You need to know what to look for when choosing a site:

1. Books may tell you that the hives should be in full sun all day, and in this country that may well be a good rule of thumb to stick to. However, having kept bees in South Africa for many years, I found that that was not a good idea for two reasons.
The first was that wax melts at 110 deg. F. If we start getting very warm summers, being in full sun may cause a problem. The bees will be spending a lot of time collecting water to cool the hive instead of collecting nectar to make honey. The bees collect water then evaporate it by flapping their wings at the entrance of the hive. This cools the hive using the same principles that your fridge uses at home.
The second is comfort. Mainly your own comfort. Remember that you will have to spend time working on your hive, not only when you rob the hive, but also when to spend time ‘managing’ it, and we’ll come to that at a later stage. You must also consider the bees’ comfort. Bees do not like to be disturbed if it is too hot, too cold, too windy or too wet – and they will let you know that too (adding to your discomfort!).

2. Next we should consider security. I shouldn’t imagine there would be the same problems with human thieving in this country as there is in South Africa. It was heartbreaking to come to an apiary to find £500 damage to the hives and a couple of small swarms left, out of 30+, all for about £10-£20 worth of honey. That was done by the indigenous people, but the same sort of damage could be wrought by badgers. If you have badgers in your area try to make the apiary badger-proof. Failing that you could get some strong luggage straps and strap the hive together.

3. If you have any sort of traffic nearby, people walking past, etc. make sure you have a solid fence. A board fence, wall, or hedge 6ft or higher. Make sure that the bees cannon fly straight out and hit somebody walking past Having a solid fence will force the bees to fly up and over the heads of passers by.

4. Make sure that the hives are out of the wind. Wind will either cause the bees to abscond (leave) to find a better place, or it will cause them to block the entrance with propolis, or ‘bee gum/glue’ as it is sometimes referred to. The bees collect resin from trees and mix it with, amongst other things, wax and pollen, to make propolis. This is not good for two reasons. First, they leave small holes in the propolis for access. This restricts the movement of the bees and ‘slows down’ the work.
Second, it takes seven times as much foraging to make 1 unit of propolis as it does to make 1 unit of honey – waste of the bees’ time.

5. This should have been No. 1 as it is the most important: Proximity to a nectar supply. Bees will forage up to 3km from the hive, but if there isn’t a good enough source of nectar nearby, they have been known to fly up to 12km in search of food. Once they find it they will leave the hive and move closer to the source. This is not good for the beekeeper who will come back and find an empty hive.
Bees need a lot of flowers. When I was running a bee farm in South Africa we would ‘chase’ the crops, moving from one crop to another so we could have honey all year round. We would work on about one acre of eucalyptus, or 5 acres of beans, or 2 acres of citrus trees per hive to provide a good yield of honey. As a hobbyist you could keep a fair number more hives in an area than a commercial beekeeper might.

A few more considerations, not dealing on the position of the apiary, but important none-the-less are:

a. Make sure people, especially children and animals, cannot enter the apiary by accident. If you are keeping the bees at home you need to just warn guests of the presence of bees. If your bees are on somebody else’s property, a farmer for example, make sure the site is secure.

b. The hives should be placed on stands as:
i. It raises the hive and places less strain on your back when you’re working on it.
ii. It keeps the hive off the ground. This is to prevent rain from splashing into the entrance and also keeps it above the damp of the soil and surrounding vegetation. This helps to prevent rotting of the floor and sides of the brood chamber.
iii. It (should) raise the hive above the weeds which would impede the flow of bees going to and from the hive. Proper maintenance of the site should include periodic weeding in front of the hives. This should be done in the evening after a few good puffs of smoke into the entrance of the hive as bees do not like the smell of cut grass or disturbed vegetation too close to the hive.
iv. This may not apply in the UK, but if there is an ant problem in your area, there are ways of making the stand ant-proof. Ants are tolerated by bees but a large enough colony of ants nearby can have a serious effect on the amount of honey there is left for you to take.

I’ve said quite a lot about the apiary here, all of which is important, but have not left any time to go on to the ‘paraphernalia’ as I had promised. We’ll have to do that next time.