An apiary is the location where the hives of honey bees are kept. An apiary can contain many hives and these are sometimes, especially in Europe, stacked on top of each other in terraces. Apiaries are most commonly used for the production of honey rather than providing specific pollination services for a crop.

An apiary (also known as a bee yard) is a location where beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Furthermore, an apiary may refer to a hobbyist's hives or those used for commercial or educational usage.

Simply put, an apiary is a place where beehives are kept. The word comes from the Latin words for bee, apis, and place of, arium. Apiarium/apiary means “place of bees.” If you keep bees and have more than one hive at the same site — rooftop, garden, field, orchard — you have an apiary.