A community apiary is sized by dividing the honey target by the surplus per hive: 200-500 lb a year at 30-60 lb per hive needs between 4 and 17 hives, and the sugar guide’s 8-15 sits inside that range. All hives share the same forage, and the honey left with the bees, 480-1,350 lb across 8-15 hives, is more than the community harvests.
Scaling to a community apiary is the sizing of a group of hives so that their surplus honey meets a community’s sweetener and preservation needs without exceeding the local forage.
The Number Of Hives Follows From The Target And The Yield
The sugar guide sets a target for a community of 100 of 200-500 lb of honey a year, made of 100-200 lb for dietary use (1-2 lb per person) and 100-300 lb for preservation, and says 8-15 hives are needed at 30-60 lb of surplus per hive.
Worked Example: Hives Needed
- Fewest hives: highest yield and lowest target, 200 ÷ 60 = 3.3, so 4 hives.
- Most hives: lowest yield and highest target, 500 ÷ 30 = 16.7, so 17 hives.
- Middle: a 350 lb target at 45 lb per hive is 350 ÷ 45 = 7.8, so 8 hives.
- The guide’s 8-15 corresponds to targets of roughly 240-450 lb at 30 lb per hive (8 × 30 = 240; 15 × 30 = 450) or 480-900 lb at 60 lb. It is a sensible range, not a precise one; the number of hives depends on your yield, so use the measured surplus per hive from your first two seasons.
- Winter stores: each hive keeps 60-90 lb, so 8-15 hives hold 8 × 60 = 480 lb to 15 × 90 = 1,350 lb. That is more than the community harvests, so the bees consume more honey than the people do.
- Losses: the guide says nothing about winter losses of colonies; plan replacement by splitting strong hives in spring (Hive Management for Surplus Harvest).
Forage Is The Shared Limit
The guide says most bees forage within 2 miles of the hive. A circle of radius 2 miles has an area of π × 2² = 12.6 square miles, about 8,040 acres (12.57 × 640 acres per square mile). All hives in one apiary draw on that same ground. The guide does not say how many hives that area supports, so this page cannot give a limit. The corpus gives a month-by-month view of forage and says a bloom gap of two weeks is enough to stop brood rearing (Bee Forage Calendar), which is the practical test: watch for the gaps.
What The Land Is No Longer Doing
Bees use nectar from flowering plants, not cropland, so an apiary displaces no crop. The corpus beekeeping guide says pollination can lift nearby crop yields by 30 to 90 percent (Beekeeping), a benefit that is not counted in the honey total. The competing cost is labour and the sugar used to feed light hives.
What You Need
- Hive placement away from paths, with wind shelter (Hive Placement)
- A record of yield per hive, each year
- A plan to add hives, by splitting and by catching swarms (Bait Hives for Swarm Capture)
- A person or team responsible
Method: Size The Apiary
Step 1: Set the honey target from dietary and preservation uses. Step 2: Divide by your measured surplus per hive and round up. Step 3: Add a margin for hives lost over winter. Step 4: Check the forage calendar for gaps. Step 5: Revise after each harvest.
Common Mistakes
- Sizing from the best hive. Use the average, and use the lower yield.
- Too many hives on too little forage. Each hive yields less.
- Forgetting winter stores. The bees’ share is large.
Safety
A larger apiary means more stings
More hives mean more flights near paths, water and work areas. Place the apiary away from where children play and where people queue for water, and keep sting-allergic people away (Honey Management).
What’s Next
- Learn next: Shelf Life of Sweeteners — storing the harvest
- Combine with: Caloric and Nutritional Role — what the honey is worth