How do people afford multiple hives?

[Angularity]

Is there a cheap way to build up wooden hives? My son is enjoying beekeeping, and wants to go up to 20 hives or so. Leaving aside all the other problems we will encounter, it seems to me that that is a lot of money, and a lot of time assembling boxes and frames. How do the commercial beekeepers do it?

 

[Poly Hive]

I built up by making floors and roofs and some supers, ;but used poly broods. That reduced the cost considerably but on the other hand I spent (quite a bit) on the following kit. A good quality table saw with extensions, Kitty was my one, a router and table, a dovetail jig for the router, a dust extractor, and a discount from my local timber yard.

Using the router with various jigs I could "plane" wood to square plus cut hand holds and dovetail corner joints.

However back then, some 25 years ago this was and no doubt still is a pretty penny to spend. Then circa £800 odds so probably £2500 now ish...

Your lad could buy a lot of poly for that suum and avoid breathing a lot of dust.

PH

 

[madasafish]

I have 8 jumbo langs: 1 poly and 7 diy'ed from scratch:

I am mean and try to do beekeeping on a shoestring (where possible):
Won the Poly from a MB comp.
Made 7 wooden broods mainly from scratch.. (2 were B.E. standard broods extended down) 5 built using £10 router ex ebay and £30 Aldi router table, £30 circular saw and diy made saw table and various electric drills.

Without expensive equipment and much (any?) skill I made them from firstly good wood and then from shuttering ply... Made half my own supers - rest from BE sales.

Poly hive covers using used 50/35 mm insulation board.

I reckon each hive with two supers cost around £50 and each cover (no roofs- they stay on all year) - about £10.


Disadvantages: time consuming. Not very accurate cutting using cheap tooling.
Advantages: Cheap. Tailored as required.

Make all my own floors, crownboards and hive stands.

I use scrap/s/h/donated/cheap wood for stands.. Average cost under £3..

Did I say I was educated in/near Aberdeen? Aberdonians make Yorkshire folk look like spendthrifts.

(I also buy all my paint/varnishes from Aldi or ebay rejects -paint ok tin bent).



Edit: second frames in sales.. and bulk buying of foundation keep other costs low.
See my signature!

 

[maddydog]

Floors, roofs, and crownboards can be made cheaply with only moderate DIY tools and skill.

I use poly brood boxes with frames bought in the sales. Roughly £60-70 for a complete hive?

 

[philipm]

Make all my own stuff even frames.Something to do on those wet winter days.If your not the diy sort look out for your local association auction,Some pretty good bargains but please be aware that there is always a risk of desease so make sure every thing is cleaned before use.

 

[Helen]

I go to my local DIY shed and get them to cut out the bits of wood from a sheet of ply on their big industrial and accurate saw. Then it's just assembling it with screws and glue. True, you have to buy ply, but saves not having to buy loads of tools and spend lots of time building each one from cheap wood.

That's for the hives.

I use beesey frames in the supers - so scrap wood to make these. These do need tools to make, so prob cheaper going for seconds in the sale.

 

[jeff33]

and it gets a lot more expensive with 20 hives if you need to split to avoid swarming every year or when catching swarms... He would probably need a fair few spares ready, just in case. I make my own hives or buy seconds from some suppliers when they come up but a jump to 20 hives could mean a business loan to set him up.

 

[Teemore]

Build up to those numbers over a few seasons and put the honey money and funds from the sale of Nucs straight back into materials and equipment. 1 Nucleus colony = how many new brood boxes? Make sure you retain all your cappings wax and burr comb etc. Render this into blocks and convert it into foundation. You get the best value by paying for converstion of quantities over 50lbs of wax into foundation. You will also have to pay for wiring the foundation. This is one of the biggest savings you can make in terms of annual expenditure.
I bought a table saw just before I started keeping bees and have added a few other power tools. They are not just used for beekeeping kit though. Gumtree can be a good source of second hand woodworking kit - I'm on the lookout for an older Dewalt sliding, radial arm saw. Some of them have an arbor that is long enough to allow fitting of a set of dado blades...
Ekes are self made from "free" pallet wood, some supers get made as well but when you count your time, timber and screws etc, its just as easy to buy supers in the sales - buy before you need them. Same goes for brood boxes - buy them in the sales. I have a mix of timber and poly brood boxes. I, or rather the bees, seem to like the poly boxes but I'll be phasing out my first generation Paynes poly hives next Spring.
I make all my open mesh floors, crown boards, clearer boards, roofs and dummy boards. I value my fingers too much to start making frames at present however, the jigs that PolyHive refers to can be made to set you up for "safely" making frames.

