How many hives hits the "sweet-spot"?

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Working full time, being a moderator, keeping eight colonies! You're a hero!

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

The thing about managing quite a lot of hives is that you get more efficient. In fact, the drive to improve efficiency, by which I mean a quicker, better understanding of the status of a colony, as well as carrying out manipulations niftily, has been one of the pleasures for me this year, as the number of hives in my care has trebled. I do value the experience gained from managing a larger number of colonies.

The one area where I fail miserably is keeping up with the Forum.

 

[lindsay s]

I have 12 plus Nucs which is my limit / optimum. I choose to spread them across several apiaries as I learn so much more this way, get a wider variety of honey and can spread my beekeeping over a few sessions rather than one mega one. I like to have around 3-4 per apiary to enable good comparisons and to have a ‘support’ colony per apiary (which I used to produce more combs than honey)

Usually around 8 of these are good producers, as there are always ‘problem’ hives or those that are building up for various reasons.

More would be a head ache, needing more space for kit, but less would mean reduced choice for queen rearing and drone producers.

I usually have about 9 or 10 plus 4 to 6 nucs and similar to the above post spread over 3 sites (2 sites in the winter). I also move my nucs to other sites for mating so my bees are spread over a 20 mile radius. I cull old queens, unite poor colonies and sell the odd nuc in the spring time to keep my numbers stable. I work so my inspections take place on my days off and in the early evening. We can often have
5-7days of inclement weather here at a time which means some inspections are carried out in a rush and in less than ideal conditions.
You have to allow for your planned inspections going over by an hour or two on many occasions and often you might have to return with more equipment. I also help out other beekeepers and with the odd swarm. May to early August is hectic for me and uses up all of my spare time so I tend not to go away on holidays. Having a very understanding partner helps a lot especially when it comes to taking over the kitchen. Our honey yields vary considerably from year to year up here so I’m not in it for the money but my hobby usually manages to wash its face.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Working full time, being a moderator, keeping eight colonies! You're a hero!

I’m retired and it’s a manic time of year I don’t know how Philip does it.

 

[Kaz]

I most enjoyed my beekeeping when I had 3 in the garden, plenty of time to look at them, AS, workshop time etc. 5 is a good number, I accidentally got up to 12 last year, reduced to 8 this spring by unites, DLQs etc. So far this year I have had 120% swarm rates (they were all preparing to swarm in April and 2 of them have tried again last week) and trying to manage that was EPIC . I have concluded that 8 is fine while they are all ticking along but as soon as more intervention is needed it becomes more of a chore than a pleasure for me. Will be trying to reduce the number next year.

 

[RichardK]

It's an obsessive hobby..... I started with my first swarm in May 2021 & went into winter with 5 colonies. By April 2022 I only had 1 Q+ colony - a bad start to the year but I leant lots, I'm now at 6 colonies (down from 9 a week ago having found new homes for 3....1 more still to go).

This morning I set up a cell builder for the first time to try my hand at grafting from my best colonies. The maximum my home apiary is set up for it 15, personally I favour 4 to 6 'permanent hives' which then leaves me space to play around a little as I'm doing with the cell builder. Or for swarm catching. Or splits. Or mini-plus. And I'd like to try those mini-mating nucs too....

So in summary, for me, 4 to 6 permanent fluctuating up to 12 or so. Each April though, I'd like to be in the 4 to 6 region.

 

[pargyle]

I’m retired and it’s a manic time of year I don’t know how Philip does it.

Just don't sleep much... never have...I also work on the just in time principle... but it usually turns into the just too late principle... which then puts the job back into the other queue... bugger it I'll do it tomorrow...

 

[madasafish]

At the young age of 74, I have 9 main colonies## (Lang Jumbo), 3 Lang jumbo nucs, 1 National main hive double brood, and 3 National nucs. Also about 15 mini nucs some of which are for overwintering and starting new colonies next year for resale as nucs.

Produce about 300lbs honey : sell it all with waiting lists. Facebook Marketplace and local FB chat rooms provide a steady stream of customers. This year I will probably hit 400lbs plus. (150 to date all sold)

I run mine as a mini hobby business. Lifting is hard work so I do yoga to keep fit - and that means more customers by word of mouth. (I give my yoga instructors a free jar every year and that helps)

Many of my customers buy it to treat pollen allergies : lots of trees/wildflowers/wild grass so hayfever is a local issue coupled with damp winters.

