Apiary Layout – Getting the Best for You and Your Bees

Once you have found a site you believe is suitable as a new apiary as discussed in last week’s blog, you will need to decide where to place the hives. The layout of an apiary is important both for the bees and the beekeeper. A well thought out apiary will make beekeeping a lot easier than a poorly designed one, even if the site and conditions are otherwise the same. You will want to provide the bees with the best possible conditions. In doing so you have to factor in things like wind, shade, dampness, frost, trees, flightpath and direction of entrance. For the sake of you, the beekeeper, you will have to consider issues such as accessibility, safety and ease of movement when you decide on your apiary .

Apiary layout for the beekeeper

Let us begin with the needs of the beekeeper. If you are starting with bees and setting up your very first apiary, you may only look to house a nucleus hive or two initially. But you will probably find your apiary expanding within the next few years to hold a couple of hives in addition to your initial colonies. It is important to consider possible expansion already when setting up an apiary.

Transport within the apiary

You will need to position the hives so that you can easily transport colonies to and from the location as well as hive equipment, feeders and feed. In a good year, you will be able to remove supers full of honey from your hives. These can be very heavy, so ease of access for a wheelbarrow or a trolley if not a car or van is essential. You will also need to be able to work your hives comfortably, and to move around the apiary easily and safely.

Room for Inspections

When you inspect a colony, after first checking the activity at the entrance, you will begin by taking off the roof and placing it somewhere close to the hive. Either on the ground or on the hive stand next to the colony you are inspecting. I place mine top down so that I can lift off the first box and place this on the upturned roof with only the corners of the box supported by the sides of the roof. This is done in order to minimise the risk of squashing and killing bees when working the colony. All this lifting can be hard on the back, and for some the arms and wrists too, so make sure that you have adequate space next to the hive to place the roof and stack the boxes without bending or twisting.

Walking and Carrying

While carrying hives, hive parts and other equipment, most of the time you will not be able to see your feet. Therefore, it is important that you make sure that you do not have things lying around the apiary that you can stumble on. If your hive stands have splayed legs the stands need to be placed or designed such that they won’t trip you up, this is an important part of apiary layout.

The banes of my life in one of my apiaries are the runners of the blackberry bushes that surround it. As they root on both ends, they produce plenty of perfect little snares for my boots to get stuck in if I am not careful. Needless to say, they have caught me out a couple of times, and of course never while empty handed. However, I confess that do tolerate them to a certain degree because they also provide wonderful forage for my bees and for me and the birds once the berries ripen.

Mind the Entrance!

You should never stand directly in front of a beehive as it will impede the bees’ entrance and exit from the hive and returning bees could become disoriented. You also would not want to be standing in front of a colony that have just been inspected or in the flightpath of one colony while working another. There will be too much activity for both yourself and the colony that is to be inspected for the inspection to be calm, efficient and effective. This is important to consider when deciding on the layout of an apiary, and would typically rule out the placing of hives in rows facing the same direction. It is better in that case to organise the rows so that the colonies have their entrances facing outwards and you can work them back to back, or to select a different layout.

Apiary Layout for the Bees

Honeybees are wonderfully adaptable and resilient creatures. It is often said, jokingly or otherwise, that the bees have the capacity to survive not because of the helping hand of the beekeeper but in spite of it. Meaning that as beekeepers perhaps we often do more bad than good. In taking due care and consideration when setting up a new apiary, we can ensure that we provide our colonies with a decent chance of surviving and thriving.

Sun and Shade

One of the first things to consider is the sun. Beehives are best situated where they will receive a lot of sunlight, all year around. The entrance does not necessarily need to be facing the sun, but the hive should be placed so that it can be warmed up by the sun and not receive too much shade throughout the day or for long periods of time for example during the winter months.

November – February are great months for checking the amount of winter sun a site will get. In assessing the suitability of a site in the winter also be aware that trees that are bare during winter may have a substantial canopy providing too much shade in the summer months. It is not advisable to place hives under or among dense vegetation, or in a heavily wooded area, as these spots often are damp and gets little sunlight, but a clearing in the woods or at the edge of woodland is perfectly suitable.

Wind and Shelter

Other important factors to consider whin designing an apiary layout are wind and shelter. Bees do not do that well in very exposed situations. If, in an exposed site, there are no trees, hedges or fences available to shield the hives from the prevailing wind, consider erecting a fence or some form of a windbreak. Ideally it should be something that does not block off all of the wind, as this can lead to cold air or frost pockets on the sheltered side.

Gaps in the barrier will allow the cold air to drain away creating a better climate for the bees. Bees do not need mollycoddling though. A bit of a breeze won’t hurt them one bit as long as the hives are secure and weatherproof.

Roads and Walkways

If your apiary is in a populated area, or there are roads, walkways or recreational amenities close by, it is good practice to face the entrances of your hives away from these areas. Bees leaving the hive to go out to forage will fly out of the hive and gradually ascend as they take off in their preferred direction. Similarly, when they return to the hive after foraging, they will descend steadily and touch down at the entrance.

However, if the forage is close by, they may not fly very high, as is the case in my home apiary where, on a busy spring day or during the June gap when they are digging into their stores and need water to dilute the honey, the airspace between the beehives and the fish pond is like a bee-autobahn. At head height of course, as they are only covering a short distance, making it next to impossible to work in the garden while the bees collect water.

