# How many hive can fit in a 1 acre bee yard



## captwillie (May 7, 2012)

alen
what kind of forage is around?
Any other beeyards around?
Good luck willie


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Bees may forage in a radius of up to 2 miles or so. (Studies report varying numbers for forage distance.) In any case, that potential forage area encompasses at least 8,000 acres. So whether your apiary is on half an acre or 100 acres, it is the surrounding 7,900 acres that make the difference.

I'll stick my neck out  and say that you may want to build up to 10 - 20 hives at one location and study what happens to average hive production as you add more hives in that same location.


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

it is in the country in Alabama plenty of woods and cotton and no other beeyards that I know of


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## Crsswift70 (Sep 9, 2013)

As others have said, it's the forage in the 2-3 mile radius and competition you would need to look at. A beek outside of Tuscaloosa told my buddy that the hives close to wetlands and bottoms were the best producers. I suppose that is because the constant source of water allowed flowering despite dry spells. If you had a lot of clearcut, old growth and wetlands in your area i'm betting that number would get pretty high. You won't really know until you start watching their production.


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## ccar2000 (Aug 9, 2009)

Funny, I was just sharing this wish a local beek. Here's a tool that I grabbed from another post. It will help you to visualize the forage radius.

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm


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## danno (Dec 17, 2007)

One Acre is about 209ft X 209ft or 2508inch X 2508inch = 6290064 square inch
Now a hive is 19.875 X 16.25 = 323 square inches
Now 6290064 divided by 323 = *19473 *hives could fit on one acre


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## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

Danno is right on assuming 10 frame hives.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

danno said:


> One Acre is about 209ft X 209ft or 2508inch X 2508inch = 6290064 square inchNow a hive is 19.875 X 16.25 = 323 square inchesNow 6290064 divided by 323 = *19473 *hives could fit on one acre


Wouldn't you have to stand on top of the hives to work them? This sounds problematic to me. Maybe you should figure in some access space.


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

danno said:


> One Acre is about 209ft X 209ft or 2508inch X 2508inch = 6290064 square inch
> Now a hive is 19.875 X 16.25 = 323 square inches
> Now 6290064 divided by 323 = *19473 *hives could fit on one acre


lol that is a lot of hives


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

Who says the hives all have to be on the ground, level? Many more than the suggested number could be accommodated, if some of them are stacked, or on shelves of various heights. It would even take care of the access to the hives, issue.

Of course, my acre is only 0.98/acre and it includes my dwelling, garden, greenhouse, koi pond, driveway, etc. I am trying to achieve a count of 30 full size colonies, and 100 nucs. So far, I've achieved about half my goal of each. Our local weather determines whether I need to feed, or not, to maintain their strength.

To answer your question without reservation, you can literally fit an extremely large number of colonies on a single acre. It all depends on what you are willing to do to accommodate their needs.


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## matt1954 (Sep 8, 2010)

I have 125 colonies on one acre in Florida. They are surrounded by pepper right now so I am hoping that is enough but nonetheless, afterwards, I will be feeding.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

allan said:


> I have 1 acre I can make in to a bee yard I was just wondering how many hives could fit :scratch:
> thanks allan


How many do you have? How many do you want to have there? That's how many.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

danno said:


> One Acre is about 209ft X 209ft or 2508inch X 2508inch = 6290064 square inch
> Now a hive is 19.875 X 16.25 = 323 square inches
> Now 6290064 divided by 323 = *19473 *hives could fit on one acre


But you need room around each of them to work them.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

How many people fit on one acre of land?

It depends on how high you stack them.


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> How many people fit on one acre of land?
> 
> It depends on how high you stack them.


lol that is true


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

A friend of mine says that all of the people in the world would fit into 3 cubic acres of space.


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## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> But you need room around each of them to work them.


This one is easy.Just stand the colonies on end with the entrances facing up.That allows room to work between them if you have small feet..


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## Spinner (Jun 2, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> A friend of mine says that all of the people in the world would fit into 3 cubic acres of space.


