Hi All,
I am establishing a beehive to help the pollination in my orchad.
I am a bit concerned because the location I was thinking of placing the hive is about 300m from the orchad. Is it still ok and not too far? What distance do you recommend between the 2?
Thank you.
That should be fine. Bees fly a few kilometres when foraging so they will find your orchard.
Cheers
Rob.
Pollination services is a bit different to honey production and I’m not an expert.
It used to be a rule of thumb 1 hive (triple deck) per acre of fruit trees. I understand they bring them in when approx 5-10% of the flowers are open and place amongst the trees. The bees then focus on the fruit trees and as the percentage of flowers are open they pollinate them rather than looking further a field for better nectar and pollen sources. The pollination is usually about a 4-6 week window.
So not sure the size of your orchid but if just a small one then maybe closer is better?
Adam
It is more than a classic orchad that I am establishing, it is a permaculture food forest. There are many more plants than just the fruit trees. The bees will be part of the whole ecosystem not only the pollination. At the moment plants such as borage, african blue basil, pineapple basil, strawberries, grevilleas, wattle are in full bloom and full of bees. The system is designed to supply food for the bees and all other beneficial insects all year round. As I am not using any pesticide or chemical fertiliser the system needs to be self sufficient. And bees are part of the process.
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Hi Sylvie, I think your bees & plants will do fine.
There’s a video for you to watch on Youtube “City of the Bees”. Apart of being educational about bee culture in the hive, when you get to the part where they explain “The language of the bees”, you’ll get an understanding of why we don’t always see bees in our flowers, like we expect, even though we have a beehive sitting adjacent to them.
Bees are pretty to watch. During a honey flow, we’ll see them leave the entrance, then take off into the sky, fading in the distance, completely ignoring what’s in the yard.
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