I give occasional talks on bees with few taster sessions of honey at the same time: seem to be well attended and enjoyed. (I don't sell direct at these as usually March /April when not too busy but I have no honey as sold out usually early September

(I also sell our local allotment honey and some of our Association Apiary honey : all proceeds go to respective apiaries and customers are aware of source.)

## ( Nine major colonies is too many: started year with six, promoted two nucs and one bait hive swarm was so large it required a full size hive.)

Extraction planned for Monday?/Tuesday next week.. I expect between 150 and 200lbs (bucket limited)

 

[Dutchman]

Working full time as a minister I can only spend a couple of hours a week on inspections. I have 12-20 hives but most are on brood and a half and all I do is take the supers off and quickly lift a corner of the half brood to look for queen cells. If i have any doubts I check the middle comb in the top brood for bias. That way I can inspect all my colonies in a bit more than an hour a week. The only time when I have to spend considerably more time is at the end of August, taking off the supers, varroa treatment and extraction.

 

[TonyLack]

Started peacefully with one a few years back. Now I have 18 spread over 6 apiaries. The spead is good because its easy to move bees over 3 miles but its a long day if I inspect them all.
Its not the inspecting that the issue, its that they all do stupid things at the same time!!

 

[linoleum bonypart]

I must be in my 6/7th year I’ve had more but now ten with some nucs I’m trying to go from 3 to one apiary too save travelling much more laid back these last two years

 

[deemann1]

Iv a full time job .came trough winter with 52 i sold 18 but is looking like around 70 by the end of season.. its time consuming yes . I got 6 apiaries i pop into 2 during the week on way home from work and do the rest on Saturday... queen rearing is taking up too much time so i wont be doing that as much next season .
The secret is having a great and understanding wife

 

[Amari]

At the young age of 74, I have 9 main colonies## (Lang Jumbo), 3 Lang jumbo nucs, 1 National main hive double brood, and 3 National nucs. Also about 15 mini nucs some of which are for overwintering and starting new colonies next year for resale as nucs.

Produce about 300lbs honey : sell it all with waiting lists. Facebook Marketplace and local FB chat rooms provide a steady stream of customers. This year I will probably hit 400lbs plus. (150 to date all sold)

I run mine as a mini hobby business. Lifting is hard work so I do yoga to keep fit - and that means more customers by word of mouth. (I give my yoga instructors a free jar every year and that helps)

Many of my customers buy it to treat pollen allergies : lots of trees/wildflowers/wild grass so hayfever is a local issue coupled with damp winters.

I give occasional talks on bees with few taster sessions of honey at the same time: seem to be well attended and enjoyed. (I don't sell direct at these as usually March /April when not too busy but I have no honey as sold out usually early September

(I also sell our local allotment honey and some of our Association Apiary honey : all proceeds go to respective apiaries and customers are aware of source.)

## ( Nine major colonies is too many: started year with six, promoted two nucs and one bait hive swarm was so large it required a full size hive.)

Extraction planned for Monday?/Tuesday next week.. I expect between 150 and 200lbs (bucket limited)

Jumbo Langstroths!! That is what I had for the first several years but there's no way I could lift one of those now. You must be a Tarzan. Watch your back = spine.

 

[Podilia]

Ten years ago I had 3 hives and they consumed very much time. I inspected them every 2-3 days. Now most of my colonies have two full inspections - in autumn and in spring. In average I visited the apiary two times in a week making a "quick observation". I also don't have the skill of queen rearing and don't know how old are my queens.
Although a few colonies have swarmed this summer they have young queens now and ready to work with sunflower, though obviously they are less productive. If a colony is strong and healthy it doesn't need much attention. There are many colonies which I haven't inspected since March, just gave them some foundations in the brood chamber and gradually added three boxes for honey (when open a hive and see a lot of bees then + a new box). So for me 50 hives is a good limit to get a certain amount of honey and not to work too much. If more, we need more expensive equipment for extraction and other kind of work. It's not always reasonable.
My lazy method may be not working in more tricky climate for example, with long and uncertain nectar flow, unstable weather, periods of rain, drought etc. when bees can swarm as crazy. Environment determines many things.
In general I support simplicity and reducing to small backyard apiaries.