This third installment of our bee series is all about the Hive. The gathering place that is self sustaining for the duration of their lives. The inhabited space is literally a multi level castle and the each level is pretty much perfection when it comes to construction and production. Below are our two Hives we will be working with. . . er, Mike will be working with.
The tall hive holds, temporarily, the levels that will go on the lower Hive when needed. The shorter hive is the ‘working’ hive and will house the first Italian Honey Bee Colony in the Spring. If a second Hive be acquired, The seconds above the brood box will be removed until they are needed. Confused? I was.
There are perimeters that have to be met before you can even place a beehive in one’s yard. In the city, you have to have the boxes 25’ away from your property line or you have to have a 6 foot barrier between each property. Check with your individual cities for set rules if you are planning to do this. Our city requires the above perimeters, Porland, Oregon, on the other hand only requires bees be kept 6 feet from the property line. We can only have 5 hives before we need a permit to beekeep, same thing in Portland.
Where we live, for the square footage of our property, we can have 3 hives permanently, but we can add one more during swarming season. Mike is looking into what you need to do with the fourth colony because in his research that is not listed. HOWEVER, Mike did say that the fourth colony can be incorporated into an existing colony if you are willing to kill both queens so there would be less likely to fight. Make sure there is a honeycomb that has queen cells in it BEFORE incorporating the hives. so all the young bees will raise the new queen and everyone will be back to worshiping her, carrying on with life with a stronger community.
The rules for Portland are different. First you have to send out a letter to your neighbors to tell them you are getting bees prior to installing hives.. Second, you can have up to 5 colonies on any sized lot BUT if you have 10,000 square feet or more, you can have or more 6 and no permit required. So, PLEASE check out what your requirements are where you live! SIDE NOTE:
PORTLAND! Mike just told me you can have livestock in your backyard. Do you know how jealous I am???? You just have to keep it really clean so it doesn’t start to smell. But WHAT?! I am so very jealy right now! If you are thinking about that, check out your regulations first!
The whole bee hive is a ton of information to keep writing about so Mike and I sat down to have a chat about the parts of the hive in his own words and to talk about his experiences with nurturing bees. Below is two excerpts from our recorded conversation. If you have any questions, please ask them in comment section below or leave a comment if you want and give it a like too!