Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING => Topic started by: the-ecohouse.com on April 06, 2012, 02:42:09 am
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Hi Guys and Girls
I pose a question about expanding your bee business.
Imagine you had 50k to spend on bees or bee related products.
You cant spend it on anything else.
How would you invest this money to increase your production / business / turnover/ make it easier/ automate it etc
Love to hear your thoughts
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That's a hell of an imagination you've got there Eco.
I imagine you would get your processing equipment in order so you can process your frames efficiently. I have no idea about the cost of larger equipment but I would aim for your medium to long term goals in terms of the size of operation you want to achieve. Along with this would be an adequate sized premise to house everything.
Next I'd make sure your transport was sufficient to cover an increase in operations.
I would see both of these as being essential before you actually spent lots more on woodenware and increasing your colonies.
Some of the 50k might also be invested in marketing or looking for new markets for the tonne of product you're going to harvest.
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Interesting question!
I guess it's down to what one has already before investing the 50k.
If from scratch;
20k on hives, frames and setting up the bees
20k on processing, capper, extractor and storage
10k on a 2nd hand ute/truck to transport hives as long as it has a cd player for those long drives!
I would sell to a wholesaler in ibc containers before self marketing.
Ben
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Hi Guys and Girls
I pose a question about expanding your bee business.
Imagine you had 50k to spend on bees or bee related products.
You cant spend it on anything else.
How would you invest this money to increase your production / business / turnover/ make it easier/ automate it etc
Love to hear your thoughts
That are you going to be marketing :?
Pollinator
Bees
Honey
Selling Beekeeping Supplies
IMHO In to USA bees is why the money is how.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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A good sized facility to house all processing equipment, woodenware & a nice sized honey house. After that there likely wouldn't be anything left over.
...JP
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Land. And gold.
But with land, you can raise all the bees you want. Renting land means you could always loose it. Land will retain its value, much like gold.
And a hot tub. So me and the girls could enjoy the sunsets.
And a Canam outlander 800 XMR. Because it would just make getting to the hives through the swamp so much fun.
And.............................
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i dont think id spend 50k on a bee business till i see these idiots with pesticides under control there is just too many problems with the bees at this point between pesticide and mites and all the other issues there are to keeping bees alive. I enjoy the hobby but i dont think at this point id take that plunge. Chris
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wow :) lots of good suggestions here! keep them coming
What sort of prices would you be looking for if you were marking yourself.
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Same as now, as much as I can get.
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I am trying to raise enough for a down payment on 3000 acres of organic farmland in SW Florida so I can raise bees on it. The crop land would be used primarily to raise food for the bees and then sell the crops as food stock. A number of the bees would kept as a reserve stock to replace the ones killed nationwide by pesticides, some would be used as pollinators in the commercial trade and some would be raised to be sold on the retail market.
Bee equipment would be manufactured and sold. I have a new trap for SHB I am about to market and a device to keep Wax Moths out of the hives.
I am of the opinion that we will not see the use of pesticides restricted for a long time. After we have lost 30% of our food stock due to a lack of pollination and the farm economy has tanked we may see change. By then most of the bees will be dead and I want to have a safe haven for them to regroup from. We are standing in the middle of a train tunnel and the light coming at us is a train load of pesticides.
Thats what i would do if I was you.
Regards
Joe
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that is crazy you guys have such heavy bee loss!!!? :shock:
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I'd buy boxes, bottoms, covers and frames...
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I would invest in raising QUALITY QUEENS .Also research for diseases.
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I am trying to raise enough for a down payment on 3000 acres of organic farmland in SW Florida so I can raise bees on it.
3 THOUSAND acres in SW Florida! Wow, what is that about 5 square miles? Even in auction, farmland is going for $3500 here. Retail sellers are still asking 2 to 3 times that.
I have an uncle in Naples who bought a “lot” in a RV resort on the outskirts of Naples near the peak of the real estate boom. He tried to convince us Northern kin that $150K for a 10 x 20 cement pad was a ‘great investment’. Looked like pure insanity to me. Hope farmland is going for less per square foot in SW Florida than RV lots!
Good luck, I hope you get those 3000 acres. The bees will love you!
As for the original question, I would do as AllenF says. Buy more land while the economy is weak and add other Ag to your income stream besides bees. It’s usually a good idea to keep diversified. Bees are just too unpredictable to bet your mortgage on IMO. There’s a commercial beek around me that started out with bees and still does a lot of bees (I think about 500 hives), but it appears he now makes most his income off other Ag sources (organic foods to the local community).
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Mostly on bees and hives.!
You gotta have something to work with, no point in having expensive machines if you don't have any honey or bees too process.
When you meet a bottleneck i productions buy what you need to solve the problem, or you'll be polishing and dusting a lot of expensive idle machines
mvh edward :P
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good point edward.
i guess you could always extract for other people for you have a lul in production?
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G'day Eco,
I am not a business person, so take what I say with a grain of sugar.
If I were you...
I think I would try and organise the large equipment and shed first and aim for decent equipment so you only have to buy it once. If you are in the right place at the right time, you might find second hand equipment from someone who is going out of beekeeping. It would be no good having a tonne of honey and no way of processing or packaging it...unless you sell it to a honey buyer in the interim. Hive parts and bees are cheaper, so I think I would build up numbers as profits came in.
Honestly, if I were you Eco, I would try to go into partnership with someone (like Ozbuzz) who has similar goals, so you would have 100k to spend! You could share apiary sites and initially wouldn't have to pay employee costs, whilst having twice the manpower.
If you were me...
You would spend it on pretty labels for the honey jars.
Lone
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i guess you could always extract for other people for you have a lul in production?
Or you could extract using other peoples machines when they have a lul :-D
And buy when the price is right or some beekeeper is selling up , most machines have a longer life than beekeepers beekeep.
mvh edward :P