Where is your apiary?

[antaro]

As my hobby has grown this year (first year keeper) and I now have two hives, I was wondering where it is that people have their apiaries located. I live in a very urban area in Portland, OR filled with young families and small children. And while my bees have yet to sting anyone but me, I do have the occasional concern run through my head of if/when one of my neighbor children (or my own) gets their first sting. It has made me consider other places to house my hives, but one of the major advantages of the hobby is being able to walk out my back door and work the hives.

Do most people have their operation in an urban backyards? Hidden rural apiary? Rooftop in the city?
Just curious!

[FRAMEshift]

We have two bee yards.   The big one is in an isolated rural area close to a creek for water.  The smaller one is in an urban back yard.  Fortunately, all the neighbors are in favor of urban beekeeping and we will soon be surrounded by fellow beeks.

[Grieth]

My house is on the side of a hill in suburbia.  We have a balcony in an L shape.  I have a hive on the side bit of the balcony we don't use and it is going well.  Protected from late pm sun,  and the rails send the bees off out the back over the neighbors roofs. Don't think the neighbors even know about the bees.

Others make a shade cloth enclosure 6' high so the hive is hidden and the bees are up high as they fly off.  A couple even have them on their garage roofs (or so they say), but a roof seems too awkward to me.

Maybe a thread for best suburban hive locations pics would be interesting!

[CeeGeeBee]

I am located in a VERY rural area. I have three neighbors to the west, the closest is about 1/2. No neighbors in any other directions. It about 1.5 miles to the closest highway, and our driveway is about 2 miles long. This is my first year, so I am a little nervous to see how thing will be going.

[BrentX]

My hives are within 50 feet of the back porch.   Lots of time is spent watching the bees from in a pair of chairs within 15 feet of the hives.  From this vantage point it is easy to see the bees going up as they leave the hive and are above roof top level by the time they leave the property.  Same for the return flight.  But my house and hives are in the forest,  the  bees go up to thread their way through the trees.

Bees seem to circle around the hive a bit gaining altitude then head straight for their objective.  The altitude depends on the obstructions in the directly they are heading.  This is where a wall may be helpful, in getting the bees up high where they wont be colliding with people on the sidewalk or in your neighbors yard.

In an urban environment any roof top option would be very interesting.  The elevated balcony is also a nice idea.

[Shanevrr]

id say since honey bees dont sting for spite I woundnt worry about it.  Check local laws,  chat with nieghbors.  not much else you can do.  But sometimes its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. :-D

[JudyM]

We now have eight hives.  One is located on our picnic table.  My son, his wife and my husband enjoy just sitting next to the bees and watching them work.  They actually sit on the picnic table benches. The other hives are located in an opening in the field behind the house.  We have ten acres, most of it woods.  The hives are fenced in to discourage racoons, possums, etc. from getting to the bees as easily as just walking along and helping themselves. 

[AllenF]

We are not that rural anymore but I try to keep about a dozen hives in the edge of the woods here.  I think there are 11 hives out there now with one of them on my back porch.   Very cool to look at from the couch through the door.   The edge of the woods is 20 foot from the house and 50 foot from the blueberry bushes and no customer had gotten into the hives yet.

[luvin honey]

In our back 40, literally :)

[bee-nuts]

middle of 160 acres and about 75 yards from a apartment building through the woods.  Last one is in a fenced pasture so if anyone goes beyond the fence they are asking for trouble.  The cows like to watch me work me bees,  they are doing a nice job keeping the grass mowed around my fence.  Dang deer and horse flys are worse than the bees, id rather get stung.