Bees?

[hoping4better]

OK, I'm not sure where to post this, so please help me out if you can or let me know a better place to post a similar question.

I'm going to have a couple of hives this year (starting too many things at once I'm sure - first year for bees and chickens). There can be significant problems with small hive beetle and stuff growing up around the hives. To combat this I was thinking of putting my hives on a tall stand and penning the chickens (or just a few chickens) with the hives once or twice a week to keep the weeds and beetles down.

Does this sound like a horrible idea? I figured if the hives were high enough (3-4 feet off the ground) the chickens shouldn't be able to reach the bees and the bees should stay off the ground if there aren't any flowers for them down there.

What do you think?

In case it matters I'm in Middle Tennessee

 

[Pinky]

The chickens may spook the hive and that could result in dead chickens. I would not put the chickens in a pen with bees.

 

[indio]

I'm going to install a bee hive soon too. I wouldn't put the chickens near the hive because it might cause a swarm. You could put black, weed blocking garden fabric underneath the hive so that you didn't have to do a lot of lawn maintenance near it. I'm elevating my hive on cinder blocks that will be sitting on weed blocker and wood chips.