[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I have also found recent successes by raising the height of my hives off the ground to about ten feet high. I use those folding portable deer hunting stands.

:Furiously taking notes:

Does being so high up require extra protection from weather?

[blackdog]

No. Bees glue everything together so tight that no wind causes problems. The only difficulty becomes working the hives at that height. I use one of those two sided platform ladders so I have a scaffold deck to work from. I have a small chain winch that I lower the full supers with because they go 100 pounds each when full of honey. Then a ground person (apprentice if you can) to offload the winch hook and send it back up.

It gives the neighbors something to talk about behind your back. They already thought I was different. Now bumped up a notch to crazy.