I have a couple of locations on the property that I am considering placing hives.
one gets our earliest morning sun during the growing season and hold it into early afternoon. However, in winter it is mostly shaded nearly all day by the woods to the south.
The other location doesn't see sun until noon during the summer, then holds it into late evening. However, it gets a nice long blast during the afternoon all winter and early spring.
My instinct is that it is more important that the bees get a chance to have a couple of warm days during the cold weather for cleansing flights (site 2) than to get that early sun the rest of the year.
Sound reasonable?
For you up north I would go with the late day/summer sun. Down here I would go with morning sun.
QuoteThe other location doesn't see sun until noon during the summer, then holds it into late evening.
Tough choice because a lot of nectar sources dry up by the afternoon.
I have always viewed hive placement as permenant in so far as once set there it remains as long as it is on that property.
I choose my hive locations on what is the best location during the harvest season. I currently have my beeyard permenantly located that the northwest corner of my orchard next to my garden. Here the hives recieve sunlight from dawn to dusk during harvest season, the hive entrances face south so that the sunlight will warm the entrance and reflex sunlight along the bottom board (if I used one) into the hive.
The downside to this location is that it places the hives so that they face the prevailing winds during the coldest part of the winter. To reduce the impact of cold winds blowing into the hive entrances I have gone with bottomless hives, using a slatted rack as a thermal dead air space. I have found that this works very well, the wind blows through the hive stands, under the slatted rack and leaves the bees relatively unaffected.
Keep them in as much sunlight as possible for winter. Mine get sun all day, summer and winter.
thomas
My hives face East, with woods behind them. They get sun right away in the morning to get an early start, but don't bake in the mid to late afternoon. A lot of flowers produce nectar only in the morning, so the earlier the bees get going, the better!
I have bee's in 4 locations. 2 are on the east sides of old barns, 1 that I own and 1 that is owned by a friend. These get full morning sun all year but shade in afternoon. 2 locations are out if fields up against low 6 to 8 ft high bushes called Autumn Olive. They get sun almost all day year round (when we have sun in winter) All do well during the summer months. All have wind breaks from the west in winter. The ones in the open fields seem to winter much better. This might be my last year on the barn locations if dead out % are high again.
That's a tough choice for sure. If it were me, I would go with the location that gave me the MOST sun during the summer. If that was a wash, then I would go for morning sun. For winter...I could care less where the sun is. I've had hives in dark places during the winter and they were fine. Sit 'em and forget 'em.
Thanks for the feedback,
Total sun is probably pretty equal in summer..around 7-8 hours. I understand the morning sun is desirable for the early activity and nectar. But like I said that location gets next to nothing for sun all winter. It a great location for early blooming fruit trees like plums and cherries helps slow them down a bit in spring. but the other location loses the snow sooner, and definitely has more warm afternoons even on days the frost barely burns off of location 1. I was given the impression that in a long cold winter area like us, the bees really needed a few days for cleansing flights to stay healthy. Sure we might get one or two thaws like that at any spot in a good/mild year,but I wouldn't count on it much.
So would I just be likely to see reduced yields of surplus honey with afternoon sun, or is it likely that the bees could really struggle to find adequate forage for even their own needs? Without knowledge of our specific area (mixed hardwood forest and pasture) I doubt folks can give much guidance on the second half of that question?
http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#locating (http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#locating)