# Hedge for an apiary



## Roscommon Acres

Where we are planning on setting up our hives is exposed to the north wind. We want to put in a windbreak around the apiary, but we need some suggestions.

We live in Nebraska, on the border of zones four and five. 

First goal: good windbreak
Second goal: something the bees would like to work
Third goal: if possible, we'd like something fruiting

Any ideas? I was looking at chokecherry, but the apiary is at the corner of a pasture. There will be fencing to keep animals out of the area, but I don't want dropped leaves to cause a problem for any sheep or possible cow in the future.

Thanks!


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## tsmullins

You could consider a Washington Hawthorn. They make a nice hedge, will grow in your area and grow fairly fast. The Hawthorns have a two inch thorn, so it may or may not be what you need. 

Also think about Hazelnuts. They provide an early source of pollen, bear at a fairly young age and are quite tough little bushes. Hazlenuts are cold hardy to zone three. 

HTH,

Shane


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## Roscommon Acres

Hmm. I have three hazelnuts on order for our orchard. I hadn't thought about using them for a windbreak. Maybe I need to increase my order.


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## Michael Palmer

Tartarian Honeysuckle. Fast growing, forms a thick hedge, and bees work it well.


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## woodguyrob

Michael Palmer said:


> Tartarian Honeysuckle. Fast growing, forms a thick hedge, and bees work it well.


I'd do some research and choose non invasive, preferably native species. I think the above Honeysuckle may be invasive?


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## ShawnR

Tartarian Honeysuckle is an invasive weed, I'd recommend not planting that. Check out this site for some info on trees in your state (both native and introduced) http://www.nrdtrees.org/ It might help you in your search.


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## Walliebee

Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum) Zones: 3 to 7
A beautiful 10' tall, shade tolerant ornamental with showy white spring blossoms. The red fruit is attractive to birds and can be used to make preserves, syrup or wine. The fruit is so abundant and brightly colored that it looks almost like the lights on a Christmas tree. The fall foliage turns a brilliant red. Self-fertile. Full sun or partial shade. A great hedge plant. Spacing 8', 4-5' for a hedge. 

When you say chokecherry, which one are you thinking of? Prunus virginiana?

Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) Zones 3-9
Beautiful, very productive and easy to grow, it is widely used in delicious juices, soft drinks, jams and wine. The handsome, disease resistant bushes have dark green, oval foliage and grow about 5'-6' tall with an equal spread. White spring flowers develop into clusters of glossy, round, violet-black berries with a strong, tart flavor that comes from high flavonoid/anti-oxidant content. Fruit is naturally high in vital vitamins and minerals, and in fall, the foliage changes to striking red. Although Aronia is native to the eastern U.S, the best varieties were bred in Europe. Plants are self-fertile and can be spaced 4-6' apart, or 3' for a hedge.


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## Roscommon Acres

Thanks, everyone!

I hadn't gotten to looking at specific cultivars, but someone said the dropped leaves of chokecherry are toxic to livestock. I haven't looked into it beyond that. Not sure if it is true or if they are thinking about cherries.

Now I'm toying with the idea of hazelnuts with some variety of red currant tucked in their shade.


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## BGhoney

We have wild hazelnuts everywhere around here and they don't block much wind..


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## odfrank

Several suggestions have been for deciduous plants that lose their leaves in winter and do not block much wind in that season.


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## Boglehead

Lugustrum

We have some variety of lugustrum (I think japonica) in our neighborhood. Prior owners planted between our house and the next growing to a thick hedge within 4-5 years (now 10-15 feet high). Leaves persist (though get a little ratty) thoughout the winter for both privacy and windbreak. There is an intense bloom early june with profuse flowers covered with bees.

good luck.


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## odfrank

Texas Privet - excellent suggestion, can be trimmed to as low as four feet or allowed to grow to thirty, fairly deerproof except in the worst of areas. BUT - some people have suggested the honey is strong. We have a lot of it in my area and I have not noticed that. I think the honey granulates quickly and course.


