If I have to sell my hives what are they worth?

[hollybees]

Hello Everyone,

Can anyone give an idea what healthy hives with bees are worth?
Has anyone here ever had to sell off there hives before?
How did you go about it....split them into nucs or what.

I mentioned moving to Colorado in a previous post and I got IM's from some members who were interested.
One member said put them on craigslist.

This is a new concept for me and I have no idea of there value.......Man selling off your bees  :'( bummer.
I've worked hard to get them to where they are.

Oh well, gotta do what ya gotta do.....right.

Thanks,
Paul

[iddee]

Michigan may be different from NC, but I get 150 for a single deep, bottom, inner lid, and full of bees and stores, with good laying queen. I add 25 for each medium and 50 for each deep on the hive.

[hollybees]

Thanks iddee
I have all mediums so would that equate to $150 for 2 medium bottoms or would you just sell the one medium w/the most brood & stores?
geeez ....does that even make sense!  :-\

I guess it depends on what's in the 2nd medium. Yeah 2 mediums makes more sense.....what do you think?

Thanks,
Paul

[riverrat]

a hive is worth what you can get out of it I personally wouldnt take less than 250 for a hive in double deeps this time of year, The closer you get to winter the less you would be able to get.  craigslist is a good place to sell you are more likely to get a better price from someone getting into the hobby as opposed to an established beekeeper. But if you got honey supers on the hive and there is a lot of honey in them an established keep might be interested since he can recoup some of his investment by selling the honey.

[woodchopper]

 A friend of mine had his hives sprayed with Raid by a couple of young neighbors. He lost his honey production for the year,his equipment was unusable after, and obviously his population of bees. I'm pretty sure the dad of the kid paid $300 per hive to keep matters of of the court system. My friend kept his supers which he washed and the rest he burned. 

[hollybees]

a friend of mine had his hives sprayed with Raid by a couple of young neighbors. He lost his honey production for the year,his equipment was unusable after, and obviously his population of bees. I'm pretty sure the dad of the kid paid $300 per hive to keep matters of of the court system. My friend kept his supers which he washed and the rest he burned. 

No way!!  :-x Man I would be so pi__ed off!!
Man that's really crappy! Very sad for your friend....and the kids dad too, I hope he got a good whippin' ...... stupid kid!

[hollybees]

a hive is worth what you can get out of it I personally wouldnt take less than 250 for a hive in double deeps this time of year, The closer you get to winter the less you would be able to get.  craigslist is a good place to sell you are more likely to get a better price from someone getting into the hobby as opposed to an established beekeeper. But if you got honey supers on the hive and there is a lot of honey in them an established keep might be interested since he can recoup some of his investment by selling the honey.

That's really a great idea! I'm going to be so busy getting ready to move, not having to deal with a honey harvest would be a plus.
Well, I'm gonna take a little  :-D

Thanks for the reply
Paul

[IAFF]

Going to look at some hives tomorrow.  Man has 23 hives and he's downsizing.  He is asking $100 for brooder, excluder, super, frames, all wax foundations, Italians.  Asking $125 for hives with 2 or 3 supers with honey.

[AllenF]

Now that's a really good deal in my book.  Buy them all and sell off as nucs.  Split the hives and double your money.

[iddee]

Downsizing to the tune of 23 hives? I wonder if any of the wood on the 23 is less than 20 years old. Especially the frames and wax.

You usually get what you pay for. Go into it with your eyes wide open.

A few years ago I bought 21 hives for 40.00 each in Oct. It turned out to not be such a good deal.

[rast]

 "You usually get what you pay for. Go into it with your eyes wide open." 
  I agree 100%. Down here in the winter time, you can buy northern 10 frame double deeps for $125.
 I chose to buy 12, 8 frame doubles for $100 a hive on pallets, delivered. Local acclimated bees. He told me they had had not been requeened this past year. Had not been treated for anything either and were not mite resistant bees. Inspection was insisted on. He was honest with me. That made a big difference. I lost 2 of the hives. In the past 2 weeks I have made 8 splits from them, sold 1/2 the honey they made for a little over $400, rented 4 of these hives for $200 for pollination, I will get 2 more summer splits out of these 4. It may be a break even deal with queens, feeding, treatments and woodware by the end of this year. But I will go into next year with about 30 hives counting the 8 I already had. Now if I do some some Jan/Feb splits next year on half of them and sell them, hmmmmmmmmm? 

[WALTC]

I just bought a hive from a guy that was getting rid of his 8 frame boxes.  Family ranch has hundreds of hives in Texas and they truck up to SD & MN in the late spring. Any way, for bottom, two deeps with plastic frames and top, he was getting $150.  For an extra $20 he threw in another deep with plastic frames to use as a super.  Oh, and bees.

Seemed like a good deal to me, but I'm new, so what do I know?

[jajtiii]

In April, a gal was selling 2 deeps and 2 supers for $250 on Craigslist in my area.

Two days ago (Farm & Garden, zip 23231), another fellow advertised hives that he had recently taken honey from for $225. Most, I believe, were simply 2 deeps of bees.

All of this on Craigslist.

[AllenF]

I checked Craigslist in Atlanta.  This is what I found. 

Honey Bees for sale.
5 frames of bees and laying queen into your box $100
5 frames of bees and laying queen in a 5 frame nuc hive $140
5 frames of bees and laying queen and 5 frames of fresh foundation in a 10frame hive $200

    * Location: Auburn Georgia
    * it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

[Scadsobees]

Paul,
Craigslist is great.

Go high on the price too.  It is a lot easier to lower the price than it is to raise it.

In the fall, I'd say lower.  But right now?  For nucs, I'd have them around $100+.  Full size hives, ready to go go into full honey production?  $250 isn't out of line right now, considering that equipment runs about $150 for a full size hive, and each hive is basically 4 nucs (or more).  Plus you can consider that 10 gallons of honey it will produce is worth at LEAST $300! :).

How 'bout this:
"Full size honey producing hives for sale $400.  Packed and active, they are storing honey right now, with a potential of 10 gallons of honey or more which can be sold for more than $30 a gallon, these hives will only cost you $100!!!"

On the other hand, you could also try "parting" out a few hives into nucs.

Now I've got some more used cars to go sell  :roll:...

Rick