Beekeeping is beginning to buzz and I am finding that many folks who keep chickens are beginning to consider keeping bees. Many consider chicken keeping the gateway into other homesteading adventures such as gardening and now seemingly, bees! When I first began considering keeping bees four years ago, it was important for me to research whether bees and chickens could co-exist. I spent an entire winter researching this question. Happily, I learned that they can.
Chickens will free-range near the bee hives. The bees do not bother them unless they are directly in front of the entrance. Then, guard bees will fly from the hive, buzz them, and let them know they are too close. Sometimes, the chickens will snack on dead bees around the hives. If you discover that the chickens are eating the live bees returning to the hive, then simply place a makeshift fence around your hives to keep the chickens a couple feet away.
Some people who live in bear country actually place the hives inside the chicken’s run for protection. The hive entrances are placed facing outwards into the yard. The bees could care less when the chickens hop up onto the hive and explore. When the hive needs to be inspected or honey harvested, the chickens are simply let out to free-range or locked in the coop until the beekeeper’s work is complete. If your chicken coop has a flat roof, often folks will even place hives on top. Although accessing them for maintenance can be a bit tricky.
Chickens are wonderful at cleaning up the areas around the hive, bee debris, and dead bees. They also eat live bugs and small hive beetles that can cause harm to the honeybees. When frames of old honeycomb are shared, chickens enjoy cleaning up the debris.
If you discover that honeybees are hanging around the waterers in your coop, simply remove them from their current location for six weeks. The bees will find another water source. They are also attracted to apple cider vinegar, so consider eliminating that from your waterers for a couple of days if you have bees buzzing around the chickens’ water sources. Also, if you discover bees in your chicken feed, read the feed labels. Some feed and supplements contain Anise Hyssop. Anise hyssop is a favorite herb of bees!
I love having the bees and the chickens living harmoniously in the yard and gardens. They are some of the best beneficial and rewarding “gardening accessories” that anyone can add to their own yards and landscape.
20 Comments
Thank you, that was a very helpful article although I would not want to be dealing with those heavy deep supers ten feet off the ground.
Just picked up my second swarm and the new bee siting is on a table within the chicken foraging area.
Looks like the lady is adding a chicken run to her bee area not the other way around… I would hate to have to collect and maintain those hives way off the ground like that… plenty dangerous.
I keep bees and chickens together with no prob. But turkeys seem to be another story. They wanted to roost on the hives and it appeared to really disrupt them. Turkeys do not roost gently and when 2 to 4 would try to get on the same hive it was way to noisy. Just my observations
http://paper.li/ChickenBreeds/1391461030?edition_id=d4971a70-0c8e-11e5-b005-0cc47a0d164b
Did you see this?
i have chicken,guineas, ducks, geese
only trouble i ever had were the geese. loved to stand in the flight path. fence did the trick
We have both. Our chickens are about 100 ft. or so away. I’ve found that if the bees get mad when we’re working in the hives, if we run towards the chickens, the bees don’t follow us. Not sure why, but it works.
I’m new to chickens, but have quite a few decades with bees. Cleaning up the frames sounds perfect! We have wax moths here who will get into the unused frames and set up a nice little nursery. I think they sound like the perfect treat for my girls! I normally have to freeze them, or use a pressure sprayer to get rid of the larva. Can’t wait to try it!
Otherwise, my bees go about their business and don’t bother any of the other animals. We usually solve the water issue by leaving a large dish near the hives with a slow-drip hose going. They pretty much leave the pool and the small pond alone as long as the water is fresh.
I keep bees and chickens, albeit at a greater distance than described here. One thing I am surprised about is that photo of the bee hives what appears to be 10 feet above the ground on scaffolding. I sure would not want to remove full honey supers and handle them at such a height!
I have been enjoying this forum for a few years now and have passed the link on to friends who keep chickens. I, personally, have been keeping bees and chickens together in my Brooklyn, NY backyard for over seven years. I can’t imagine my garden without them. In fact, I had trouble restocking my hives until just recently and as June approached I felt I had only half a garden. They are an integral part of my urban farm.
They thrive together. Chickens are respectful of the live bees, clean up the debris in the bee area, and “help” bees clean up old frames. Nothing like picking bits of wax off a beak. I lost a hive this winter and the other 2 hives and the chickens pretty much have all the frames done, ready to go again. I do have to keep some of the bee friendly plants outside of the area where the chickens free range (or fence them off for protection early in the season) but our bees survive on mainly dandelions up here in the frozen north (Canadian border of VT) for a couple of months and the chickens can’t even begin to destroy all those. …….
