My level of experience:
I have employed several ESP8266’s around my house including “talking to each other” through my router.
Now I would like to control my B-Hyve using a motion sensor/ESP8266 in an attempt to thwart a skunk that is tearing up my yard at night. I don’t have a clue as how to approach this effort.
Do you have your b-hyve connected to home assistant?
If not, see: https://github.com/sebr/bhyve-home-assistant
Then all you need is a motion sensor to trigger the zone switch with an automation.
If you want to use an ESP you will need wifi coverage and 5V available at the motion sensor site. Do you have that?
PS: I nearly told you to lift your bee hive at least 18" off the ground, after only reading the title of your post 
tom_l, Hey, thanks for the response. After looking bhyve-home-assistant on Gethub I see I have a learning curve in my future but it sounds like a fun challenge.
That said, I had been thinking about about a less elegant but workable (I think) approach which would go something like this… place an ESP(client) on the lawn with the sensor and another one(server) near the bhyve controller. When the server gets a command, latch a relay that sends the required voltage to that solenoid valve by simply tapping into the connections for that zone.
What say you?