You can always place more at first and then reduce the number of hives if production is too low.

 

[hpm08161947]

Think of your yard as a 14 square mile circle. Around here when we have a new yard we will move 2-3 pallets (8-12 hives) into it and if they do well probably add more. The biggest decent yard we have only has 6 pallets, although we have had some that went temporarily as high as 10 pallets. What that mountain land will do is hard to say until you find out.

 

[standman]

You will definitely have to "try and see" to determine the carrying ability, which will also vary from year to year. One of the things that jumped out to me was the possibility that you might improve the property by sowing clover or another nectar producing plant in those old cow pastures. Just a thought.

 

[suttonbeeman]

Depends on your location and the year. Can vary greatly from yr to yr. We run 24 in the smallest yard to 32 in 4 yards and from 48 to 60 in other Ky yards. IN Florida we run 96 to 148 per yard. On two yards we have 48 due to place to put them.

 

[Michael Bush]

In the middle of 8000 acres of sweet clover you probably can't have too many... in the typical farm land (corn, beans and alfalfa) where I am, 25 hives seems to be about the limit.