In or Out?
Beekeepers recognise two broad types of apiary - one that is in their own garden (an "in" apiary) and one that is somewhere else (an "out" apiary). Clearly there are advantages and disadvantages to each.
Like most people we started out with just one hive and kept it in our garden. However, once your interest grows so too does the number of hives and, unless you have a garden of several acres, you soon reach a point where an out apiary becomes advantageous.
The relative advantages and disadvantages are as follows:
| In apiary | Out apiary | |
| Ease of travel to the bees | Excellent | Not so good |
| Learning about bees from observation | Excellent | Not so good |
| Choice of site | Very restricted | Good |
Having grown to 4 hives and wanting to expand further we were fortunate to be asked by a non-beekeeper whether we would be prepared to site some hives on his land just outside a village about 5 miles away. This had the added benefit of being "over 3 miles" from our existing apiary and therefore allowing us to move hives directly from one apiary to the other at any time of the year (at least in theory!! - see below)