How Many Bee Hives Per Acre?

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How many bee hives per acre? Along with “how much honey per hive”. There is not a really straight quick answer to either question, but we can look at a lot of factors and get an idea.

There is no real accurate answer to this question, as this varies from race to race. It is generally accepted that the range of a bee is about 3.5-4 miles from the hive. 

How Far Can A Bee Forage?

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A honeybee is just like a vehicle – it carries things from point A to B, and in so doing will incur wear and tear. The further a bee flies to the flowers and back

How Far Can A Bee Fly-In Its Life?

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Bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers. This is used to maintain the hive and produce more bees, wax, and stores of honey. Bees, much like us, thrive on a varied diet.

What Determines How Many Hives Per Acre?

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Google Maps Survey

My first trick is always to do a Google maps survey of the site. That satellite view helps you see if there are hidden flower resources in the area.

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How Many Hives Per Acre?

When you have strong natural honey flows such as clover, goldenrod, dandelion, various forests, and the like, you will easily be able to stock your hives at quite high densities.

We find that as with any extractive process, beekeeping experiences the law of diminishing returns. You will find that as you increase the number of hives in an apiary

Law Of Diminishing Returns

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The Law Of Diminishing Returns Gets Broken

When we heavily stock an apiary we ensure that all flowering plants in the area are hyper-pollinated. This means that they produce more seeds.

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ADVICE

There is no real rule as to how many bees per acre – although suggestions are 1-3 hives for pollination. For honey production, it is really just a case of stocking your apiary until you get a drop in production.

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