# Distance of hives to horses



## McBee7 (Dec 25, 2013)

Welcome SM to beesource, lots of great peps here and info you wont find anywhere else 
I'm not a horse person but my wife is and she says a lathered up horse is of GREAT intrest to the bees. She wasnt sure if it was the salt or lather or what but if they were hot, you had to contend with the bees if you were riding. So take that for what its worth second hand 
Good luck .

==McBee7==


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

One of my bee yards is within my pasture which contain 11 horses. The hives are enclosed within a bear fence which is 4 feet tall. However the horses graze right up to the fence. The yard is about 200 feet from the barn which has walk ins on the lower level. Never a problem! and I have way more that 2 hives in that yard. I also have a riding arena opposite the barn, Never a problem with that either.


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## SalsaMom (Jan 15, 2015)

Thanks for the thoughts so far.
I'm not overly worried about it - but during spring/summer/early fall the horse is "stuck" in the dry lot area. 
Stuck as in - he doesn't have access to the whole pasture to run away from bees etc....
For any horse folks here - my gelding just a REALLY easy-keeper/insulin resistant so I keep him off the grass while it's green. Luckily I get a winter - so he is out on our full pasture (about 5+ acres) while the grass is dormant.

We are going to fence the area around the bee yard to keep the horse (and our donkey) away from the hives.
I am also going to give the bees their own water - so hopefully they stay out of my water troughs and the neighbors pool!


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

I have inspected several hives surrounded by horse pasture. I have also seen wild horses go right up to hives I was about to inspect. I backed them up gently for their own safety before I started the inspecton. They will also go to the horses water source when it is that close.


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## Rusty Hills Farm (Mar 24, 2010)

I keep horses and have done so for many years. The distances involved wouldn't worry me BUT the water source might. If the horse and the bees have to share a water source in the summer, I suspect the bees will keep the horse from accessing his water. If the bees have their own good water source that they happily access, I wouldn't foresee any problems. But if they hang around the stock tank, you are going to have a miserable horse with welts from being stung.

JMO


Rusty

edited to add that my experience with giving bees a new water source is that they continue to use the old one until all that generation of bees has died off. The new young bees will discover the new water source and will start using it--if it is closer than the old source--but it will take until all the old generation are gone before you stop seeing bees where you don't want them. It has seemed to me that once a bee finds a water source, that is the source they use for their entire life or until the source disappears, whichever happens first.


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## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

Rusty - Bee will defend their water source? Didn't realize that, thought they would treat it like clover and just sting when disturbed.


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## ginkgo (Apr 26, 2013)

I have kept hives just fine for years in my pasture with several horses, but they are sited out of traffic and roped off with electric tape. The horses graze very near routinely. That said, I would not be comfortable having a horse confined with no escape very close to hives. But at your distance you will likely be fine. Every now and then I see an article about a horse being killed, FWIW.


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## Rusty Hills Farm (Mar 24, 2010)

marshmasterpat said:


> Rusty - Bee will defend their water source? Didn't realize that, thought they would treat it like clover and just sting when disturbed.


They don't "defend" per se, but they congregate heavily, zooming in and out and will zap the horses often enough that the horses will avoid the area. They can make the horses miserable especially in the heat and make them unwilling to go near enough to get the water they need. However, once you give the bees a good source of water closer than the stock tank, they will go for it instead. It's just a bit of a drawn-out process until all the older bees die off. Took me most of last summer to get the bees to give up the stock tank closest to my barn. It had apple cider vinegar in the water, which they liked. I had to drain the 1000 gal tank and refill it, then wait for the old ones to die before the horses finally got their tank back. No more ACV in the water, tho. Hopefully, since the new source has been full all winter, and the bees are used to watering there now, there won't be an issue this year. That was the first time I ever had the water issue, tho. Perhaps because of the ACV?

HTH

Rusty


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## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

Now making sense. I was beginning to worry cause I got neighbors with horse on 3 side of my yard.


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

I have horses and bees. Bees fenced off with about a 7 ft fence. Horses choose to graze right up st that fence. They have lots of room to get away if they wish. Barn is a good distance from the bees. Occasionally a horse will gallop off from the bee area with head shaking and tail swishing. Horses are not sweaty when they are out.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

I have a beeyard on a farm with a couple of Donkeys. They have always grazed near the hives with no problem. One day I was doing a hive inspection and one of the hives was really grumpy. Both Donkeys came around to see what I was doing and got stung. I've never seen Donkeys run and kick like that.

They don't come around the hives anymore when I'm there so I think they learned from it.


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## SalsaMom (Jan 15, 2015)

I was wondering about the horse trough. I have two. One in my horse's dry lot proper and one that the donkey can get to (he doesn't get put up on the dry lot).
I plan to give the bees their own water source - was thinking a home depot bucket and floating wine corks on the top so they can get in there and drink without drowning. I plan to put the bee water bucket right near their hives in the fenced off bee yard. Can't force them to use it - but hope they do since it will be SO close. Maybe I should put a splash of ACV or a dash of salt in the bee water? To attract them to it?


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## marshmasterpat (Jun 26, 2013)

Salsa - If you were a little closer I was going to volunteer to help increase the pile of needed wine corks to help set up this experiment. But just to far to drive for a few bottles of wine. LOL


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I've had horses and bees for decades. The main thing is that the horses can get away from the bees. Mine will graze right in front of the hives, but if they get stung they run to the back corner of the property. I would say they would be reasonably safe if they can run at least 100yards away from the hives and it would be better if that 100 yards is BEHIND the hives and not in view of the entrances. The problem is that most hives most of the time won't bother them, but if a hive has a defensive response, and the horses cannot run away, then the horse could be stung to death.

My hives are always fenced off from the horses and when I was foolish enough to put some wets next to the fence without realizing they were in reach of the horses they ate the hives, frames and all... and I'm sure the nails were not good for them.


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