Flow hive location

I am wondering the best location for my flow hive. I am in southern california. I am worried about gardeners and blowers and lawn mower etc. How far should the hive be so that it is not disturbed?
I am almost thinking our roof top deck is the best option as to keep bees safe from gardeners and pets and pests. Thoughts?

Love your way of thinking. Usually beekeepers’ main consideration is to keep the pets, kids and gardeners safe from the bees. Rooftop for a quiet bee place sounds good, unless it gets too hot up there or is too hard to access.

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Hello fellow SoCal resident. :smile:

My hives are on a raised terrace in our back yard, and our gardeners use leaf blowers within a few feet of them with no problems. I think it depends on how docile your colony is. We have Cordovan Italian queens (Kona and Koehnen) and they have been perfectly well-behaved.

We have regulations from the City of San Diego which determine how far from property boundaries and require the establishment of 6 ft high “flyover barriers”. While this can be onerous to set up, we have had a hive in a Community garden for over a year with zero issues. So for your purposes, if you are willing to create such a barrier, you could put your hive almost anywhere. Mine looks like this:


It is just a 8 foot T-post fence, with wire mesh and then garage door insect screen zip-tied to the mesh to create a bee-proof barrier. Not beautiful, but safe and it works.

We have a roof deck also, which we hardly ever use. However, the disincentives for using it are several:

  1. Everything has to be carried through the house to get up there. Equipment is bulky, and if bees escape inside the house, that can be a big nuisance.
  2. If the hive ever goes “hot” (e.g. partial africanization after a supercedure, or an unpredictable new nucleus), the space to escape attacking bees is limited, and we would have to go back through the house while being chased by bees. Not a good idea. I have experienced africanized bees, and while I am not scared of them, I really do not want them inside the house and I do want room to run from them when they swamp me. :blush:
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