How many hives in a yard?

[max2]

Obviously the answer will varii on location.

I have found that about 10 hives at each yard  allows me to find a frame with brood to give to a hive with no queen, borrow a couple of frames from a hive to pass on to a hive which is low on food...

The FLOW effect has meant that we have many beekeepers with one or two hives. I get constanly e-mails from people who lost a queen, have a weak hive...

I find that around 10 hives allows me to "keep, take care" of bees. "Beekeeping" in the true sense of the word.
What are others finding?

[Bill Murray]

personally I run 20 t0 30 dependent on  location. any more than 30 I start to get robbing issues, any less than 20 and it makes it not cost/time, effective/efficient, and they seem to get neglected sometimes.

[Michael Bush]

https://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#howmanyhives

[BeeMaster2]

The commercial beekeepers put 64 hives per location, 16 pallets of 4 hives, here in the spring at just about every location they use. They try to space them close to a mile apart.
When they do this right next to my property with my 12-18 hives we both get very little honey. Now they don?t put them next to my property.
Jim Altmiller

[TheHoneyPump]

If you just want to maintain a backyard apiary for fun , hobby, intrigue, study, some honey/wax;  there is a minimum number needed to be totally self sufficient and able to over come any problems;  3 main big colonies and 2 nuclei colonies. 
If you have many and want to optimize the number in each yard, factors needed to consider are - size of your work crew(s), size of your truck(s), terrain of the area, size of your extracting/processing facility.  In other words - much more info is needed!

[Michael Bush]

If you are hoping to be self sufficient and have some bees left at the end of winter you need to look at the typical losses in your area.  Let's say they are 50%.  Then if you have one hive you have a 50/50 chance of live bees in the spring.  If you have four hives you quadruple your odds.  Something like 87% chance of having a surviving hive in the spring.  If you have 8 hives then you have about a 97% chance or so.

[beehappy1950]

Michael you sound like you are figuring odds at the blackjack table. Ha

[Oldbeavo]

If you are running a set location then the number of hives you run is determined by how many can survive the worst honey flow period of the season. And how long does this lack of honey last.
We do not feed bees and it seems like a chore to me. That is why we are migratory.
You may be able to have a yard that has 2 locations to survive a season and so determine how many will survive using the 2 locations to fill out the honey flow.
Static beekeeping is very restrictive in Australia and most times 3-4 hives are able to survive. Hobby only.