How many hives can I keep in one area?

[harvey]

My hive count is going up!  Not sure how many swarms I could catch but am wondering how many hives I could keep in an area and still have enough food for them.  I live on 40 acreas,  there is a lot of old farm land all around but doesn't seem to be a lot of bee stuff real close.  Neighbor raises soy beans,  other than that woods with maples and cherry trees,  golden rod in the fall,  I have pines all over the place and I have planted some alf alfa, clover and buckwheat.  There is a wheat field about 3/4 mile away and an old hay field that is mostly grass about 3/4 mile away?  Some wild rasberries but not really a whole lot maybe a half acrea? 

[JP]

It'll take you a while to figure that out, you will need to see how they do as a guage. Could be 30-100 time will tell.

I would think no less than 40 though.


...JP

[Michael Bush]

Anything from ten square feet to 160 acres really doesn't matter as the bees will forage the 8000 acres around you.  In the middle of 8000 acres of sweet clover you probably can't have too many bees.  In the middle of 8000 acres of corn, beans, alfafa and weeds in the ditches, it seems to run around 25 in on place where it starts to drop off in production after that.  But it will depend on too many things to predict...