Fencing the Bees

Some customers who may have other livestock on properties – or in fields that aren’t fenced to keep the public out – may be asked to provide fencing around the hives.   Here are some samples that a few of my clients have put around the bees to protect from cattle, horses, humans, goats, and sheep.   Theft and vandalism of bee hives are a serious concern, and protecting your investment of managing hives on your property is important.   Remember – Theft, vandalism, and poisoning of hives are NOT covered for replacement in our contracts – and will be at the cost of the property owner to replace should these occur to the bee colonies.

Whether the fence is around the entire field, or just around the hives – I will provide my own chain/lock to secure the fence gate.

(scroll down to see several methods – and clicking the pics will open the full-sized pic in a new window)

Chain-Link Fence with gate: Good for places where posts in the ground are better – especially if in a publicly available spot.   This client is a land developer, and the field is open to the public.  They needed livestock on the land to maintain their ag valuation until construction started.   Theft and vandalism was the main concern, so they had their own contractor place fencing around the hive stands before the bees were set in place.   

Sectional cattle panels with gate This is probably the easiest fencing to put into place – and is good for protecting from other livestock – but not necessarily secure against theft – as the panels just pin together at the ends of the panels.    This client has horses – and horses are notorious for their shenanigans for playing tricks and getting into things they shouldn’t.   Horses will tear up hives to get to any sweet frames of honey they smell – so protection from other livestock is essential to protect the bees (and their other farm animals if the bees deem that they need to defend themselves if a hive is moved, jostled, vibrated, knocked over, etc.   No lock required here, since the hives are already in a fenced field at the back of a property, and the fence-panel gate has a chain that secures the door closed.

Wood Fence with gate: Good for places where posts in the ground are better – especially if in a publicly available spot.   This client also had horses, and this fence they built provides a secure space around the hives from the horses.   No lock required here, since the hives are already in a fenced field at the back of a property.

And an example of what NOT to try to use to protect the beehives.   Construction trash-fence zip-tied to t-posts.  This does NOTHING to keep the horses and longhorn cattle out of the hives.

DO NOT DO THIS !!