Where you put a hive matters as much as how you keep it. UK beekeeping guidance (BBKA, NBU "Foulbrood Disease" and local council advice) repeatedly flags the same siting issues: hives placed too close to a boundary send bees flying at head height across a neighbour's garden, and low-flying "traffic" near paths, washing lines or play areas is the single biggest cause of neighbour disputes and stings that never happen inside your own plot.
This lab lets you place a small apiary near a garden boundary and see how two levers — distance from the boundary and a flight-path barrier (hedge, fence or windbreak) — change the height at which bees are travelling as they cross into the neighbour's airspace.
A honeybee's typical foraging range is roughly 3km from the hive (covering thousands of hectares), yet the few metres immediately around the entrance are what determine whether neighbours ever notice the bees at all.
A 3D apiary plot next to a neighbour's garden lets you test how boundary setback and a flight-path barrier change the height at which bees cross into neighbouring airspace — the siting decision behind most beekeeping neighbour disputes.
Bees climb gradually after leaving the hive. A hedge or fence placed close to the entrance forces a steep launch, lifting the flight path above head height much sooner than distance alone — the practical logic behind flight-path barrier guidance.
Adjust boundary setback, barrier height, hive count and wind direction, then toggle the forage radius ring to see the site's few metres of "sensitive zone" against the multi-kilometre area the colony actually forages over.
Bees typically forage within about 3km of the hive, yet it's the first handful of metres past the entrance — not the range — that determines whether an apiary causes a nuisance next door.