# rooftop hives



## pcooley (Apr 18, 2006)

I was talking to a beekeeping friend of mine who said she knows people who put their hives on the roof, and that it is a very good place for hives.

I'm already thinking about expanding past my one hive, and since space is at a premium in my backyard, the roof sounds good.

I was just thinking -- what do you do when you discover that your house needs to be reroofed? (We live in New Mexico, and have a flat roof -- better for beekeeping, no so good for runoff).

Also, I wonder if my neighbors might worry more if they saw me wandering about my roof in a veil puffing smoke out of a smoker.


----------



## Jon McFadden (Mar 26, 2005)

That's how I got started in beekeeping. I was a junior in high school when my best friend, Dick, had a beekeeper move in next door. The only place we had to set up our hive was on the roof over the guest house.
The roof is a great place as long as you are agile or have good access.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I just worry about heat on the roof and excessive winds. Otherwise the bees won't care. If the roof is in shade in the heat of the day, then the heat won't be a problem. Obviously if you need to reroof you'd have to move them until the job is done.


----------



## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

With proper ventilation everything should be just fine. An experiment where beehives were placed next to a persistent lava flow in hawaii proved that the bees don't care what's going on outside so long as they can manage the interior.


----------



## Jon McFadden (Mar 26, 2005)

For those of you who were lucky enough to be able to read Charles Koover's articles in Bee Culture know that when he retired to Hawaii, his only available bee yard was the roof of the apartment building he lived in. This was short lived when his neighbors became aware of what he was doing. Fortunately, a sympathetic aquaintance allowed him to use his apiary.


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Time for a fake air conditioner to cover the hive.







A long hive with a screened box of some kind might be good camoflage.


----------



## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

Either that or an observation like beehive, maybe turn a room into a beehouse.

Might be neat to do.


----------



## girl Mark (Oct 25, 2005)

don't give me any ideas- my roommate's got a great underutilised walk-in closet right next to my rooftop hive (it's a multilevel roof, he and the great closet are in a sort of garret that protrudes up one extra level above the rest of the roof). I covet that huge closet as a clubhouse anyway (it'd be so easy to make a doorway to the hall and take it away from him)- don't make me think about putting an observation hive in there!


Ive had them on roofs a couple of times and I second everything the above folks have said.


My neighbors don't seem to care (and can't see me because of the garrett room thing next to the hive), but when I was renting and in a different neighborhood, I think we asked all the neighbors first- always a good idea. Promise them a bit of honey.

[ May 20, 2006, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: girl Mark ]


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>I think we asked all the neighbors first- always a good idea.

I disagree. On something they can comprehend, it's a good idea. On something like honey bees, which they cannot comprehend, you will stir up their deep seated fears of the wasps that stung them when they were a child and imaginings of millions of stinging insects living next door. Better to get the bees, have them for a year before they figure it out and THEN give them some honey. They will know then that their fears already didn't happen.


----------



## Scot Mc Pherson (Oct 12, 2001)

better yet, just give them honey but keep the hives obfuscated somehow.

If they ask, "Where are your bees?" you can just answer...."Oh no, they are MY bees and no one is going to steal my honey."

This way you aren't telling them, but its not because of fearful neighbors but because "most people would steal them". Its just psychology in action.

They might think you are weird, but they'll stop thinking about what you might be hiding.


----------

