🐝 Running Apiary Tours

About this simulation

Public and school apiary tours are a genuine small-business line for UK beekeepers, but they trade off three things at once: how many people can be shown around, how close they can safely stand to open hives, and how the bees themselves are behaving that day. This scene models a small teaching apiary of open hives with a visitor group standing on a safety perimeter, and lets you explore how those trade-offs interact.

How it works

• Group size — more visitors means more revenue, but larger groups are harder to keep controlled and quiet near open hives, which nudges sting-risk up.
• Ticket price — directly scales revenue per tour; shown alongside the risk and cover cost so you can see the trade-off, not just the takings.
• Safety buffer distance — how far back the visitor ring stands from the hive row. Below the season's recommended buffer, the ring glows amber or red.
• Season & weather — calm nectar-flow days need less distance; overcast or dearth conditions make bees more defensive, raising the recommended buffer and the bee-flight density around the hives.

Controls

• Group size — number of visitor figures shown on the perimeter ring (2–30).
• Ticket price — price per visitor in £ (5–35).
• Safety buffer distance — radius of the visitor ring from the hive row in metres (2–10).
• Season/weather select — changes bee agitation, flight density and the recommended safe distance.
• ↺ Reset scene — restarts bee flight paths. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom.

Did you know?

Many UK beekeeping associations and insurers recommend capping open-hive tour groups at roughly 8–12 people per beekeeper, precisely because visitor density near an open colony — not just distance — is what tends to unsettle bees and drive up claims.