A simple solution here is to erect a barrier or plant a hedge in front of the hives, (and for me also around the pond). This would force the bees to fly straight up once they come out of the hive and they will reach their cruising height, to borrow an aeronautical term, sooner and closer to the hive. Also, when they return from flying, they will descend quickly to alight on the landing board or entrance and thus spend very little time flying at a height where they can cause nuisance to people and other animals.

What direction should the entrance face?

There is often much discussion about what direction the entrance of the hive should be facing. As a beginner I was told that the entrance should point towards East to get the first sunlight of the day, or towards South to avail of all-day exposure to the sun.

Later on, I have read up on the subject and experimented with the placing of my own hives. Whilst there are many proponents of entrances facing in an easterly, south-easterly, or southerly direction, there are many others who say that it does not matter. Some have also gone through the trouble of recording yields in relation to the directions that the hive entrances are facing and have found there to be no difference in production capacity. What is more important is that the hives, and entrances, are placed such that the bees can easily recognise their own hive.

How to avoid drifting

When discussing the layout of an apiary one often comes across the term ‘drifting’. Drifting, put simply, is something that occurs when bees enter a hive that is not the one they belong to, either because they get disoriented as they return to the apiary after foraging or because of the prevailing winds pushing them towards another hive.

Drifting generally is not a problem in a small apiary, but it is a good idea not to place hives in a straight line facing the same direction to minimise confusion and any possible drifting. Instead, you can place your hives in a circle, semi-circle or in a line, but with the entrances facing in different directions. You can also have groups of hives together, say four hives on a pallet, each with the entrance pointing a different way, or dotted singularly or in pairs throughout the apiary.

Some beekeepers like to paint their hives in different patterns and colours to help the bees find their way back to their own colony.  

Frost pockets, tall trees and livestock

When placing hives, also be aware not to select a spot at the bottom of a slope as it could be a place where water collects after heavy rainfall or become a frost pocket during cold spells. Additionally, if there are mature trees surrounding the apiary, it is a good idea to place the hives in a way that any trees falling will not land on the hives.

I recently underestimated the height of a very majestic oak tree by a good seven or so meters, resulting in two destroyed colonies. The hives were smashed to smithereens when the oak fell as result of an autumn storm, and the bees then perished in a short few days from the rain and cold.

Similarly, if the apiary is located near livestock, make sure that the hives are fenced off. Cattle, horses and other animals can be quite inquisitive and accidentally knock over or dislodge a hive as they come up close to have a look.

Visibility and Hive thefts

It is generally a good policy for hives not to be visible from roads, paths or other public areas, as people can also be very curious. There are unfortunately many instances where beehives are stolen or vandalised. Keeping the hives out of sight could go a long way in preventing such things from happening.

Hive stands

To make it easier for the beekeeper to work the hives and to keep the hives dry and level, the hives are placed on hive stands. A hive stand can be anything from a couple of concrete blocks or pallets, to one designed and built specifically for the purpose. Regardless of what you are using, it will need to be:

• Level
• Sturdy enough to hold a beehive, complete with several supers full of honey
• Placing the brood box at a good height for inspections

It is also preferable if the hive stand is durable so that it does not have to be replaced very often, and it is ideal if there is space on or next to it for placing the roof and other equipment while carrying out inspections. It is best to prepare the apiary properly and set up the hive stands so that they are level and sturdy before bringing the bees to the apiary. 

Hive stands are available to purchase from the beekeeping suppliers, but you can easily build or construct your own using timber and concrete blocks.

Space for 2 + 1

I prefer to leave enough space for one extra hive or nuc next to each hive. This makes it convenient for me when working a colony as I can place my tools and equipment there, but also when doing an artificial swarm, making up nucs, or filling up mating boxes with bees. For the most part, I use either hive stands that will hold two hives, with the space for a third hive or a nuc in between, or pallets. I find both to be very good, although as the timber in the pallets does not last indefinitely, they have to be replaced every few years. However, as they are free, readily available and require little or no work this does not become a problem.

If using pallets, make sure that the ground underneath is reasonably clear so that it does not become a home for mice and rats. A very good version of a hive stand can be built using concrete slabs, blocks and timber as in the picture above. Instructions for building your own hive stands are freely available online.

Care needs to be taken to ensure that hive stands are level. It may not seem all that important when the hive only has one or two boxes, but as summer progresses some colonies will require a lot more space. If the stands are not level, the stacks may start to look alarmingly like the leaning tower of Pisa. It is also important in the autumn when feeding syrup as you will not be able to fully fill a feeder on a leaning hive.

To conclude…

When arranging the layout of an apiary make sure that the hives get as much sun as is possible, that they are sheltered from very strong winds, livestock, inquisitive eyes and falling trees, that they are in an area clear of standing water and frost pockets, and that the entrances are facing different directions. Also ensure that there is good access for the beekeeper both to the site and within it, so that the colonies can be inspected safely and comfortably.

How many colonies that can be kept in an apiary depend on many different factors and is possible to ascertain only after a few years. It boils down to the location, the availability of forage, competition from other apiaries nearby, but this shouldn’t be a concern for a beginner beekeeper with only a couple of hives.

Hanna Bäckmo

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