Hive placement

rober · July 03, 2011, 11:02:56 AM

due to skunks & coons it was recommended to me by several beeks to place my hives 3 concrete blocks high off of the ground. i see many beeks keep their hives much lower. how important is this? i'm posting a photo of my current set up. i considering going to 1 block on the up-hill side $ & at the lower end to make it easier to lift supers. i could get 5 hives on this

bassman1977 · July 03, 2011, 11:59:39 AM

That looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Not to mention once you start getting supers on, you'll need a ladder to get them on and off. I recommend a temporary type of fencing and lowering the hives. I put mine on one cinder block, on top of that the bottom board, and then the hive bodies as normal. Lots of critters running around where my hives are and I haven't noticed an issue with that set up. I don't think they need to be too high up to keep skunks out of the boxes.

alfred · July 03, 2011, 12:20:36 PM

I agree with Bassman, this looks very precarious! I see major disaster in the future. Not to mention how difficult it will be to work with once you get more boxes on.

I would move them down to no more than one cinderblock off of the ground. With your set up I would probably set the one end on the ground or on a 4x4 and then the other end just enough to make even. More likely I would reorient the whole thing 90 degrees to be level on the hill rather than running down the side, and then I would lower it to the ground. If you are worried about skunks you could use top entrances or put a fence around them. As to Racoons and other critters I don't think that they would be a problem, just put a cinder block on top of each hive.

Alfred

antaro · July 03, 2011, 01:35:10 PM

TIMMMMMMBER!
...but seriously, I would also advocate that you stick with a one-cinderblock setup.

rober · July 03, 2011, 01:43:49 PM

this base is very stable. my problem is that it is too tall. i'll lower it this fall.

AllenF · July 03, 2011, 02:21:07 PM

I have on side of a drop off under several hives. You do have to watch it when piling on supers, but I am a big boy. Also I glued everything together to keep it from falling over when my 4 year old is climbing up there to look into the top of the hives.

FRAMEshift · July 03, 2011, 04:05:45 PM

You can't handle many supers on top of elevated boxes. And nothing will be high enough to keep coons out. I use horizontal long hives on two cinder blocks and that works fine but I wouldn't do it with Langstroths.

rober · July 03, 2011, 04:07:17 PM

the bottom blocks are partially buried. the 2nd tier in concrete epoxied to the bottom blocks. the upper end blocks have the hollow parts of the block facing vertically. there are 2x blocks driven into the holes in the block. the platform floor is screwed to those blocks. short of a tornado the stand is not going anywhere. i'm posing this question because i'm only 5'7" tall & i'm looking ahead to having to lift honey laden supers off of the hive. this fall i'll rework things so that everything will be lower. as i said several beeks told me that i should have the hives at least 3 blocks high. these are new hives so i do not expect a lot of honey this year. from left to right....left hive is about normal. there is 1-1/2 full med. super on it now. the ctr hive is a bit behind. 1 barely touched super. the right hand hive is going strong. it filled it's 1st super in a week. the 2nd super is about 1/3 full. i guess the flow is dropping of. i may get 1 super off of it this summer.

gardeningfireman · July 03, 2011, 04:28:08 PM

I agree that you should lower the hives to one block high. The best and cheapest way to thwart the coons and skunks is to put carpet tack strips on the entrance boards of the hives or on the ground right in front of them. Skunks and coons don't particularly enjoy getting the pads of their paws perforated!! :-D