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## Michael Palmer

Yes, Tartarian Honeysuckle is considered an invasive species. Once it's invaded, what do you do? In the northern Champlain valley of Vermont and New York, it's everywhere. Would not planting it as a hedge around the apiary really have any impact on the surrounding environment?

We used to have a dearth of nectar between the end of dandelion/fruit bloom and the main nectar flow. Nothing out there but a bit of Yellow Rocket (mustard). Bees could starve in early June. Then honeysuckle moved in. Now we have a nectar flow filling that dearth. Is that a bad thing?


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## ParanoidBeek

Do bees use forsythia? Seems like it would make a great windbreak and easily grown.


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## Omie

Wouldn't you want a windbreak during winter even more than for any other season? I'd think you might want to consider the windbreak qualities of evergreen shrubs or trees.


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## McSpadden

Boxwood hedge?
My bees are all over the blooms in late february.


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## BeeAware

I'd also vote for Boxwood, particularly the small leaf variety.


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## RayMarler

I don't know if it'll do well in your area or not, but I'm trying out some Escallonia which I just planted a month ago so I do not have a personal report of it as yet.

Escallonia...
So long as it has good drainage, escallonia tolerates all types of soil, from sand to clay. It doesn’t even care whether it is acid or alkaline. Once established, escallonia needs little supplemental water. It is not prone to diseases and pests don’t bother it—perhaps while the birds are frolicking inside the shrub, they snack on any insects before the insects can snack on the shrub. You’ll attract bees and butterflies and hummingbirds with your escallonia—all three are attracted to it and each is an important pollinator.

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/homehort/plant/escallonia.htm


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## odfrank

McSpadden said:


> Boxwood hedge?
> My bees are all over the blooms in late february.


How fast does boxwood grow where you are? Here you would be dead and buried before it got tall enough to be a windbreak.


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## McSpadden

I couldn't say. The boxwood I'm familiar with is next to my in-laws house. It's maybe twenty years old. 5-6 feet tall and it gets a serious trimming every few years.


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## Bee Bliss

If your hives are any distance from the hedge, there will need to be quite some height to the hedge to provide the windbreak. Is this windbreak mainly for winter or all year? I vote for a variety of things to include flowering/fruiting bushes and trees mixed in with arborvitae and blue spruce. What would be the length of the hedge? How many acre apiary?

Check out Raintree Nursery for bareroot available in the spring. I have ordered many things from them three years in a row and was happy with what I got.They may be somewhat sold out on some of their stuff this year, but there is always next year. Keep in mind that bareroot would be sent in a dormant state. 
http://www.raintreenursery.com


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## Walliebee

The original post said,



Roscommon Acres said:


> ...exposed to the north wind.
> We live in Nebraska, on the border of zones four and five.


Many of the plants suggested are not hardy for your location.

Example,

Ligustrum lucidum, chinese privet USDA zone 7-9
Ligustrum japonicum, japanese privet USDA zone 7-9
Ligustrum japonicum 'texanum', Texas privet USDA zone 7-9
Buxus sempervirens, common boxwood USDA zone 6-9
Escallonia sp., Escallonia USDA zone 8-10


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## Duck1968

I would go to your NRD office in Tecumseh. Here is a list of shrubs they have available.
American Hazelnut
American Plum
Amur Maple
Black Chokeberry
Caragana
Chokecherry
Common Lilac
Elderberry
False Indigo
Golden Currant
Nanking Cherry
Peking Cotoneaster
Redosier Dogwood
Sand Cherry
Serviceberry
Silver Buffaloberry
Skunkbush Sumac
Winterberry Euonymus


Brian


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## summer1052

Check out a website called Forestfarm dot com. They are a great nursery in either Washington or Oregon. (I'm having a memory lapse  )

They have a feature on their search engine for choosing "honey plants", "wind breaks", "hedges", "deer resistant", etc. And they have tons of shrubs. If nothing else, put together a list there, and go to your local nursery.

Be aware that newer cultivars are often less bee-friendly than heirloom varieties. When I lived in Denver, Nanking cherry did very well. And the "cherries" are edible, if you can beat the birds to them. 