Can I be on the outside row, please?


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## spreerider (Jun 23, 2013)

ccar2000 said:


> Funny, I was just sharing this wish a local beek. Here's a tool that I grabbed from another post. It will help you to visualize the forage radius.
> 
> http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm


neat i never thought to do this on google earth, wow my bees have a lot more access to water than i thought, one huge lake is only 1km away and and a river and pond less than that, also i reach all the fields around me so there is far more clover than i had previously thought, next spring i need more hives i guess.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> A friend of mine says that all of the people in the world would fit into 3 cubic acres of space.


All those people would have to be *cremated *first, and then it likely would still be difficult.  Here's my math:
(209 *209* 209 * 3) / 7000000000 = 0.00391256957

Each "person" would have just under 4/1000 of a cubic foot of space.
:lookout:


(numbers are approximate. World population estimates are about 7 billion.)


OK, here's the BEE content. If someone would like to provide an estimate of the world honeybee population, we could see whether all those bees will fit into one _cubic _acre.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Well, he did specify that they would have to be dehydrated and maybe it was 5 or 10 cubic acres. I don't really recall. Whatever it was, it pointed out how little the space is that we could occupy.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

allan said:


> I have 1 acre I can make in to a bee yard I was just wondering how many hives could fit :scratch:
> thanks allan


What are you really asking allan? Do you have any hives yet? It doesn't really matter what the answer is, you will never fill it up. A semi load of commercially run 4 way pallets of beehives could fit comfortably on an acres of land w/ space to manuver around them in order to work them. That's 408 hives, depending on what sort of semi trailer one is used to working with.


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## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

Spinner said:


> Can I be on the outside row, please?


Aren't you glad you use Dial?Don't you wish everyone did?


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> All those people would have to be *cremated *first, and then it likely would still be difficult.  Here's my math:
> (209 *209* 209 * 3) / 7000000000 = 0.00391256957
> 
> Each "person" would have just under 4/1000 of a cubic foot of space.
> ...


If we reduced 7 billion people to one cubic foot, how many cubic acres would that be? Seems like a cremated person would fit in a cubic foot, or even less.


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> What are you really asking allan? Do you have any hives yet? It doesn't really matter what the answer is, you will never fill it up. A semi load of commercially run 4 way pallets of beehives could fit comfortably on an acres of land w/ space to manuver around them in order to work them. That's 408 hives, depending on what sort of semi trailer one is used to working with.


all I was asking is if 1 acres would be enough space and if there was like a limit on how many hives per acre that's all 

thanks allan


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## Shouse (Jul 1, 2010)

A truck load (408 hives) will fit on an acre for over wintering. During the honey flow (spring/summer/fall) I would not put more than 64 hives within a 2 mile radius, and I would want 160 acres to 320 acres of Alfalfa or clover... within 400 yards and don't forget a water source.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I think Allan really meant to ask is "how many hives can one acre sustain?"


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Well that's odd frank. Wonder why he didn't ask what he wanted to know?


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

I will not be asking or posting anything else on beesource


thanks allan


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Oh my Gawd. Are people really so sensitive? I guess so.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Allan - by my count you got 6 _responsive, useful _answers. The rest was some responses to the useful answers, and then there was a lot of _fluff_. :lookout:

While you may prefer to have less fluff, 6 _responsive _answers is not too bad overall. The fluff posts were not directed at you _personally _- but sometimes that is going to happen in a public forum such as Beesource. You can always choose to ignore the fluff. 


(the comments above are from the perspective of someone who has a foot in each camp. I did offer a responsive answer, but then also contributed to the fluff.)
k:


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

http://roane.ext.wvu.edu/r/download/93589

Wow! Honey production should be easy with this information


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

allan said:


> lol that is a lot of hives


Post 29. Clearly allan found some comments entertaining.


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## Shouse (Jul 1, 2010)

Must of been something I said... That's what the wife always says :scratch:


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> Post 29. Clearly allan found some comments entertaining.


don't forget about post 23


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

And informative too.


