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

After her mother’s death, she began working with her father, Salvador, and her uncles at the family’s apiary, where they managed more than 30 hives.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

Gray said she hopes the findings will be useful to beekeepers while planning their apiary management strategies, as well as be a springboard for future studies.

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

"In every apiary we have there will always be one white box - just one white. Those are ones Willie Smith made himself after the First World War," Mr Hood said.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2023

Ef�m walked through the vestibule and through the yard to the apiary, to see Elis�y.

From Fables for Children, Stories for Children, Natural Science Stories, Popular Education, Decembrists, Moral Tales by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Finally, they experimentally infected bees from two colonies in central Pennsylvania with strains of the virus found in the Arnot Forest and the managed apiaries.

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

Two floors are occupied by the North Lawndale Employment Network, which helps residents find jobs and operates Sweet Beginnings, a program that trains formerly incarcerated residents to become beekeepers at local apiaries.

From New York Times ● Mar. 12, 2019

At the same time the island had two thousand four hundred and thirty-nine vegas, or tobacco fields, and one thousand two hundred and twenty-three colmenares or apiaries.

From The History of Cuba, vol. 2 by Johnson, Willis Fletcher