# Hives in the Shed.



## Drone On (Mar 19, 2005)

Greetings,
I once housed bees upstairs in my barn. The hives thrived even without direct sunlight. I discontinued the experiment, hauling up and down equipment and full supers on a wall mounted ladder was a bit much. If I would have had a staircase, my bees would still be up there.


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## gjd (Jan 26, 2011)

Hello, this idea interests me because of occasional bears in my area; I'm not too excited about electric fences. Mr. Bush posted a link to this company in the TBH forum, and I noticed bee houses. Note there is an opening for the hive entrances, and the idea certainly was developed before all the problems requiring IPM. I go to Bavaria often, and think I've actually seen something like this. I'm going to see if I can investigate it next time.
http://www.swienty.com/shop/vare.asp?side=0&vareid=100009
Greg


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## Mtn. Bee (Nov 10, 2009)

I winter most of bees under a open lean-to type roof that is attached to a barn and am also wintering 18 nucs in my cellar right now.
Seems like the best way I have found to winter my bees in the Pacific Northwest type of winter ( you will get all types of precip. and temps known to man) is to keep them out of the elements.
But like you I am also planning on building a platform in my shed to place some hives on and attaching a piece of PVC or tube or square down spout through the wall for there entrance, these hives I plan on leaving in place all the time.
I think yours will do just fine!
Best of Luck! Mtn. Bee


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## beefarmer (May 2, 2010)

this thread really interests me, as i have been having trouble overwintering bees, and have been contemplating taking an old little red wooden barm we no longer use, i think it's 8x10 and setting up stands inside to store beehives on and making an exit for each hive out the side, and maybe even keeping a small heater on a thermostat finding a min. temp. like maybe 35% or 40% or ? and see if they would do well in this environment. would this work? i did put a hive in trouble in a greenhouse e few years ago, and it didn't work. the bees did work but seemed it threw off there seasonal timing and thinking it was summer came out but couldn't yet go outside the greenhouse.


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## Mtn. Bee (Nov 10, 2009)

Hi beefarmer,
I would stay away from the heater and stick with the outside temp, unless you are over wintering weak colonies or nucs.
The heater will keep the bees too active and they will eat up there winter food supply that much faster, unless you keep the thermostat set lower.
There was just a thread somewhere talking about wintering inside a building and what temp they preferred.
See below link!
http://www.stepplerfarms.com/stepplerhoneywintershed.html

I over winter most of my bees in the lean-to but I prop open the hive tops about 1- 1 1/2 inches (can actually look at the frames under the hive top from the side of the hive and watch the bees eating on the patties).
I eventually want to have all my hives on open screened pallets and screened inner covers with the tops prop open as stated for the winter.
If you keep your bees in the shed year round, I would place a few colonies outside the shed in the summer and compare the honey crop harvested from beehives inside vs. the ones outside and see if the shed hinders the amount of honey crop. (this is what I am planning on doing this summer)
Thanks for sharing the green house story as that was my next trial and error, you saved me the trouble! :thumbsup:
Best of Luck!


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## beefarmer (May 2, 2010)

to mtn. bee, thanks for feedback, the heater temp i was thinking like almost freezing, only having it turn on in very cold temps. maybe it still won't work? the nucs you have in your basement, what is the temp down there, and do are they coming out to do cleansing flights, that was what i had in the greenhouse. of course i understand temp in the g.h. could and does get to 100% even in jan. when the sun is shining, totally messed up their system.


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## Mtn. Bee (Nov 10, 2009)

The bees in the basement (actually more of a fancy root cellar) do not do cleansing flights unless I turn the light on. I try not to turn the light on as I believe these bees never make it back home.
I have a partial basement and the rest of the house just has a dirt crawlspace under it (house built in 1916), which I have a few nucs placed in crawlspace area as well. This area gets fresh air from outside as my skirting is missing a couple of boards.
I would estimate the temp at 30-35 deg. and sometimes up to 40 depending on the outside temp and the temp of the dirt.
I am actually feeding these nucs every 2 weeks as they don't have much honey on them.
I wouldn't try a heater on all of your bees (all your eggs in one basket), would try just a few colonies and see what happens first!
This is what I do when I experiment, so I still have bees to work with if something goes south.
I am wintering bees in different areas and at differnet temps and elevations to try and figure out what works best for my area. :thumbsup:


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## beefarmer (May 2, 2010)

mtn. bee, keep posting on this subject this spring if you will, sounds like you will have a lot of unanswered questions solved come warm weather thanks


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## NorthernIllinoisPlumber (Aug 17, 2010)

We have an old chicken coop (4x4). I thought about the hives wintering as well. The eaves are open, so would you really need to provide pvc openings? Also, being real close together would there be some drifting, or possible robbing?


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## Nichols747 (May 21, 2010)

I've got a swarm that I captured without a queen and was relatively small. They didn't have any drawn comb, and I fed and worked them all summer/fall. They went into the winter with one full deep, and one on top with only five frames drawn and capped. 

I put them in an abandoned house, with the entrance pointing out an open window, with a porch roof protecting the window. I really didn't think they'd survive the winter, but so far, they're doing great! 

Added benefit - it kept them away from the bears during late fall.

AN


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## AramF (Sep 23, 2010)

The main goal of the iriginal post was not whether or not they can winter in the shed. That has been established by many people before. The question is whether they can be permanently placed in the shed, in all seasons. One benefit I can think of is that it will be cooler in the summer, so they would not need to ventilate as much. But similarly a drawback would be that the wax-makers will have less time when the hive is near 90F which helps with making new comb. The second question is whether they will willingly escape through the eves or they would need to have some sort of piping provided for an exit. This seems like a very unusual setup with many people not having tried it. i just hope that given its rarity it is not a lost cause.


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## Mtn. Bee (Nov 10, 2009)

The bees will enter in out of the shed through an open window or other opening which is no problem for a couple of colonies, but if you have more than that I would recommend seperate entrances as drifting definitely would be a problem.
In my area I have found out that you will have healthier bees if in full sun all day long, they also seem to produce more honey.

AramF: My apologies! I believe I sorta highjacked your orignal thread and then led folks astray with the wintering thing! :doh: :no:
I tend to get carried away sometimes!


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## AramF (Sep 23, 2010)

No offence taken at all since some very interesting discussion has taken place. Thank you for your participation.


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## Radical Bee (Feb 25, 2009)

If i was in an area that had the hive beetle i would not want to be in the shade in the summertime. It would be a just asking for serious problems. imo


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## Nichols747 (May 21, 2010)

The bees I posted about have been in the abandoned house since june of last year - full time. The only downside is the lack of full sun, but I considered it a trade off with the weather/bear protection. I think it works well.


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## raosmun (Sep 10, 2009)

Do a search on this site "bee house plans". Take a look at these http://images.google.com/images?q=čebelnjak


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## NorthernIllinoisPlumber (Aug 17, 2010)

My excuse for the high jack was the exhaust from the snowblower running all day. I tend to wander....


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