I am thinking of putting some hives on my property on a nice south facing slope, sheltered location. Unlike my other hive location on my property this one would be visible from a road through the park behind my property. The hives wouldn't be close, but visible. I am worried about yahoos messing with the hives.
So - tactics to reducing vandalism? I can jump off my pasture electric fence and fence it off to start. Also thinking of putting up a sign that reads "Area under 24 hour remote video surveillance" (I'm sure there must be a satellite somewhere pointed at my property, so I wouldn't be lying! ;) I figure that would keep them busy for awhile looking for the camera. Any thoughts, ideas?
JC
I've a hive of Russian girls that would keep them on their toes. They patrol my yard like little MiG fighters.
Along with your other ideas, how about painting the hives to blend in? I've been painting my recent builds forest green to blend in better.
Ditto on painting the hives to match the surroundings. People don't see what they are not trained to look for. I have a couple hives in my front yard, and before I could stop them, contractors would actually put their clipboards on the bee hives to do their writing. Just a pile of boxes, right? ;) It's always amusing to point out to them where they are standing, hee, hee, hee....
Having said that, someone will eventually notice, so I think the hot wire is a good deterent. Anyone more motivated will be taken care of by the bees.
Claymore mines work wonders.
And get a game cam on the hives.
If you have trouble getting the real thing try this,
http://www.steelhawkairsoft.com/asc7-cd.html (http://www.steelhawkairsoft.com/asc7-cd.html)
Then you can post the video of kids getting slammed on the net. Once the word gets out.............
How about a sign, " Danger" Iowa State Killer Bee Project !
Information is also a good idea , put a sign up explaining the benefits of bees , how they are peaceful away from the hive and only protect the immediate area around the hive and people should not linger or loiter or mabee just a
NO LOITERING sign :-D
mvh edward :-P
Quote from: AllenF on January 09, 2012, 06:58:24 PMClaymore mines work wonders.If you have trouble getting the real thing try this,
http://www.steelhawkairsoft.com/asc7-cd.html (http://www.steelhawkairsoft.com/asc7-cd.html)
If you load it with powderded sugar it might solve your varoa problems too. :bee:
YEAH!!! I like AllenF's idea... what a hoot that would be... and if the hive would go after 'em at the same time... he he!!!!
Ooooh - the Claymore mine sounds like fun, might get me into trouble, but fun. I like the idea of painting to match - they will be in prairie - time to let the creative brush go wild!
JC
Painting to blend in is best, and a game camera hidden to see who has been snoopin around.
Plus with the game camera you get to see all the wildlife that pass by, unknown till camera.
>>I've been painting my recent builds forest green to blend in better.
BlueBee- Are you really going to paint your hives GREEN; and white? :evil:
Them spartan colors will surely get your junk tore up. :-D
MGOBLUE!!!!
Two legged predators are usually too canny for the really large "have-a-heart" traps. So I would go with multiple medium sized leg hold spring traps - the large bear traps while possibly appropriate, are just too obvious.
Yeah, and everyone knows that no matter how far away you take the varmints to let them go, they always come back :-D
make a garbage bin /compost bin outer cover for the hive
plant a hedgerow. blueberries & bottlebrush buckeyes get quite large & would provide nectar sources. give yourself a walkway & aim the hives towards the hedge so you can mow close to them. i would then mulch between the hedge & the hives so you do not have to mow there. i put down old carpet & mulched over that 3 years so far & nothing has come thru it yet. you could put up a temporary privacy fence using a stack of straw bales until the hedge grows tall enough.
Quote from: BlueBee on January 09, 2012, 03:04:39 PM
Along with your other ideas, how about painting the hives to blend in? I've been painting my recent builds forest green to blend in better.
My vote is for camo. Would blend real nice!
...DOUG
KD4MOJ
All I can say about Camo is it gets hot in the sun. Would you be painting the cover?
(http://allthemfiles.horizon-host.com/pictures/bees/camonuc500.jpg) (http://allthemfiles.horizon-host.com/pictures/bees/camonuc.jpg)
If possible place them in plain sight of a homestead, where at least anyone might think they could be seen. I lost my bees in an out yard 1/2 mile off the main rd behind a hedge.. 12 g shotgun through the brood chambers some time from 1 Jan till about the middle of Feb. This was over 20 yrs ago still has a bitter taste..dl
oliver, I just lost three the same way last week while we were in TX.
Scott
Requeen with German Black AMM's.
Quote from: hardwood on January 11, 2012, 04:04:09 PM
oliver, I just lost three the same way last week while we were in TX.
