Is the hive safe near the garden?

Q. Is 20' from our garden a safe distance for the hives?

A. Make sure the entrance of the hive is not pointed directly at the garden. Consider that you will get a 10 foot long stream of bees coming and going from the entrance. You just don't want a person to get a bee caught in their hair while they are walking by. I have several hives right next to my garden and you don't really know they are even there. I have only had one hive/colony that was aggressive in the garden. By aggressive I mean that several times a day a guard bee would come check me out, buzzing rapidly in front of my face. You want to instruct the visitors to the garden not to wave the bees away, but to just stop and let the bee check them out and go away.

In the hot summer sometimes the bees are outside the hive in big lumps keeping the interior of the hive cool. This is not dangerous, but it looks intimidating!