# Bees and poultry



## fillycate (Nov 11, 2007)

Hello! I am dreaming about getting started someday, and I want to learn all I can before then.

I have a fair amount of free-range poultry. How much danger might they pose to bees? I have some guinea fowl, and they are supposed to be pretty fearsome against insects in general.

I am thinking of keeping them in a remote area where the poultry generally doesn't go. Incidentally, this area is near a natural spring that runs year-round. Will this be an assett to the bees? Should I make sure they are placed very near to this spring?


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## GoddessKristie (Jun 18, 2007)

This isn't any help, I know but I have wondered this too. We will not have free-range poultry but I have this image in my head of chickens staking out the hive entrance and just treating it like a buffet!
If others say this will be a problem you could consider a fence right around them. I wouldn't think it would have to be very big.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

I have bees and free range chickens that range and lay right through the bee yard i dont know why as i was expecting them to be some problem but they do not touch my bees or yellow jackets (worse luck) but they seem to go after everything else including wax moth.

I dont know for sure but had an idea that chickens free ranging through bee yard may be some sort of controll against small hive beetle if it ever gets to my area.


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## fillycate (Nov 11, 2007)

That would be so perfect if chickens ate a bee predator and left the bees alone!! Is it too much to hope for? 

I heard that guinea fowl love to eat yellow jackets, and that makes me fear for the bees. Though I dunno that our 4 guinea fowl made any dent in the yellow jacket population, we certainly had a lot of them this year!


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## sellis (Apr 7, 2006)

i keep bees and my hives are buy our ranch , my mother has guenieas and chickens , they move by the hives alot but i can assure you they will not bother them but once , the bees will make shure of that , but no you will not have a problem .sellis


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

I have free range poultry that forage around the hives. Occasionally you will see a YOUNG chicken grab a bee but you had better be lucky and observant because I've never seen that same chicken take another. From the reaction I would say that the inside of their beaks is VERY tender LOL. Can't help you with guineas....Only had two and they didn't last a week after I heard how noisy they are.

Edit: I will say I find it quite enjoyable to sit in the apiary and observe the thought process when a chicken sees a grasshopper under a hive or near the entrance.....They go from watching the guard bees to watching the grasshopper, eventually one of the chickens will get brave enough to duck down and make a charge at the hopper but most times they "chicken out" just before the catch and run back out to start all over again.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

fillycate said:


> That would be so perfect if chickens ate a bee predator and left the bees alone!! Is it too much to hope for?
> 
> I heard that guinea fowl love to eat yellow jackets, and that makes me fear for the bees. Though I dunno that our 4 guinea fowl made any dent in the yellow jacket population, we certainly had a lot of them this year!


I have 10 young speckaled sussex in a shed under lights in the same shed
i have some bee boxes with old comb and some wax moth the light from the brooder is attracting the wax moths which are gobbled up by the chickens.

cheap feed

dont know what to do with my dog though it will gobble bees all day long
stings and all.


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## fillycate (Nov 11, 2007)

Ha! I didn't even think about my dog being a problem! 

I'm glad to hear that chickens don't seem to menace the bees.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

The chickens will patrol the hives at dusk, picking off wax moths. I have never seen one get a bee. I guess they learned their lesson when I wasn't looking. I never had wax moths in my hives until I put my chickens in a lot. The moths moved in almost immediately.


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## fillycate (Nov 11, 2007)

So chickens appear to eat both wax moths and small hive beetles? Sounds like a good reason to make sure my bees and poultry aren't too far apart.  Will the water that I set out for the animals be useful to the bees, or will they need a separate source of water?


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

I put fresh water out by the hives and they seem to ignore it in favor of the creek below the house or somewhere else. I have seen them drink at a leaky rabbit waterer. They also love the kids pool. Don't worry too much about the water, if there is a good source (good as in constant-not quality) within 1/4mile or so they'll find it and use it.


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## damoc (Jul 14, 2007)

fillycate said:


> So chickens appear to eat both wax moths and small hive beetles? Sounds like a good reason to make sure my bees and poultry aren't too far apart.  Will the water that I set out for the animals be useful to the bees, or will they need a separate source of water?


water is the biggest problem for me and good neighbors especially with a lot of hives ive put out tanks with floats but they still find watering troughs
and peoples leaky faucets and pools it wasnt untill last year when i built a small shallow pond for them that i fixed the problem.but if all you want is a few hives you should not have a problem with water put out a tank and a way for the bees

to drink without falling in and keep it full you dont want the bees learning
to go your neighbors irigated lawn for water.

if you do decide to build a small pond if you stock it with bluegill or some sort
of insectivorous fish they will clean up the old dead bees that fall into the pond keeping it cleaner and saving on feed.


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## fillycate (Nov 11, 2007)

> if you do decide to build a small pond if you stock it with bluegill or some sort
> of insectivorous fish they will clean up the old dead bees that fall into the pond keeping it cleaner and saving on feed.


Huh! We do have an area that could conceivably be made into a pond (previous owners intended to do just that), but that isn't a project we will get to for awhile.


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

Guineas will eat the bees. Chickens mostly leave them alone.

I had a bunch of paper wasps in my chicken coop, which I was ignoring because paper wasps, IMHO, are pretty harmless and I've always thought the nests were cool. Once I got guineas the paper wasps didn't last very long. 

Wish I could find something that would eat the giant red grain ants that are forever raiding my chicken feed.

-- Leva


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