# Urban Rooftop beekeeping for beginner.



## guardian_10 (Sep 26, 2011)

Hello all,

I live in Chennai, India which has a tropical climate with the average temperature ranging between 18 - 38 °C (64-100 °F) and average rainfall is about 140 cm. The temperature sometimes can reach 42 °C (108 °F).

Right now, I am in the process of learning the basics of beekeeping online and would soon try to join a beekeeping course in my neighbourhood. I would like to keep an apiary initially as a hobby on the rooftop of my house. The roof is on above G+1 floor. There are 2 major parks within 1 km radius and quite a few houses growing flowering plants/trees surrounding me.

Once I gain confidence, I would like to take it to the next step of setting up hives in my farm in the suburb which is surrounded by agricultural crops for probably a radius of more than 10 kms.

I am planning to try my hand with either Apis cerana indica (a domesticated specie native of India) or Apis mellifer (European/Italian bee).

Given these situations, would you advice me to try my hand at beekeeping on the rooftop? I would be providing some type of shelter from direct sun and rain. I thought that if someone in France, New York etc could raise bees on rooftop, why not me too. But, the only difference is that the weather does not goes to freezing temperature here. Since, I am starting off as a hobby, should I try to set up a top bar hive or go ahead and buy a Langstroth hive?

I have read that bees can fly up to 6 miles in search of nectar, but I also read that bees will desert the hive if food is hard to find. Given these 2 views, I would like to know what are the chances of the bees deserting my rooftop hive?

Sorry for the long post and thank you.


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## WillH (Jun 25, 2010)

The only way to find out whether the bees will survive in the situation that you describe is to start a hive. As Apis Cerana Indica is native to India (as the name implies) it is better to start with that species as it will be more disease resistant. I am not even sure whether Apis Mellifera survives in tropical weather. Start with a Lanstroth hive and keep feeding 1:1 sugar syrup until bees stop taking it.


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## whiskers (Aug 28, 2011)

It doesn't sound like your climate is so very different from say, Galveston Texas in the US and people keep Italian bees there. Still the native bees from your area may know how to deal with that area better. I doubt that the rooftop environment makes a difference. Go for it and have fun.
Bill


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

I know of several hives kept on roofs, they do fine. Just make sure they have enough shelter, they do not do well if there are strong winds around the hive.

All else being equal, a langstroth hive with apis melifera bees will make a lot more honey than a top bar hive. I'm not sure about what hive type for apis cerana.

Given the correct housing, apis cerana are a lot more disease tolerant. If your environment has a lot of bee diseases, and you run an apis melifera hive, you will have to pay close attention to control of diseases such as varroa mites. But as long as disease is not a problem, the apis melifera will make a lot more honey.

If the land around your bees is used very intensively, that could be a problem. Bees do best when there is a wide variety of flowering plants around them. 

Apis melifera will survive 42 c temperature, these temperatures are a regular occurance for some of my Australian beekeeper buddies, but it is hard on them. Giving the hive shade will help.

If you could contact somebody in a similar area to yours, who has bees, that will be your very best source of information.


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## guardian_10 (Sep 26, 2011)

Ok, I got the opportunity to visit this guy and guess I will have to unwind a bit of what I have learned online regarding beekeeping. Most of what I have learned so far is based on commercial beekeeping of a. millifera using langstroth or top-bar hive. This guy has all the equipments required for beekeeping - hive tool, smoker, veil, etc. But, the only tool he used ever was his bare hand. No veil, no smoker, nothing. He just simply broke off a bit of comb and asked me to taste it then and there. The honey was a bit sour and he mentioned that it was because there were lots of tamarind trees around his place. His bees were a. cerana indica. As for the hive, it was either a Newton hive or a Marthandam hive (What!!! never heard of them before?). These are hives used by locals here for organic beekeeping. All the big fellows use langstroth et all.

