Apiary

Definition

Siting decides a great deal: forage within a few kilometres, shelter from wind, morning sun, a water source, and — critically — a flight path that does not cross a footpath, a neighbour's garden or tethered livestock. The oldest excavated apiary, at Tel Rehov in Israel, held around thirty clay cylinder hives in ordered rows in the middle of a town in the tenth to ninth century BCE.

Where the word gets used loosely

Apiary density is a live conservation question. Concentrating managed colonies in or beside habitat maintained for wild pollinators creates competition for forage, and siting is the main lever a beekeeper has over it.

Honey records that discuss this

• Wildflower honeyVaries with the season and the landscape. Pale spring crops are floral and light; late-summer crops darker, fruitier and stronger.
• Goldenrod honeyStrong, warm and spicy, with a hay-and-clove character and a slightly astringent finish. Assertive in a way that surprises people expecting an ordinary golden honey.
• Fynbos honeyComplex and aromatic — herbal, faintly resinous and warmly caramelised, with a character that changes noticeably between producers.
• Sundarbans mangrove honeyLight, tangy and faintly saline with a fresh floral character — considerably more delicate than its dramatic provenance would suggest.
• Argan honeyWarm and nutty with a distinct roasted note and a light resinous edge — genuinely reminiscent of the oil, which is a rare coincidence between a honey and its tree's other product.
• Hedgerow honeyWarm, floral and slightly grassy, with a caramel base. A good hedgerow honey is a genuinely complex thing that happens not to have a Latin name.
• Soybean honeyVery pale and very mild, with a clean light sweetness and almost nothing to distinguish it. Its virtue is neutrality.
• Wilga honeyWarm and faintly spicy with a clean finish, and without the camphor edge that runs through the eucalypt honeys of the same landscape.
• Towai honeyVery pale and delicate with a faint butterscotch sweetness — noticeably lighter and milder than kamahi from the same genus.

Plant records that discuss this

• CrocusVery high pollen at a point in the year when pollen is the binding constraint on a colony starting to raise brood. Bees return from crocus carrying enormous bright orange loads, which is one of the most cheerful sights in a February apiary.
• ArganA good spring nectar source in a semi-arid landscape with few alternatives.
• MotherwortA heavy nectar plant with a long season, widely recommended in Russian and Ukrainian beekeeping literature and largely overlooked elsewhere.