Business related

[Mklangelo]

How many hives, in general would it take for a person to beekeep full time and be able to make a decent living. 

I know that it will vary and assuming you have a market and all that stuff, but in general, how many?

I have read that 100 is about all one person can handle.

[JP]

I have a friend that keeps generally 160 hives yr round.

[JP]

...and he sells his honey and pollen and that's all he does for a living.

[pdmattox]

I would say 500 hives rented out only one time at 40.00 is 20,000. Now with that in mind there is honey crop or crops and other pollination contracts you could do.  Next you got meds and equip upkeep (loaders and trucks included which can be never ending). That all being said if you had a loader and a good flatbed you could manage 500- 1000 if it was worked daily as the only job.  good luck.

[Mklangelo]

I would say 500 hives rented out only one time at 40.00 is 20,000. Now with that in mind there is honey crop or crops and other pollination contracts you could do.  Next you got meds and equip upkeep (loaders and trucks included which can be never ending). That all being said if you had a loader and a good flatbed you could manage 500- 1000 if it was worked daily as the only job.  good luck.

That's a long way off.  Let the homework begin.

I wasn't thinking as much of the pollination aspect but I suppose it's only logical with the honey to boot.

[TwT]

i know 2 types of beekeepers that make a living,

1. pollination, honey, pollen, and if they order queens and shake bees from their hives and sale package.

2. queen rearers, and sale nuc's and packages.

one thing i know is if your going to raise queens you can about forget honey, you might get some honey but most will be put in nuc's.

[Understudy]

The only real money makers are the those that raise queens and sell packages.
The pollinators and honey people make money but the profit level isn't very much. Even with queen rearing you still have huge expenses. I have never seen a beeman driving a new Mercedes.

Now if you want a little extra money on the side you could probably do it with 50-100 hives. But don't expect that to put dinner on the table.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[thegolfpsycho]

I can give you another example of taking bees to a business level.  When I have a dozen hives, up to about 20, I can hawk the honey at what I feel is a very good price.  Pints at 7.00, quarts at 12.00, and gallons at 40.00.  I was looking to expand and move some honey through a bakery.  Some natural grain health food stores.  They were very interested.   But only to buy in drums, and at about .91 to .99 cents per lbs.  Uh.. no... I think I'll keep going the niche market route and keep things fun instead of a job.

[UtahBees]

How about making natural or exotic items like hand lotion, lip balm, facial scrub, scented candles and that from the honey and wax? I'm not sure how I'd make such a business, but there was some lip balm I bought called Burt's Bees, and their success story was inspirational, as they went from rags to doing OK (from what I can tell).

I'll stick with my full-time job, but I think it's a very good question that Mklangelo asked. How many of us our here do this full-time?

Regards,

UtahBees

[Jerrymac]

If 100 hives produced 100 pounds each and you sold that at six dollars a pound that would be
$60,000.00

[Mklangelo]

If 100 hives produced 100 pounds each and you sold that at six dollars a pound that would be
$60,000.00

I was under the impression that $4.00 US a pound was about the going price.  I pretty sure I could get 5.  I was figuring an average of 50 pounds per hive.

I think I'll start a post to get the going prices from different keepers in different parts of the country. 

[Jerrymac]

I was under the impression that $4.00 US a pound was about the going price.  I pretty sure I could get 5.  I was figuring an average of 50 pounds per hive.

Good honey is hard to come by these days. I have sold a little @ $2.50 for eight ounces. And $5.00 for pound to a health food store who then would resale at a higher price.

[Mklangelo]

I was under the impression that $4.00 US a pound was about the going price.  I pretty sure I could get 5.  I was figuring an average of 50 pounds per hive.

Good honey is hard to come by these days. I have sold a little @ $2.50 for eight ounces. And $5.00 for pound to a health food store who then would resale at a higher price.

Define "good"  does that mean from strictly one type of floral source, such as Orange Blossom honey?  As I understand it, that's really diffucult, if not impossible to do.

[thegolfpsycho]

Jerry.  I don't get 100 lbs per hive, and my little market wouldn't support 10,000 lbs.  I think my small market exists because the honey is unheated, not filtered  to the extent that every grain of pollen is removed, and limited in availability.  Most of my hives are in peoples back yards within 2 miles from my house.  My expansion last year was to a yard, 20 miles each way, mostly russian olive and tamarisk, and while good, not as flavourful as the suburban honey and sugars faster.  People noticed the difference.  I don't think I can find another 100 homeowners that want bees in their yard, and the logistics would be prohibitive.  It ain't like delivering milk.  After Derricks bees swarmed last week, was suprised to hear that his neighbors were angry.  It's nature, happening in spite of us.  Why be angry over a natural occurrence?  They ain't grizzley bears for hells sake. 

[reinbeau]

Around here you can get up to $8 a pound - and I've done it!  Another club member started charging $8, and he's getting it, too, he's sold about 37 bottles at that price in one day at work!  We'll never be able to make a living on it, but it would be nice to recoup some costs.

[Finsky]

.

http://www.usda.gov/nass/PUBS/TODAYRPT/hony0207.pdf

http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/sugar/data/table46.xls

Here is raw honey about 1$/pound in US.

If you have 700 hives you have no time to sell 8$/lbs.

[Mklangelo]

Around here you can get up to $8 a pound - and I've done it!  Another club member started charging $8, and he's getting it, too, he's sold about 37 bottles at that price in one day at work!  We'll never be able to make a living on it, but it would be nice to recoup some costs.

How many pints of honey make a pound? 

[UtahBees]

1 pints = 16 ounces = 1 pound

You can calculate in Google. Go to google.com and type "1 pint in ounce" and then "16 ounce in pound" and it'll give the answer.

Very handy!

[Mici]

utah, wrong!
honey is heavier than water!

0,33l of honey weighs roughly a pound

[Mklangelo]

1 pints = 16 ounces = 1 pound

You can calculate in Google. Go to google.com and type "1 pint in ounce" and then "16 ounce in pound" and it'll give the answer.

Very handy!

Honey weighs (on average) 1.425 times water