Our Bee Yard

Description

Our bees are being kept in a backyard in our subdivision neighborhood. We had to consider several things when choosing a location for our hive.

• We have houses on both sides of us and along our back fence.
• Our German Shorthair dog, Maggie, has run of one-third of the back yard (she lobbied for a full half but my wife said no).
• Our neighbors have swimming pools and we have a hot tub (and it's not because I'm lazy and don't like to clean pools... well maybe it is).
• Our backyard has grass that must be mowed and trimmed each week.
• We didn't want the bees to interfere with our back yard activities.
• My wife said that if she got stung just one time... well I really can't print the rest of her statement and still keep my RASCi rating.

We chose (i.e. my wife commanded) to place the bees in our side yard. The initial installation of our top bar hive is shown below:

We installed a tinted sheet of Plexiglas over the TBH to act as a cover. Bungee cords hold it in place. The hive sits on cinder blocks to keep it at a convenient working height and to keep it away from the fire ants. The entire side yard has been paved with 16" square blocks. The front of the hive is pointing toward the front of my house. Entrance to this side yard is via a 6 ft. high cedar gate. The house forms one side of the yard and the 6 ft. cedar fence between us and my neighbor forms the other side. I installed a short white picket gate at the rear of the side yard to allow me access to it from the rear and to keep the dog away from it (you can just see her peeking in through the 2^nd and 3^rd pickets in the photo above). And yes, we do store our trashcans here. By looking closely, you can see a flag hanging just above and in front of the hive. This flag, waving in the breeze, is supposed to get the guard bees used to movement in the area. This picture was taken before the bees and entrance feeder were installed. Since then, we have also changed the cover design.

We have also installed a 3-frame observation hive and a standard Langstroth hive in our apiary. Please see the photos page for more views of the apiary.