My mentor taught me to face the entrance east so the early morning sun gets them going. Wind is a consideration and ours is mainly from the W/SW so the east entrance makes sense there as well.

 

I imagine it gets pretty cold there - I would probably face them east - morning sun gets them going.

 

If your prevailing wind is from the south I think I would face the hive entrance to the east.

 

>hives should be south facing, is that true?

Most of mine are east facing. Some of mine are every direction. I think there are more important criteria than just an arbitrary direction.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#locating

 

Doing cut outs I've noticed they mostly face south to east. I try to keep my hives doing the same.

 

It's generally accepted that hive openings should be face towards the morning sun to get them to an early start. Here's another question: Have any of you more experienced beeks observed a tendency to build comb in a particular direction (where not directed by frames or foundation). For instance, say in an empty box or observations during cut outs.

I've observed that nothing these critters do is left to chance, so it stands to reason that when left to their own devices, comb may be oriented based on some factor such as azimuth, local magnetic declination, prevailing wind, etc.

Whaddya think?

 

I've always wondered about the advice to face the hive entrance towards the sun. The idea is that a hive facing the sun will get more active faster. Why would that be true? It is just a box. Why would the box heat up more just because the relatively small entrance is facing a certain way?

Assuming that the bees seeing light makes a difference, wouldn't they still see light out of the entrance when the sun rises? After all, it may be less bright on the side away from the sun but its also not dark. Also, why would it matter at all if there is a screend bottom board and the bees can see light hitting under the hive?

I'm not claiming to have an answer, but I just don't understand the normal advice about how to face your hives. I can see how putting the hives in the sun could get them to heat up, but the direction they face seems pretty unimportant.

Is this advice based on anything other than "it's how it's done?" Has anybody done an actual comparison?

Also, it would seem that a more important consideration would be the prevailing wind directions. I think it could affect the bees if the opening faced north, for example, and allowed cold north winds to blow in the entrance. At least where I live, the winds are out the east the least, which is probably true for most of the U.S.? Maybe that's a better reason to face the hives to the east.

Just wondering,

ndvan

 

My hives have an east 'porch' and I do notice the early bees coming down and hanging out in the direct sun. If my entrance was on the west or north they wouldn't get this direct heat. Never done any comparison's though.

 

I have seen un-managed hives face in every direction, but most hives that I have see, that have taken up residence on someone’s home or a tree face south or east. So my observation is that they prefer these directions for the entrance.
In my area our prevailing winds are North west so especially in winter you wouldn’t want to face the hive in that direction to prevent them from being blasted by winter winds, or in warmer weather summer thunderstorms.

 

Here's the science behind the concerns of hive placement.

http://bee-quick.com/reprints/sunny.pdf

That said, the overwhelming majority of hives kept in the US
are kept on pallets, which face 4 hive entrances at 90-degree
angles to each other.

The implication here is that 3 of the 4 hives have to be "facing the
wrong direction" when on pallets, and if this was intolerable, the
pallet system would not be used.

 

Direction of wild comb

Read this the other day. When falling a tree with a hive in it, if possible fall the tree onto the opening hole or fall it so the hole is up. Bees will build comb striaght back from the opening( makes sense faster entering and access to back of hive). Comb is much stronger inline than sideways so there will be much less damage to the hive landing inline.

Might not be exactly what was asked but I thought it was interesting..

 

In my experience the comb usually runs about 45 degrees from the opening.