Sorry for the late reply, read right through your question the 1st time in your reply.
Always trying to get good feedback and appreciate the question and learning.
The side yard where the bees will be, lengthwise runs north by Northeast to South by Southwest. For purposes of this conversation I’m going to use basic coordinate information so essentially the houses on the east the fence is on the west and 2 gates one on the south and one on the north
Between the house and the fence where the bees will be placed, is approximately 10 feet wide. As you approach both gates the one on the north and the one on the south it narrows to 6 feet.
Air-conditioning units are within the narrowed portion, 6 feet wide between the house and the fence toward the the north side.
The gate toward the south side is where my vegetable garden will be/is and it also is 6 feet wide. Near the gate, is where I will have the little water garden located. Which will be approximately 20 feet from where the hive will be located. Toward the south end, it’s an alleyway with access to my garage and beyond the alleyway is a concrete wall and be on that is a major access road, 6 lanes wide. Trees surround the concrete wall between the alley and the major road.
Northside, beyond the air-conditioning units and the gate is my front yard sort of a cul-de-sac area not much traffic at all. Not even foot traffic.
The west side across the fence is my neighbors side and backyard. This area of the side and backyard of theirs is not used hardly at all. Their patio and access to their backyard is further west. They’ve got a couple of decent trees and shrubbery between our fence and their house, these trees and shrubbery do not shade the area where the bees will be.
I certainly appreciate the inquiry and the feedback I’ve gotten thus far.
Already amazed at how social and technical the beehive is and can see how essential setting up a location well will help prevent potential swarming, disease and infestation of of wanted insects. And certainly and foremost not disrupting the well-being of my community.
Great, thanks. No chance of it going dry, too much rain coming off the hill. Been here 27 years, and even in drought if goes down very little. My nephews fish in the pond, and I’ve warned them where it will be located, so hopefully we will avoid the chase!
Thanks again.
So my hives are located about 150ft (50m) from my house, though you have to walk all the way to the bees to even really notice them. they receive partial/filtered sun in the morning not getting to full sun until about 10am and then they keep the sun currently until about 7.30pm, so my girls tent to run on a little later clock than most hives, but with the weather warming im sure that is going to change.
For those worried about pets, i have 3 dogs of varying ages, 12, 5 and 1 and they have all been stung once, the pup doesn’t get bothered by them, the middle dog is black and they don’t bother her until she snaps at them and the oldest dog goes and lays right by the hive entrance, he doesn’t bother them and they don’t bother him. The bees learn to accept the dogs and the dog learn their bounds with the bees one way way or the other (a good sting is a great teacher).
We are county (Greenville county, South Carolina) so not within city limits so we don’t have any special rules on our hive, but that being said our hives are 8 ft from the fence so even if someone is right by the hives they are far enough away that the watchers don’t get bothered by the bees. As for my Neighbors we were open and honest with them and told them we were going to get a few hives, and ALL of them were curious but happy, even one of our neighbors who says she is allergic was happy to know we were getting bees that could help her veggie plants out.
All in all it has been a great decision to get the hives!.
Best “Free” spot is to be located under a deciduous tree on the afternoon shade side.
Best if the hive entrance can face the morning sun.
This method will get you morning sun, afternoon shade during summer, and all day sun during the winter months.
Alternatively, if you are building a structure and want to get scientific, make a roof with an awning which is North Facing in Southern Hemisphere and South Facing in Northern Hemisphere. The awning will need to stick out to a point based on the altitude of the sun to your latitude You can work these out for your specific area and many online resources who have made the calculations already.
In our area of Byron Bay, NSW Australia I believe the sun is 5 degrees from directly overhead (85 from the north facing horizon) at the Summer Solstice, and 52 degrees from directly overhead (37.85 from the north facing horizon) at the Winter Solstice.
One way to calculate this would be to can look at the angle of the earth’s tilt which is approximately 23.5 degrees. With the angle to the vertical you could calculate Summer (21st of December) Angle = (90° - latitude) + 23.5° So if you are at Byron Bay, NSW Australia the latitude is 28.6431° S and so the maximum angle to the vertical at noon on the summer solstice would be approx 90-28.6431+23.5 = 84.85 degrees.
On the winter solstice Winter (21st of June) Angle = (90° - latitude) - 23.5° you should get approx 90-28.6431 - 23.5 = 37.85 degrees. There are plenty of online resources that calculate sun angles for you
Given these vertical angles you can easily arrange your hives with the overhang awning at North Facing (in Southern hemisphere) to Summer afternoon shade and winter all day sun.
Depending on the height you could calculate the winter shadow: (90-37.85) = 52.15 degrees which is approx 1.28 and the shadow length will be approx 1.28 times the height of awning. If your awning was 2.4 meters high this would cast a shadow of around 3.072 meters from the top edge of the awning.
Given all of this you could easily locate your hives under cover in an area at some point less than 3.07 m from the top edge of awning so that you are comfortable on what time of the year it has sun all day. It would be optimal for your specific area, but it is best to have the sun angle in such a way where the hive does not bake in the sun during the heat of the day, but does gather warmth during summer. Looking at the sun angles for Spring and Autumn depending on your spring temperatures would get you a good middle ground on where to locate your hives.