Submitted by J. Orem
It's fall and time to think about keeping the wind off the bee hive. We use hay bales that will later be used to feed the animals in early spring. It is important to keep the wind off the hive but not the sun. We try to keep the windbreak high enough to keep the wind off but still allows the sun to warm the hive.
Ideally the windbreak should be close enough to break the prevailing winds and should allow you to walk behind the hive. We scatter our hives about the yard so it is difficult to give them a perfect break every time.
Last fall I made a shed from scrap barn metal for our nucs. it seemed to work fine. The hay bales keep the wind from blowing the bee shed away. in the summer I weigh it down to keep summer storms from blowing it away.
Other Beekeepers use plywood or square bales or metal or the barn to keep the wind off the bee hive. I hope others will post what they use.
Here's a gallery of images to see a few set-ups. We'd love to see your pictures. If you send them, we'll post them in the gallery.
