Honey Bees

Kyler · Tue Feb 27, 2018 9:56 pm

Well spring is right around the corner. I’m receiving about 10 bee hives from a guy that is allowing me to use them and sell the honey. I’m just wondering about Purple Martins and Honey Bees? What is going to happen. I know the martins will probably go after some but I just didn’t know if they ate bees that are pretty low to the ground?

Kyler,

Doug Martin - PA · Wed Feb 28, 2018 2:36 pm

Kyler,

Since no one else has chimed in I will give you my 2 cents.

Martins and honey bees co-exist well in the same general area. However I would keep the hives as far away from the Martin setup as possible or practical. You would likely suffer many more casualties of course if the bees were directly under the Martin housing coming and going in clear view of the Martins.

You may lose a few bees to the Martins at times but for the most part Martins are up feeding high and bees are feeding low to the ground. I would think that some higher trees may flower very high off the ground near your site that may lead to bees flying up higher where they would be more vulnerable.

My neighbor has both bees and Martins. Hives are about 150-200ft away from the Martin housing. Both doing very well!! Both very enjoyable & addicting hobbies too.

Doug

C.C.Martins · Wed Feb 28, 2018 3:54 pm

Kyler, Doug has some good advice there. One past topic was about honey bees, a neighbor was afraid the martins were eating his bees. Bottom line was that if a Martin eats a drone or young queen the pheremones (spelling) may cause the bees to follow that bird pretty close. You should be good. They'll eat them but shouldn't be a worry for you.

paule · Wed Feb 28, 2018 5:34 pm

I used to be a beekeeper and now others keep hives close to me. In all my years I have never seen a left over honey bee or wasp in the nest while they were feeding young. I see left over dragon flies and other insects. I have also seen drone honeybees in the nest. Is this because the drones don't have stinging capabilities or is it that they are larger?

I don't know the answer but something interesting to think about.

Insectivore Villa · Wed Feb 28, 2018 7:45 pm

Last year on June 24th we had a swarm of thousands of bees as one of the hives down the road must have had a queen moving on to greener pastures. That swarm was not fifty feet from our five martin hoses with forty five pairs of martins, most of them feeding young. Not one bird went through that swarm to eat those bees and that swarm lasted close to an hour. First time we have ever seen that swarming thing and it was amazing. It ended up being a three foot long inverted cone of solid bees hanging from a tree branch. I would have to say no worries on bee consumption.

flyin-lowe · Wed Feb 28, 2018 7:49 pm

Years ago I got out my camera and was taking pictures of some tree swallows that were feeding young. They were coming and going like crazy to and from the same directions. I didn't think anything about it at the time but once I got the photos on my computer and enlarged them I could see every trip the TS made back to feed the young it had a honey bee in it's mouth. As others have said in general martins when out feeding will be up higher then what honey bees typically fly at. If the hive was real close then I could see the martins picking them off from the housing. I keep about 15 hives but they are about 1/2 mile from my housing at an apple orchard across the street. Based on what I have seen I would be more worried about TS if you have them near by, I have seen them feeding on honeybees.
I had the photos I took posted on this forum years ago and one of the main bee keeping magazines ended up publishing them for an article they wrote about bees and birds.

shaddo · Wed Feb 28, 2018 9:44 pm

I will chime in. My father and I recently got in to honey bees. Last year I put 3 hives up on his property where he has Martins. I didn't see any loss of bees and they both did just fine. (Martins and bees) Anyway. According to the beekeeper forums. If your going to breed queens....You "might" run into issues. The queens are slower and bigger than the workers. They might get picked off by the Martins or maybe even the Tree Swallows that might be local in the area. IMO the queens that make it back have passed natures test of only the strong survive....or else she was lucky?

Anyway like others have said the bees and Martins have lived in peace together on his property and they are about 50ft of each other. No big losses of the honey bees as far as I can tell.

Brad-AL · Wed Feb 28, 2018 10:01 pm

I'm a beekeeper and have 100 pair or so of Martins nesting here every year.

I have 15 hives within 40 feet of a gourd rack. The rest of my hives are 300 feet from another gourd rack.

I have never had any problems with the Martins and Honeybees.

One thing that I do, is to put any hive (split) at the site 300 feet away when they're trying to raise a new queen. I imagine that a virgin queen on her mating flights would make an easy target for a Martin. Having said that, I have a very good return rate on queens after their mating flights.

We also have 35 or so nesting pairs of Barn Swallows each year, and also have a great many Tree Swallows nesting on the farm.

So, for once and all to destroy a myth in the beekeeping and Purple Martin world..... Yes it's fine to have Martins and Honeybees.

The only birds that I've ever actually seen preying on a bee hive are a Carolina Wren and a Eastern Kingbird