Lionel,

FWIW you should also consider that colonies of feral honeybees are in far-
far less numbers than there were in pre-Varroa & tracheal days such that a
given area is able to support more production colonies than say 20 years
ago, this is very true for sourwood yields.  One of the things that you
may want to consider doing is to take accurate records of yields of each
hive in each yard in order to establish if there is sufficient pasturage
for your hives.  Say, if you run 30 hives per yard and yields for two of
the yards are about the same but the other yard is off by 30% then you
need to find out why: Was it because of pasturage or perhaps there’s a
problem with your hives in that yard. Look at the numbers year after year
they should tell you a lot. Some additional drawbacks of large yards are
the spread of disease and mites; and also I hate to say a large yard can
sometimes become a very small one overnight; but then too a small one can
disappear overnight as well but, the loss is not as great.

Chuck Norton
Reidsville, NC  (Where two hives side by side will fit into a yard quite
well, with a NUC to spare!)

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