For various ill informed reasons, my hive entrance is currently facing south west. Should I rotate it to face the rising sun? Or, is having the morning sun hit the entrance not that big of a deal?
If the advice is to rotate the hive, what is the best way to do so? A couple degrees every day? One sudden move?
Morning sun is great but not essential, I have a few hives in morning and full sun and another few in mostly all day shade, the only difference I have seen is more moisture in the hives during winter and the shade hives performing better in the summer due to less bees needing to ventilate in the hot australian sun. If you wish to rotate, then 30 degrees per day will do it, the hives can be turned 90 degrees by the third day.
Ihengst,
Nah ! I’ve only got one of my hives facing East … The other two are actually facing north so they face away from the south fence n neighbor. My property has very limited n no perfect spots so just doing as best I can. I guessing many feral colonies are always facing perfect either. I just glad to have my honeybees hopefully coming in next couple weeks.
So don’t Panic,
Gerald.
I’d worry more about the traffic patterns in your yard. Face the entrance away from paths people walk down.
Michael,
Great advise. I’ve aimed my hives in the best direction I can to keep fight path away from any traffic. My wife has MD so seldem ventures into the LOCK backyard n pond area. Thanks for the article n notes.
Gerald 
Hi ya @Gerald_Nickel, I’m luving your pic of your hives and pond look’s really nice.
Zab,
Thankz. I added the small pond n fall couple years ago. The path n return to beekeeping started materializing a couple years ago but didn’t take root until last late summer. Way too late to get a hive going. So last fall I bought a complete 10 frame Langstroth. Ordered three Nuc’s in later October then got busy in my small woodshop manufacturing two more. This Spring (earlier) I bought a full cedar hive (10 frame Beethinking setup/none Flow-hive. I’m a watcher on new stuff. If Flows work out as well as it looks I will probably add a larger/wider Flow-super to my Ceder set up late Sprng/summer 2017. It will take a year to build out what I have so no hurry at the honey supers this year anyway.
Thankz for your nice note n comment. I enjoy sharing. My Nuc’s should be here soon. Put I am always puttering around here doing something.
Take care,
Gerald.
Like your set up, vary nice 
