UK beekeeping guidance rarely gives a single "correct" apiary size — instead it balances three things: room to work each hive without disturbing its neighbour, enough distance between the entrances and the property boundary that departing bees have gained height before they cross it, and a footprint that scales sensibly as the number of colonies grows. This model lets you place a row of hives on a garden plot and watch those three constraints interact in real time.
A single hive can often sit legally just a metre or two from a boundary in a small UK garden provided a flyaway screen redirects bees upward — but a multi-colony out-apiary with no screening typically needs several times that setback simply so the natural climb angle of departing foragers clears the fence line before it reaches neighbouring land.
A 3D garden plot where you can add hives, change the gap between them, pull the row back from the boundary fence, and toggle a flyaway screen — watching drift risk, footprint area and flight-path clearance respond live.
Hive-to-hive spacing drives drifting risk, boundary setback determines whether departing bees are still near head height when they cross into a neighbour's garden, and a tall flyaway screen lets a much smaller plot work safely.
Set the number of hives and their spacing, drag the boundary setback in or out, rotate the flight bearing, and toggle the 2m screen. Watch the footprint area, hive gap and boundary-height readouts update, plus live bee flight paths.
A tall hedge or fence placed close to the hive entrances forces bees to gain height almost immediately, which is why many productive urban apiaries sit on plots far smaller than open-country out-apiaries need.