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by Countryboy » April 7th, 2017, 10:24 pm
I'm hesitant to give you a definitive answer, because I don't know exactly what your area is like, however most green, deciduous areas of North America will support 20 hives. Areas with really funky climate conditions will be able to support less bees. Some areas will be able to support more than 20 hives.
I normally run about 10-12 hives max in a yard for honey production. I drive a pickup truck as my bee truck. If I have 5 supers on each hive, and I pull 50 supers off a yard, that is a truckload.
I know, I could pull a trailer and do bigger yards. But...I am still a one man show. If I am pulling honey in a dearth in fall, by the time I get all the bees blown out of supers and the last boxes on the truck, the bees are already starting to try to rob off the truck. If I was trying to pull more hives, the bees would have even longer to get a robbing frenzy going before I finished up.
I base yard size on what is convenient for me to work, rather than how many hives an area will support. In my area, I believe my yards will support more hives in a yard than I want to deal with when I visit a yard.
In terms of a hobbyist yard, I don't really know. At what point do you consider yourself a sideliner beekeeper? Usually 25 hives is considered a hobbyist. By that time, most people want 2 different beeyards, not because the area can't support that many hives, but because the beekeepers want to be able to move splits to a new location.
B. Farmer Honey
Central Ohio