This guy has both a. millifera and a. cerana. But, seriously I could not differentiate between the two. Both looked about the same size to me.
I got to handle the frame - no smoker, no veil. Would you believe he was wearing dark clothes too. I went there clothed in light colors and expected him to be wearing same too.

Finally, I pleaded with him to let me get stung once. No alergies, not very painful. But, he warned that a sting from a angry bee would be more forceful and painful than this sting.

Now for the sad bit. I would have to travel over 800kms / 500miles south to purchase my first colony. No, they won't courier or ship it. No-one here does that and they all think I've lost my nuts for asking if they would ship it. Wish I was in US or Europe only for this.

Meet this person person


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## Duboisi (Oct 7, 2009)

Could you not buy some bees from the person you visited?

If you cannot buy bees, I would have made several swarm-traps, and have a hive or two ready.
The hive traps you can place around the outskirts of your farm and at your roof(or rather a hive at your roof.)

To attract the bees, you want some wax in the bait-hives, together with some lemon-oil grass or oil made from this plant.

If you manage to attract a swarm, you may then transfer it to your hive.

I think that it would be wise to make a little protection for the hive at the roof, so that it does have some shadow at the hottest part of the day.

BTW: I have seen that at least in Mumbai, there are people who go from place to place removing bee-nests. Seems like the bees tend to make their hives under overhangs on the house, like at the balcony etc.


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## guardian_10 (Sep 26, 2011)

He does not have any extra salable stock as of now.
Regarding swarm traps, I was thinking about that option too. But, I am worried I would not be able to know what specie I captured. There are 5 specie here and some more prone to swarming and some producing very little quantity of honey. 

BTW, I don't know much about swarm lure. Where do I have to place the trap/hive? Does it have to be anywhere near an existing bee hive or can it be just anywhere and the bees will find it? Where can I learn more about bait hive? Thank you.


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## guardian_10 (Sep 26, 2011)

One thing I forgot to mention is that this guy mentioned that A. Cerana is not lazy like A. Millifera. Once it swarms, it will not rest very close to the existing hive, but will fly off very far.


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## Duboisi (Oct 7, 2009)

I have minimal experience with bait hives, as one of the reasons I started beekeeping was that there was hardly any bees in my garden.

The general idea is that bees will discover the bait hive, either before(and remember) or when they are in a swarm. If the swarm likes your hive over alternatives in the area, they will move in.

If there are many bees, in your area, you should have a good chance, but still it's like a lottery...

For more information you should probably do a search for "bait hive". Regarding placement, they seem to like landmarks, like a tall tree among lower trees and such.

BTW: I think that you should not worry too much about species at this moment, as it should not matter much for the initial learning process.


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## guardian_10 (Sep 26, 2011)

My worries about species arose only after I met this guy. Before that, I thought that beekeeping means compulsorily wearing a veil and having a smoker ready. But, a. cerana seems very docile. So, I don't want to spend more on equipments now initially. I am just starting off as a hobby for now. If I were to simply lure some bees and don't know about the species, I'm worried it might be a more aggressive one which stings. Call me *stingy *(pun unintended ) if you want.


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## guardian_10 (Sep 26, 2011)

One thing I wanted to ask but forgot. Regarding the 7th picture in this link: "A peaceful enclave: Josephine's farm in Alanganallur ". Is this how beekeepers position the hives? What I read online and heard from the person I visited, I was under the impression that the hives should be protected from direct sunlight and rain. I see that the trees provide shade from the sun, but what about rain?


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

You've just learned your first lesson about beekeepers. Put 4 beekeepers in a room, and you will have 5 opinions! 

But seriously though, the way her hives are posioned is fine. But if they were simply built hives that were not waterproof, then they would have to be kept out of the rain. Also, because of the heat where you live, it would be a good idea to keep them out of direct sunlight, which she seems to be doing with the trees.


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## shmiusa (Oct 29, 2012)

I got your msg. I have 4 beehives, on first floor and top floor (terrace) with covered roofing. All doing fine and working well. We have a honey bee expert in Chrompet....


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