# Bees and horses



## [email protected] (Feb 24, 2005)

I read in one of the beekeeping books that bees are bad to have near horses, is that true and how near is near? And would we be lible if the bees stung the neighbors horse? We have the neighbor from hell and I've had my fill with her already.


----------



## james dilley (Mar 21, 2004)

First off if you have A nieghbor from Hell I would not have bees near them, And if they have horses ,how near are the bees??? And remember Bees need water so they will go to the water source near there yard. I lost A dog about 12 years ago to bees,The next door nieghbor has 200 hives ,And there is /was always bees in the dogs water.Even though he put out waters for them.And yes bees will sting and kill A horse. There was A incident with A wild swarm of Africanized bees this summer in A pasture that killed A horse down this way. If possible try to keep the Bee yard fenced off from other animals. And yes they can sue you. But could they prove it was your Bees that caused the trouble???


----------



## [email protected] (Feb 24, 2005)

It kind of depends on how close to our yard she decides to put the horses. I planned to put them in our side yard which would be about 1/2-3/4 of an acre away but I don't know if that is far enough. I'm not getting the bees until spring and I don't know when she is getting a horse. I'm hoping that will be enough distance, if not I'll have to figure something else out. I would only have one or two hives at most so I don't know if that makes it less likely to be a problem or not. How would I fence off the bees? What kind of fence would hold them and how would they go collect pollen then? I'm sure that is a dumb question but I don't understand how that works.


----------



## james dilley (Mar 21, 2004)

The fence would be to keep other animals away from the Bees. And if you have the bees first that might make A difference,But what is her property planted with??? If its A plant the bees can forage on,While the horse is in the field ,It may get stung.


----------



## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

You need to see what the law says in your county or state. The bee inspector might be able to advise you on that. 
Bouncenhumble ran 500 hives with a friend, Dan, in Utah. A lady came to see them one day and said that one of Dan's bees had stung her daughter, and that her daughter had a serious allergic reaction. She wanted Dan to pay the medical bills. Dan simply listened to her, then asked her what color dot the bee had on it. The lady said it didn't have any spot on it at all. Dan got this really relieved look on his face and said "Oh, I'm sorry then, it couldn't have been one of my bees. You see, I mark all my bees with a colored marker as soon as they are born. That way I can identify what bees are mine and which ones aren't, because they can travel from so far away." Well, the lady looked surprised and said she wished all bee guys marked their bees that way. If everyone used a different color marker, we'd know who's bees were whose when they stung someone. She then said she was sorry she bothered him, she would try to find the owner of the bee that stung her daughter.
Now, this may sound like a dirty trick, but it just goes to illustrate that in reality, you cannot prove with any certainty where a bee comes from. In Ohio, and most other places I assume, you can't be held liable for damages if they cannot be directly traced back to you.


----------



## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

It is true that bees do not like horse hair, horse hide or horse sweat, but they do not go looking for horse trouble. 

To cause a problem the horse would have to graze in among the hives and bump one or knock it over, or graze so close it disturbed the bees. The individual bee on a clover blossom might sting a horse if the horse cropped the clover, but bees do not go hunting for horses. 

I would say that if you have fences that keep the horses 30 or 40 yards away from the beehives there should be no problem. 

A long time ago I let a pony in to crop some green grass around my beehives in early spring when the bees were not flying. She tipped over a hive and was stung to death before I even knew she was in trouble. Don't do that.
Ox


----------



## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

Oxankle said:


> A long time ago I let a pony in to crop some green grass around my beehives in early spring when the bees were not flying. She tipped over a hive and was stung to death before I even knew she was in trouble. Don't do that.Ox


Wow, that's terrible! We have 3 hives smack in the middle of our pasture, on the edge of a grove of trees. Our horses never bother them, however, we are always catching our cattle rubbing against the hives and knocking off the tops. Never have they knocked a hive over yet, but they have rubbed the top off one in the middle of winter, thereby killing the hive. :grump: The cattle seem pretty impervious to the bee stings though.


----------



## [email protected] (Feb 24, 2005)

Thanks, the horses won't be anywhere near the hives to knock into them so that's good to know that it won't be a problem. I will do some asking around about any regulations when I get to the beekeepers meeting next month. Thanks for all the advice. 
And thanks for not laughing at my question about fencing the hives, it was stupid of me, I just wasn't making the connection that it was to keep the horses away from the hives. Well, you may have been laughing but at least I couldn't hear you.


----------



## justgojumpit (May 5, 2003)

I have my hives about 15 feet from the edge of one of our horse paddocks. There is a line of evergreens between the bees and the paddocks, and we have never had a problem. They also find water sources other than the animal water, so that is not a problem for me either. One thing I can say is that you do not want mammals getting too close to the hives (within a few yards WITHIN THE FLIGHT PATH) This makes a big difference. If there are no animals in the flight path of the bees or very close to the hives, the bees have nothing to worry about. They are not suicide attackers, and they will not kill another animal out of vengeance. The bees are only concerned about the survival of their own hives and themselves. If they are not endangered by other animals, I find that they will generally not sting. I can stand next to my sugar feeder, with hundreds of bees buzzing around me, and they don't even seem to notice me! However, if I stand long enough right in front of the hives, I am pretty sure to get stung. Another thing you can do is to put a solid fence around your hives, which will force the bees to fly up and over the heads of the horses as they search for pollen or nectar. One thing I have seen the bees do is look for starch in animal feed in the early spring, when they start raising brood. If you set up an empty hive near the bees with some pollen in it, though, I don't think you should have a problem with this.

justgojumpit


----------



## Hovey Hollow (Apr 25, 2005)

I'm not a beekeeper, but do have a couple of horses. My horse loves to eat the pears as they fall off the tree when I let him out in the yard. The bees also love to eat the pears. He has figured out to roll the pear a few times with his hoof before he eats it. One time I saw him forget. He pawed at his face for a few seconds then went on eating. Didn't seem like a big deal and obviously he had been stung before if he had figured out the pear roll thing. So, an occaisional sting shouldn't hurt a horse, unless like a human you have one that is allergic?


----------



## efdgoon (Nov 20, 2004)

Looking at another angle.I bet if you had your bees out of sight they may be out of mind.(to your neighbor) I would have to agree, unless the horse was allergic, one or two stings shouldn't hurt em. I can't imagine a horse beeing outside and not incountering a bee. I did almost loose two puppys to a hornets nest. But never have I had that kind of problem with my honey bees in 20 years. They also say " you make better neighbors with honey than you do vinegar" or somthing like that.Good luck!


----------

