An apiary is a place where beehives are kept, like a little neighborhood for bees. A beekeeper might maintain an apiary in their backyard, on a farm, or in an orchard where the bees help pollinate fruit trees.

An apiary can be as small as a few wooden boxes in a garden or as large as hundreds of hives spread across acres. Each hive houses a colony of thousands of bees working together to make honey, raise young bees, and keep their queen safe. The beekeeper visits the apiary regularly to check on the bees' health, harvest honey, and make sure the colonies have enough food.

Apiaries serve an important purpose beyond making honey. Bees pollinate many of the crops we eat, including apples, almonds, and blueberries. Without apiaries and the beekeepers who tend them, we'd have far fewer fruits and vegetables. When you see honey at the store labeled with where it came from, it came from an apiary where a beekeeper carefully manages the hives and harvests the honey the bees produce.