# How many here keep bee hives mounted on trailer?



## Miss Bee Haven Bee Farm (May 28, 2009)

I have noticed that I am seeing a few Bee farmers keeping there hive bodies on old flatbed trailers and when the pollen stops in there area they just hook up to the truck the trailer and drag it to the mountains or a field where crops are needing pollenated. Most of the setups I saw are about 12 to 15 hives on a trailer that can be towed by a half ton truck. I thought about buying an old clunker trailer and fixing it up a little and doing the same. THe only draw back is if someone decided to steal your trailer they get all the bees too.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I have a car trailer with 22 hives, a motorcycle trailer with six jumbos, and a truck bed movable by a drop box truck, with 16 hives. The hives are all on two hive pallets, half are on screened pallets. I set up this way because beekeeping in big quantities is illegal in my town, and when the zoning officer comes by I can skedaddle. You can buy several kinds of trailer locks.
This video shows them all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWujzDDUERM


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

I cannot imagine that this would be feasible on a commercial level, it would take too many trailers. Most commercials have loaders and load their colonies on flatbed straight trucks for relatively local transport and onto semis for long trips.
Sheri


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## suttonbeeman (Aug 22, 2003)

When I was running 125 colonies I kept 4 trailers with 16 hives each. 1 1/2 angle iron spaced so a hive slid in each side with 6 inches between. Angle iron was run down the center so I had 1/2 inch slope on each hive once trailer was leveled. Tongue was removed along with tires and trailer was on blocks.....hard to steal with no tires or hitch(hitch bolted on) You could work bees and not bend over from ground or back truck up to trailer and walk in between hives and onto truck when removing honey...eliminated alot of lifting and bending. Now I use pallets and forklift..... much easier!


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

If you click on the link in my signature you can see the trailers that suttonbeeman is talking about. I have 3 of the trailers that he built and use them for pollination. 

I love the trailers but the more hives I am using for pollination the more trips I have to make. If you live close its not a big deal but the farther away the job the more difficult it gets. I have one farm that takes 48 hives. This farm is roughly 30 min from my beeyards. Its not a terribly far drive but when you have to make 3 trips to bring the trailers at 1hr round trip each time just counting driving time... it becomes very inefficient. 

That said I don't have enough hives to warrant a loader and flatbed at this point so I'll just keep doing what I'm doing at the moment. 

The trailers I use are absolutely perfect for moving bees small scale.


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## AndreiRN (Jun 13, 2008)

It is a very practical ideea.
In Europe they have beetrailes with 50 colonies each on 2 or 3 stories high.
More then that for a 3 mile radius is starving the bees.
I am working on my first trailes setup with 12 full size families and will see how it works.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

Well it's good to consider all options but it's also important to understand why people that have been moving bees for a while do it the way they do. By trying to avoid the expense and or work of loading and unloading you give up efficiency, like best use of fuel and time. A trailer with a boom works well with a pick up, but I think you all are talking about leaving the bees on the trailer. There are many good reasons why this is not more common.


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## Terry Small Jr (Aug 31, 2008)

Tom G. Laury said:


> it's also important to understand why people that have been moving bees for a while do it the way they do.


Excellent point. As I finish up my first year as a commercial beek, I am beginning to understand why my foreman, Jose, tells me to do things in a certain way. Jose has been workin' bees for more than 20 years. He knows from experience what works & what doesn't...what seems like a good idea, but isn't.

I had the same idea, colonies attached to a trailer that we could hook up and drag anywhere, citrus in San Diego County, almonds in Fresno, or alfalfa in the Imperial Valley. Then I did the math. 4000 colonies divided by how many you can fit on a single trailer that can be pulled with a Class C license (I have a Class A, but most don't, would make it hard to hire beeks) multiplied by the cost per trailer & cost per trip.

I didn't even come close to getting an accurate result from the math when I realized that this was not in the ballpark. Too many trailers, too many trips.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

Plus you would need a full time tire man with his own truck & inventory.


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## Tom G. Laury (May 24, 2008)

*Natural Beekeeping*

Hey Terry Small;
How do you think foundationless combs would do down there in the VALLEY HEAT?


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## Terry Small Jr (Aug 31, 2008)

You'd probably be in trouble.


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## Sundance (Sep 9, 2004)

Do a search...... There was an extensive thread a
couple years ago on this, with pics.


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## G B (Nov 6, 2009)

I am in my first year keeping bees, The commercial guy I am helping said he would let me use his equipment untill i get up to a couple hundred hives. Then He suggests getting a flat bed truck and a loader. I am cheap maybe too cheap and was looking at a boom truck that is available near bye. At what point have you commercial guys made the jump to a diesel flat bed / loader or a boom truck ? Is 2/3 hundred or are more hives needed. I also plan to go to the almonds next year and then just do local honey. I do plan to go to around 500 plus hives, yes I am new but have good people helping me so I should have a reasopnable chance to keep them alive. any input would be appreciated. thanks George B


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## Tomas (Jun 10, 2005)

Although this is not from the States, take a look at what they do in Romania with hives and trucks/trailers. Interesting.

http://www.thehoneygatherers.com/html/photolibrary15.html

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Tom


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

Wow. Talk about migratory beekeeping!


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## sebee (Jul 19, 2009)

Yeah, those are some great pictures. Thanks for posting that link Tomas.


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## lupester (Mar 12, 2008)

Funny this thread should pop up. I just moved 5 hives in the back of the truck...quite a pain. I had to pull the honey supers before I moved the hives because I could not lift that much by myself. Then there was not enough room in the hives for the bees so they were all over it...I had to leave a bunch of bees there. Sucked! On the drive home I was thinking how to make this more efficient with a trailer that I could leave. It would also be less stress on the hives I would assume.


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## beekeeper1756 (Mar 20, 2010)

I have five hives on an old flatbed trailor that is setting in the field. My buddy just uses it to elevate the hives off of the ground.


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