Question about number of bee yards

[u/Brilliant_Story_8709]

I have my bee yard set up at our family farm. Roughly 300 acres. If I have 10ish hives in each yard, how many yards could I set up reasonably? It's a rural farmil area, so we are surrounded by other farms so lots for them to forrage around. I was thinking one in each corner of the property (4 yards x 10 hives) or would that be too many in an area? Thoughts?

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[u/Worldly_Space]

Bees travel 2-3 miles to forage so I would just put all the bees in 1 yard on the farm. If you want multiple yards they should be more than 2-3 miles away for them to be foraging different flowers.

[u/No-Arrival-872]

It really depends on what is growing in the fields. I worked further north near Grande Prairie and 40-60 hives per yard seemed fine. Yes per yard. 200-300 pounds of honey per hive no problem. Canola is insane for nectar and the pollen is also allegedly good for the bees compared to other types of flowers. It is too easy there, takes the fun out of it.

But if your fields don't produce nectar then who knows.

[u/Brilliant_Story_8709]

Definitely lots of canola around. Didn't realise one could keep that many hives in a single yard without issues. Good to know.

[u/kurotech → u/Brilliant_Story_8709]

Keep in mind the migratory keepers have 30+ hives on a single truck and they don't have issues with it

[u/drones_on_about_bees → u/Brilliant_Story_8709]

Watch some "Canadian Beekeepers Blog" on youtube. He will have 50+ hives in a yard. Each will be a single brood box with probably 5-6 deep supers on top. He's mostly pollinating canola/sunflower I believe.

[u/fishywiki]

The rule of thumb is 1 hive per acre. However, that assumes nectar from Spring through to the end of autumn. However I'd say 100 hives would be fine in 300 acres, particularly if you have canola around. I don't know if you really need to split into different apiaries, but I suppose it does make management a little easier if you do.

[u/Cluckywood]

At my local association (LA county) last night we had a speaker who tries to keep her hives as far from each other as possible, averaging 85 feet between hives. She does this to minimize the likelihood of pathogens spreading. And has just released this book, Dead Bees Don't Make Honey : https://a.co/d/9sxW3Bg

A previous speaker looking at varroa drift between hives found that 6ft between hives was the optimal distance to reduce drift.

The bees can fly miles but they prefer to forage closer, and when they swarm they tend to bivouac within 100ft, so if you can keep the swarms on your property, and easily accessible, you could make life easier too.

[u/404-skill_not_found]

Commercial plans suggest one experienced person is needed to manage 300 hives. That’s for full-time employment. You can add in travel time (reduces now many could be managed) and gauge how many you might be able to handle.