Scott
Low-lifes... :whip:
When I was trying to figure out where to situate my bee yard (http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,35295.0.html) at the house I pondered the issues of vandalism. I really wanted to place them on the east side of my house which would have been on top of the hill (as my house is). But....a state highway passes by and though there's a nice thick fence row along the highway there are gaps and I figured the hive boxes *would* be seen. Made me a little nervous. The other option was to put them downhill on the *north* side of the hill, out of sight of the highway. I talked with my mentor about my possible locations, but did not mention my concerns. His first thought was about the spot visible from the road....that it might be subject to vandalism by someone spotting them while riding by...primarily by being shot with a gun. I opted for the spot on the north side of the house. I'm still a bit concerned because the bee yard is out of sight of the house, but at least it's out of sight of the folks traveling on the highway, too.
A while back there was a link to a video of some young thugs shooting a beehive with what looked like a .22 rifle. It looked like the beehive was beside a rockwash pond in a remote area...they were brave in shooting at the boxes from across the small pond. The punks thought they were so smart and posted the video on Youtube. It seems the video may have been in Florida. I wonder if anyone ever tracked them down? I can't find the video now.
Ed
They probably took the video down, its evidence in the court trial now !
Quote from: tefer2 on January 12, 2012, 02:15:33 PM
They probably took the video down, its evidence in the court trial now !
...we hope.
We found out who did it to us...idiots posted pics on face book. They also shot up a flat back canoe and my 21' center console boat that we take off shore fishing. The Sheriff's Dept is on it now.
Scott
I have seen tons of videos on Youtube of people (not all kids) doing stupid crap to hives. Some are not on there anymore for some reason. Trucks backing into hives or just running them over, Kids pushing or kicking them. Paintball dots all over them. Setting them afire. You name it, people have tried it. You can't fix stupid, just remove it from the gene pool.
Hardwood, you get 'em. Get them good. As to the camo being hot, I'm thinking that since they will be in prairie that the primary colors are going to be various shades of beige. Hopefully that won't be too hot. I will post pics when I finish one. I must admit that I worry about idiots shooting the hives the most. Lots of hunters in the park bordering my property. Which would really bite since I am hunter friendly and allow hunters onto my property. On the other hand, since I am hunter friendly, if someone did blaze away at my hives, then bragged about it, there would be more chance of someone in the hunting community hearing about it and coming forward.
JC
Quote from: hardwood on January 12, 2012, 06:12:22 PM
We found out who did it to us...idiots posted pics on face book. They also shot up a flat back canoe and my 21' center console boat that we take off shore fishing. The Sheriff's Dept is on it now.
Scott
YES!!! I hope you can get all of this made good to ya'll. In other words, I hope they got resources for you to recoup your damages+. Of course, it's like a friend says..."You can't get blood out of a turnip,..but you can get the turnip!".
You have my very, very, very best wishes on this one! Hopefully they've got some deep pockets...besides the boat and canoe, those were some of those specially bred colonies that they destroyed, weren't they....gold bees.
I've often said that I'd feel better shooting a thief than a rabid dog...the dog didn't choose to be rabid. Vandals fit in there, too.
Best wishes,
Ed
Quote from: greenbtree on January 12, 2012, 06:37:56 PM
Hardwood, you get 'em. Get them good. As to the camo being hot, I'm thinking that since they will be in prairie that the primary colors are going to be various shades of beige.
You might consider painting the tops white if the hives are going to be above the area that you're concerned taking fire from and the shooters can't see "down" onto the hives. Telescoping tops will tend to cast a little shade on the sides at noon which will help. Placing the hives close together will help to create shade for neighboring hives. Just a few bushes planted strategically will help take off the sharp edges at the ends of the group. Rocks on top (gotta have some there anyhow) will take the edge off the tops.
What direction are the hives facing? If facing east it would be good to paint the back sides white to help with the hot afternoon sun.... Just thoughts. ;)
Ed
They are going to face South. Frankly, we don't get so much warm weather that the hives getting too hot are a common occurrence. I use screened bottom boards, so that helps too. On the few really hot days we get, just cracking the tops is usually sufficient.
JC
We worry about our hives at our house in Maine. Lots of woods there that a vandal could use as cover. We have a game camera up but we're afraid they'll steal it too. We're hoping to put up a surveillance system sometime next summer so we'll be able to at least record them doing any damage.
Out of sight, out of mind:
A substantial windbreak could make them less visible to passerby.
Hey Scott, have you got any satisfaction out of the perps, yet?
Ed
Not yet but I'm to call the Sheriff's office tomorrow.
Scott
Be the squeaky wheel.
I don't believe in luck, so....best wishes! ;)
Keep us posted.
Ed
Quote from: hardwood on January 12, 2012, 06:12:22 PM
We found out who did it to us...idiots posted pics on face book. They also shot up a flat back canoe and my 21' center console boat that we take off shore fishing. The Sheriff's Dept is on it now.
Scott
When I first started in law enforcement my supervisor told me, "The bad news is, there's more of them than there are of us. The good news is, they're stupider."
I always liked that that assumed a certain amount of stupidity on our part. ;)