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> And informative too.


have I said anything out the way to you what is the deal


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I'm not sure. You seemed to dislike the answers you got. I can understand not caring for "the fluff" as Rader called it. But, you seemed to be upset. Unless I misunderstood. But you did Post that you would no longer ask anymore questions on beesource or making anymore Posts. Was that you being humorous?


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> I'm not sure. You seemed to dislike the answers you got. I can understand not caring for "the fluff" as Rader called it. But, you seemed to be upset. Unless I misunderstood. But you did Post that you would no longer ask anymore questions on beesource or making anymore Posts. Was that you being humorous?[/QUOT
> your right I did post that so be it


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Okay.

So, how many beehives are you going to put on your one acre. And when?


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

allan,

I like your question. And I, for one, hope you don't stop asking them.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Allan, a suggestion .... 

Why don't you ask Mark, i.e. _sqkcrk_, how many hives _HE _has in one of his average bee yards, one acre or otherwise? :lookout:


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I have fifty on a 100X130' lot and it could fit and support a lot more. The San Francisco bay is 1/2 mile one direction and irrigated suburban gardens as far as a bee can fly all other directions. I could probably easily support 200 there. Maybe 500.


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## Bee Geek (May 4, 2013)

Hey Allan, we are almost neighbors, Welcome to Beesource! 
Don't take these guys quite so serious, they do challenge our questions and make us question our questions, and sometimes help us the realize what we are really asking, or what they want us to ask...
Take it all with a grain of salt, this is a great site, there is a lot of knowledge here and these guys usually willfully share what they know and save us question askers lots of time and mistakes. Don't be afraid to ask. Read and learn. And I do agree, the real question may be "How many Bee's will one acre sustain?"
Cheers!


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Bee Geek said:


> the real question may be "How many Bee's will one acre sustain?"
> Cheers!


Thanks Bee Geek.

The answer to that is, Not many. But, fortunately, like I tell owners of orchards that I pollinate, "Bees fly. You don't have to space pallets every 200 yds apart."

One acre of land will not sustain one hive. There is not the variety of food sources throughout the foraging season needed to fulfill a colonies needs. The bees one may wish to keep will not stay on your property. They will search high and low, far and wide, for what they need.

What are your plans allan, when you get some bees? Are you going to build a house on the rest of the acre not used on the bees?


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> Thanks Bee Geek.
> 
> The answer to that is, Not many. But, fortunately, like I tell owners of orchards that I pollinate, "Bees fly. You don't have to space pallets every 200 yds apart."
> 
> ...


ok sqkcrk here it is I live in south Alabama in the country on 3 acre my home is on 1 acre and I was going to put the bees on the acre beside the house.

I have order the bees and I will be getting them in mid-apirl and there is plenty of woods and cotton around me.


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

Joseph Clemens said:


> allan,
> 
> I like your question. And I, for one, hope you don't stop asking them.


thanks


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

allan said:


> ok sqkcrk here it is I live in south Alabama in the country on 3 acre my home is on 1 acre and I was going to put the bees on the acre beside the house.
> 
> I have order the bees and I will be getting them in mid-apirl and there is plenty of woods and cotton around me.


Then, if my advice is worth anything, I would suggest you start w/ two and see how you get along w/ them. And, if you then want more, grow from there to as many as you and your family can live with.

odfrank has a whole bunch of them in his back yard. I have about 40 or so 500 feet from my front door.


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## allan (Jul 7, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> Then, if my advice is worth anything, I would suggest you start w/ two and see how you get along w/ them. And, if you then want more, grow from there to as many as you and your family can live with.
> 
> odfrank has a whole bunch of them in his back yard. I have about 40 or so 500 feet from my front door.


i'm thankful for all the advice I can get sqkcrk


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## Shouse (Jul 1, 2010)

A lot depends on what you have within a 2 mile radius. What and when will there be something blooming. Being surrounded by nothing but clover fields is a lot different then being surrounded by corn or rice, or a Wal-Mart or another beekeeper with 500 hives or...


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