 

[Fusion_power]

I completely replaced all of my older hives over the last 2 years with 30 new square Dadant hives including 2 supers each. I made my own frames, purchased foundation from Dadant, and bought the hives and supers from an Amish guy who cuts them cheaper than I can buy the wood. His father runs a saw mill selling cypress lumber for 80 cents a board ft which is dirt cheap here in the U.S. I still spent close to $5000 total which is a significant chunk of change. I paid $1000 for excluders alone.

 

[For want of a better word]

Bank loan or remortgage.

I have an agreement with my bank... they do not sell bees or honey and I do not lend people money!

Yeghes da

 

[gregior]

ebay can be good for 2nd hand gear

 

[B+.]

Is there a cheap way to build up wooden hives? My son is enjoying beekeeping, and wants to go up to 20 hives or so. Leaving aside all the other problems we will encounter, it seems to me that that is a lot of money, and a lot of time assembling boxes and frames. How do the commercial beekeepers do it?

Plan ahead - decide the level you are comfortable and work out what you need to sustain it. Don't forget that you have to store it during the out-of-season period!
Have a long term strategy for what you want to buy but don't be afraid to take advantage of opportunities that come along, so long as they contribute to your plan.

 

[thenovice]

first: tell your son to earn the hives by selling honey/wax. I am in my 4th year and not an expert but my producing colonies give a minimum of 60lb honey. If he keeps on top of swarming he can sell that and you can buy your next 2 to 3 hives. I buy bulk when in sales and always seconds. in that way, he also gradually adapts to the increased workload.

 

[madasafish]

Re: swarming.
After much heartache and hassle, a reputable Buckfast #1 strain and self reared new queens every year has made my beekeeping virtually swarm free #2. (and giving space when needed).

I changed my entire emphasis in beekeeping to having a plan to eliminate swarming, raise my own queens and get my bees to strength early in the year to cater for the Spring nectar flow..Achieved the first two, the latter only got 4 out of 8 to strength (and used one of those for Q rearing) - must do better next year but what would I do with 1/4 tonne of honey?


#1 basically a choice of two UK suppliers , one of whom moderates this forum

#2 No swarms this year: a good start.

 

[Vortex]

I built my 20 colonies up over 5 years ..
Always make my own roofs, floors, and crown boards..
Always buy flat pack broods and supers in the sales
Always buy my frames as seconds in the sales
So you can go from 2 to 6 to 12 to 16 to just by adding 4 colonies a year.. and pretty much all my increases were by splits or acquiring swarms ( 1 a year can be useful just as a means of assuring genetic diversity in your stock).

If you can sell nucs and honey along the way and plough the money back then you can increase quicker.

 

[enrico]

Look at the state of some hives that multiple hive owners have.....barely hanging together. They use them until they drop to bits!
E

 

[Somerford]

Is there a cheap way to build up wooden hives? My son is enjoying beekeeping, and wants to go up to 20 hives or so. Leaving aside all the other problems we will encounter, it seems to me that that is a lot of money, and a lot of time assembling boxes and frames. How do the commercial beekeepers do it?

Buy cheaply at auctions.

Polyhives are now at their cheapest IMHO and a very cost effective way to start (and for anyone else too)

20 hives from Maisemore (empty with 2 supers no frames / fdn) are about £85, even cheaper in sales

KR

S

 

[Amari]

Beekeeping is one of the few hobbies that I know of which results in financial profit - 600 lbs honey from five productive colonies this year - far greater than similar hours of sweat and labour on my allotment. Thus I don't begrudge buying kit whenever needed and gismos when not.
However it's taken a few decades and retirement to arrive!
Your son is in a quandary - he might loose interest if he has to make all his own stuff from scratch. Does he have a rich uncle?

 

[philipm]

Does your son realise how much of his time 20 hives will take? Why do you think most hive owners are retired or its their full time job.Why not start small and see how it goes?

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Time and money seem to go hand in hand with expansion ( not enough of either). As many have said buy smart in the January sales also look around as some suppliers will sell box's as thirds if they have knot holes etc, I made a lot of my supers out of new but crappy 14x12 broods but they cost £3 each and my time. Storage space as well I have over a hundred supers which makes a fair pile and then feeders and stands and all the other equipment that will be acquired. Registering for VAT will save a lot. Join the BFA for the member discounts.