apiary

American  

[ey-pee-er-ee] / ˈeɪ piˌɛr i /

noun

• apiaries
  plural

1. a place in which a colony or colonies of bees are kept, as a stand or shed for beehives or a bee house containing a number of beehives.

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apiary British  

/ ˈeɪpɪərɪ /

noun

1. a place where bees are kept, usually in beehives

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• apiaries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of apiary

1645–55; < Latin apiārium beehive, equivalent to api ( s ) bee + -ārium -ary

Explanation

An apiary is a structure for keeping bees. If you love to eat fresh honey and don't have access to a farmer's market, you might consider building an apiary in your backyard. Apiaries have nothing to do with apes! Rather, the word derives from apis, the Latin word for "bee." Humans have raised bees for their honey for thousands of years; the oldest known apiaries were built by ancient Egyptians. The word itself didn't appear until the 1650s, around the time that apiarists, or beekeepers, started constructing apiaries resembling the ones in current use. Today, there are apiaries of various sizes on every continent and in every U.S. state.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

apiary apiaries

Brandon Teller, one of the county’s most prominent beekeepers, saw a Watch Duty fire notification on May 19 and headed straight to his apiary.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

Run by chemistry teacher Justin Wade, the club regularly has eight pupils who look after it's apiary and learn about the life of bees.

From BBC ● May 14, 2026

"We are so fortunate to be able to work with the Pennsylvania beekeepers, who every year answer a survey on their management practices, their bees' winter survival and their apiary locations," Grozinger said.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2024

The farm also has an apiary operation that produces incredible honey, two rescue steers, and a smattering of laying hens.

From Salon ● May 2, 2024

The apiary should be well sheltered from strong winds, moisture, and the extremes of heat and cold.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 2 Amiel to Atrauli by Various

Grozinger noted that in managed apiaries, honey bee colonies are often placed very close together, and the bees can transmit viruses by drifting into each other's colonies or by foraging on the same flowers.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2023

The plan was equally straightforward: Community-owned farms would feed everyone and fund additional industries, including apiaries, hatcheries, canneries, smithies, brickyards and even a film studio.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2023

To provide the honey for his range of meads Mr Cooper is also a professional beekeeper, who looks after more than 500 hives at 50 different locations or apiaries across Wales.

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2021

When the researchers placed buffets of animal dung near several apiaries, bees harvested clumps of it, dabbing their nests in carefully mounded lumps, each roughly the size of a sesame or poppy seed.

From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2020

This is possibly due to the constant war they have to wage against hornets, which in this country are a real plague and frequently exterminate whole colonies and sometimes whole apiaries.

From Notes on Agriculture in Cyprus and Its Products by William Bevan