I’m on the northeast side of Bexar County, I can’t find the laws pertaining to bees in residential areas. I know I have a limit of 5 hens and no roosters for a home, and limitations that are in place by HOAs must be honored. But nothing on Bees and Bee Hives.
I’m interested in getting a HoneyFlow system, since it would remove much of my direct interaction to just get honey, and my kids could easily do it if they dress accordingly before gathering honey. But I don’t want to be told after I purchased an expensive system that I can’t keep them.
Anthony,
While the honey flow system will make harvesting easier, it will NOT remove a lot of your direct interaction with the hive. The only part it modifies is the honey extraction. All the normal husbandry of keeping a hive is the same, you have to check on the hive regularly, inspect it for health, make sure the queen has a good laying pattern, that there is no parasites, etc. I have a Honey Flow hive ordered and can’t wait to set it up next to my other 2 hives.
I am right there with you, we are just getting started with a regular hive and also ordered a FlowHive should be here in December. I also have chickens and have my hive set up inside their play yard. Have only seen the bees go after one rooster who chose to stick his face inside their front door, they never bother with the hens that hop up on top and play Queen of the Hill.
I see no positives from the flow hive. Please do a lot of research before you consider this. It means that the hive maintenance, health of the bees etc will not get checked and you can seriously compromise your bees ability to survive in the winter. Honey is for them, not for us. We benefit but it is not our “right” to jeopardize their survival.
I’ve been a beekeeper for 45+ years, presently run 48 hives. I really wish you people that have bought into the Honeyflow system a lot of luck. This Honeyflow system is a gimmick, no different than most of the crap you buy from infomercials thinking it is a quickfix. The major duties of hive maintenance will still be required, as Joe stated. Within a few years they will be all over Craigslist.
As far as chickens and bees, I rarely let chickens around my hives or my garden. I, instead allow my free range ducks, geese, and guineas, to cohabitate with the hives. Ducks sift out and eat the dead bees, mites, wax worms and moths, and hive beetles and their eggs and larvae without scratching up everything around the hive, they are also great for garden pests for the same reason. The geese groom the grass and clover so that mowing is rarely needed. I also plant mint around my hives, which the geese and ducks don’t bother much but chickens will destroy. The mint helps to deter wax moths, mites, and beetles.
I have had very few problems with bees and chickens coexisting. Chickens scratch around the hive and eat dead bees; the bees don’t seem to mind. Unfortunately, I did have a terrible incident a few years ago when I had to keep two older hens isolated from a mean rooster. I kept them in a small enclosure with the bee hive–a 5 X 10 foot space. One morning I looked out the window to see the older of the two lying apparently dead in the enclosure and the other hen running around frantically. When we investigated, the bees in the yard were in a rage attacking us all and when we were finally able to rescue the younger hen she was all swollen from stings. Needless to say, she died too. So now I never cage up chickens in close proximity to the bees. The chickens need to be able to escape quickly and the bees need their space. That was a very hard lesson to learn, but along with the joys of keeping animals comes some heartbreak. However, mostly it’s a joy to keep chickens and bees. The honey is better than anything you could get in the store–always a little different every year. And of course, the fresh home-grown eggs can’t be beat!
Bees will definitely protect their hives and the hives entrances. It is terrible that this happened and I am happy that you shared your experience here. For folks reading this, if you choose to place hives near or inside the run, be sure that all entrances, even the one on the inner cover faces away from the chickens’ living space. Some bees breeds are more docile and gentler than others. Those are best to keep near chickens. Also, all the bees in the hive will take on the temperament of their queen. If the hive was also being robbed by other bees, bees will go on the defense like this. They can also be cranky if their food supplies are low and there is a nectar dearth. Also, if people live in areas where there are Africanized honeybees, I would not recommend placing hives immediately adjacent or inside the chickens’ run for many reasons (another blog post entirely).
I agree…bees and chickens live very well together. We have had both for years. The only problem we do have is the bees will drown sometimes in the chicken water containers.
Growing up in the 50s and 60s on a farm in northeast Missouri we had chickens (lots of chickens) and several hives of bees. The hives were in an open south facing shed. We had what we called barn chickens. Running all over the place plus chicken yard chickens. the barn chicken kept the bee shed clean and there never was any problems. I still keep a few hens for eggs and of course chicken and noodles.
we live down south in central fl.we have had bees and free range chickens,ducks,turkeys,and and cows living on
the same 5 acres for a couple of years with no problems.
http://floridahomesteading.com/