A note on invasive species: Sometimes this depends on local conditions. Plants that overwinter in south Texas might die to the ground in more northern locations, and not be as invasive. 

And as always, plants are living things, too. They need nurturing and cultivation as well as people and animals do. If it needs trimmed, cut it back. If it needs contained, don't plant it in the open. If it needs full sun, don't plant it under the oak trees, etc. I see many things planted inappropriately or ignored for decades, both of which cause problems. It's much easier to shear back a rose every year and cut out dead canes, than rent a dozer to take out a rose hedge 30 years from now.

Good Luck!
Summer


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## Riverratbees

Bee Bee trees can be trained in the form of a hedge great flowering in fall no idea if they would grow in that zone. Look John up in for sale he sells trees and seeds very knowledgeable.


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## Vance G

Caragana or Russian pea tree makes a dense hedge and is a good flow will grow anywhere and survive tough conditions. I never have seen chokecherries cause a problem for cattle or sheep. They are endemic here and a wonderfull flow.


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## tsmullins

Vance G said:


> Caragana or Russian pea tree makes a dense hedge and is a good flow will grow anywhere and survive tough conditions. I never have seen chokecherries cause a problem for cattle or sheep. They are endemic here and a wonderfull flow.


Do you know of a source for the Russian pea tree?

Thanks
Shane


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## Hambone

Chinese Photinia


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## bluegrass

Hedge Apple (osage orange) grows very well in your area and makes a fine windbreak/hedge if cut back frequently. It does require insect pollination, but I don't know if it will produce honey.... pollen in the spring if nothing else.


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## RiodeLobo

bluegrass said:


> Hedge Apple (osage orange) grows very well in your area and makes a fine windbreak/hedge if cut back frequently. It does require insect pollination, but I don't know if it will produce honey.... pollen in the spring if nothing else.


It also makes great staves for longbows.


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## Vance G

Concerning the Caragana or Russian pea tree: Call you local county extension office. If it grows there they will usually be a cheap source of trees.


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## Roscommon Acres

Wow, thanks everyone! For some reason, I didn't notice this had gotten updated more. 

So many things to look at. We're starting with a hedge of hazelnut. It won't be too thick for winter, but we're adding a snow fence to that to slow down the wind a bit.

Dimenstions for the apiary are 25 by 25 feet. We have trees planted along the north where the winter winds come from and along the west where most of our storms come from. The east and south are open, hopefully to the sun.

If we need to, we can always move them to this side of our windbreak, but over there they can work in peace with little disturbance from mowers and people and poultry.


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## bluegrass

Silt fence run along the edges of the hive in the winter is a cheap and easy solution. It requires no maintenance in regards to pruning, trimming, raking leaves etc. Put it up in the fall take it down in the spring.


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## forgeblast

http://www.biobees.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2072

shows how a person who has a warre hive keeps the wind/snow off them in the winter i though it was a pretty smart way to do it. 

"" leaned some 
sticks against the hive, linked them with some wire and stuck spruce 
twigs into the wire. This gives a nice "heap" which protects the hive 
from severe wind and insulates it a bit. Snow doesn't accumulate at the 
entrance. ""


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## woodedareas

You need to be careful as some species are not very edible. The one you do not want is the Viburnum Opulus. The others are not as bitter and more edible. Many nurseries that sell these materials do not know the difference. You may want to discuss this before you purchase.


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## sevenmmm

Holy smokes, look at those thorns.

The riff raff will think twice about jumping over the fence.

Scroll down a bit.

http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4dmg/Trees/hawthorn.htm


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## BeeTulls

The issue with the cherries and livestock is only with WILTED leaves; livestock can eat fresh or dried leaves without ill effect but wilted leaves can poison them. It's usually NOT enough of an issue to make it a problem, especially if you electrify the fence in your area. IDK...

It's interesting to note the differences in hardiness zones and climate; here, we're within the same hardiness zone as the OP, but we don't start seeing winter go until sometime around -- well, should've been now, but we've had snow 4 of the last 5 days and morning lows in the teens. Reading some of the posts here and on other threads and even other sites where you guys have bees foraging in February, or even March, makes me do a double-take. 

- Tim


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