Weighing Your Beehive and Ideal Hive Placement

There are actually a lot of good reasons why weighing a beehive is one of your most important duties as a beekeeper.

The bees in the USDA Hardiness Zone require a minimum of 50 up to 80 pounds of honey that they will consume throughout the months of winter. The honey bees don’t really hibernate and instead, they just cluster inside their hive to keep their queen bee warm and comfortable in the middle.

As a beekeeper, you have to ensure that there is enough honey in the colony before you decide what you will do with the remaining extra honey.

Every single frame that the bees pull out with their wax differs in terms of depth and thickness. This means that a medium frame of honey will have a weight of 2 to 5 pounds.

Table of Contents

Monitor the hive

A beekeeper also needs to monitor the hive boxes to ensure that there will be enough room for the queen bee to lay. Boxes that have empty frames will weigh less compared to those frames that are still filled with bee bread, flower nectar, or baby bees.

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One of the ways of weighing hive, particularly when you are just getting started with beekeeping, is to use fish or luggage scale. These scales are very portable and can be attached with ease to the rear of the box and offer good estimation of how much each hive box weighs. If it is filled with honey, a medium box with 10 frames can weigh around 50 to 60 pounds.

Once you have enough experience in beekeeping, simply lifting your hive box from behind can already give you a good rough estimate of the amount of honey inside the box.

Ideal Placement of Hives

When you are done weighing your hive and it is less than what you expected, one of the things that you might need to change is its placement.

It is ideal that your hive is located in a spot that is dry and high with an excellent amount of sunshine during morning but sufficient shade for protecting it from intense sun in the middle of the day.

Hive Placement

If possible, you should also place the hive away from buildings since being close to a building might result to significant temperature changes due to the sun’s heat reflection.

The hive should also be placed in a way that it faces southeast or east for the morning sun to stimulate the bees as it comes in through the entrance. The entrance should also face away from prevailing winds.

There must also be lots of fresh water nearby. There might be need to supply water to your bees so that they don’t end up going to the swimming pool of your neighbor. Even a tiny fountain with pump can work just fine since the trickling water’s sound will encourage your bees to drink from it. Put some rocks in the source of water where bees can lank and take a sip or else, you risk drowning your bees.

Weighing a beehive is important as it gives you a clue on whether or not you are doing a great job at beekeeping.