Where to put your hive
Many of you will installing package bees in the next few months. We found this great graphic (courtesy of "Be A Honey and Save the Honey Bee" facebook page) of where to place your hives to best benefit the bees. You want to make sure you have easy access to your hive. Good drainage is important...you don’t want the bees to get wet, and you don’t want to hive to retain water. Clean water is essential. If you don’t have a natural water source, you will need to make sure that you provide plenty of water. A bit of shade is good, otherwise the hive will have to work really hard to regulate the hive’s temperature in the summer if it’s put in direct sunlight. Obviously, not everyone will have this ideal location, but you can at least see what is needed for the best hive location.