How much does it cost to run a hive?

[Lorenz]

Some of my apiaries made no honey at all this year. Others made a bit.

So how much honey do I have to get to cover my costs?

£35 for set of langstroth or 14 x 12 frames with foundation
£10 for sugar
£5 for apiguard
£2 for oxalic
£10 for petrol, washing soda, cleaning suit, broken super frames

£62 total for the year, not counting my time or cost of the equipment or bees

If I get £5 a 1lb jar after cost of jar, then I need to sell 13 jars before I break even. The average honey crop in central London is 20LB, so if I get that, then I make 7 x £5 = 35 'profit' on each hive.

Not good. Is it correct?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Not good. Is it correct?

Do you rely on it to make a living, or is it a hobby.

 

[Lorenz]

Good job it is for fun

 

[oliver90owner]

Is it correct?

No, or at least I doubt it. There are other costs, jars and labels for a start.

Frames are recyclable and only generally need changing every two/three years.

£35 for a set of frames with foundation is high. By about a tenner I would think, for me and a lot more for the larger users.

Running hives for twenty pounds of honey per year is not going to make any money in my book, unless it is a backyard keeper with very few overheads.

 

[Into the lions den]

Some of my apiaries made no honey at all this year. Others made a bit.

So how much honey do I have to get to cover my costs?

£35 for set of langstroth or 14 x 12 frames with foundation
£10 for sugar
£5 for apiguard
£2 for oxalic
£10 for petrol, washing soda, cleaning suit, broken super frames

£62 total for the year, not counting my time or cost of the equipment or bees

If I get £5 a 1lb jar after cost of jar, then I need to sell 13 jars before I break even. The average honey crop in central London is 20LB, so if I get that, then I make 7 x £5 = 35 'profit' on each hive.

Not good. Is it correct?

You are not doing too badly at that. We reckon (which DOES include wages and all premises expenses including energy) that its in the low to mid 80's per hive per annum. This years returns is only in the 50's per hive...........BIG loss..........but an average return at todays honey prices (bulk mind you) should be about 118 from heather alone ( long term ave 44lb), with some blossom on top ( not calculated in due to struggle with production of that up here in the last 20 years). Add in a little wax as well (negligible really).

 

[For want of a better word]

seems to run on a rule of 17...

per ounce.. 17 p costs, 17 p labour at minimum wage and 17 p profit.

and some of the punters bemoan paying for it!


But then just now on QVC TV selling propolis shower gel at £17 for a tiny pot!

I wonder what London would do if it had to pay the real production price + transport for a litre of real milk?

 

[PBee]

( long term ave 44lb), with some blossom on top ( not calculated in due to struggle with production of that up here in the last 20 years).

Is the difficulty with production of blossom honey due to weather patterns? At the bee course in Gormanstown I remember hearing in the lectures that on average there was one bad year for every five average/good years. I am not the best at record keeping and tend to reassure myself that 'I'm only building up' but being realistic I am questioning the viability of honey production with the seemingly changed weather patterns and the price achievable for honey.

 

[smithhive]

I believe that we get a really good year only one in five. My last "boomer" was 2006. No doubt weather patterns have played a part in seemingly ever diminishing yields but that is only part of the problem.

From the late seventies up to perhaps 2006 I could average a surplus of from 60 to 80 lbs. per hive. Obviously there were some years when the yield varied enormously either side of this, but over any 5 year period the average was somewhere around the 70 lb mark.

This harvest was from 2 main sources, O S R and heather and augmented considerably in a few choice years by borage.

Borage seems to have all but dissappeared and that has affected us badly but I think greater damage has been done to honey production by the changes in O S R growing and selection.

New varieties don't yield the quantity of nectar , nor for as long as the old types did and indeed certain varieties of spring sown O S R appear to be useless to honeybees. Also the sowing dates and therefore flowering of O S R seem to be earlier and earlier every year. ( Not this year perhaps but generally ).

Why does anybody try to keep bees as a commercial activity in the U K ? ? ?

 

[PBee]

Why does anybody try to keep bees as a commercial activity in the U K ? ? ?

I think it usually starts as an interest and then a desire to work at something you like doing. I also feel it is a 'useful' occupation compared to the plethora of absolutely useless ones.

 

[Into the lions den]

Is the difficulty with production of blossom honey due to weather patterns? At the bee course in Gormanstown I remember hearing in the lectures that on average there was one bad year for every five average/good years. I am not the best at record keeping and tend to reassure myself that 'I'm only building up' but being realistic I am questioning the viability of honey production with the seemingly changed weather patterns and the price achievable for honey.

In our part of Scotland it is mostly down to weather, yes. Easterly and north easterly weather in spring is not good for nectar. As identified elsewhere there is also the issue of earliness with OSR.....getting more and more so, and grown for ever shorter spikes and more sideshoots.thus reducing flowering period..and varieties are definitely less mellifluous. They are also being sprayed with growth regulator to keep them short.

The raspberry industry, which used to be our main blossom crop, vanished some years ago now, clover is virtually extinct, spring OSR is regarded as a persistent weed that invades the crop of the day on the field for years to come and is thus avoided. So.............OSR finishes in May..........nothing till heather in July. This was, until maybe 15 yrs back, an area with no June gap.

Makes blossom a lucky strike if we get it.

 

[smithhive]

Due to increasing costs of artificial fertiliser, clover has had a resurgence in the pastures and set aside around here (North Yorkshire). Three years ago, just as the rape supers had been extracted, the bees went beresk and got me a ton of clover honey in about a week and I thought I saw a new future for this mad industry - back to good old fashioned clover honey, albeit that modern clover varieties supposedly don't yield harvestable nectar.

Unfortunately, in the last two years the rain has put paid to that. Back to the drawing board......

 

[drstitson]

i agree with rab - much too much for frames and foundation.

50 seconds = £35-40

KBS foundation = £12.50-16.50 per 10 depending on which large format you use (discounted if bought in bulk with others)

so should be looking towards MAX £25 per 10 14x12 frames.

sugar - fine: 2 gallons 2:1 around £9-10

apiguard - thymol for HM treatment much cheaper.


remember - if you can produce a nuc to sell that'll bring in a decent sum and cover full consumables cost for a good few hives.

 

[drstitson]

"good old fashioned clover honey"

we're surrounded by meadows - problem is farmers cut the clover right in middle of blooming.

 

[Der Alte Fritz]

i agree with rab - much too much for frames and foundation.

50 seconds = £35-40

KBS foundation = £12.50-16.50 per 10 depending on which large format you use (discounted if bought in bulk with others)

so should be looking towards MAX £25 per 10 14x12 frames.

sugar - fine: 2 gallons 2:1 around £9-10

apiguard - thymol for HM treatment much cheaper.


remember - if you can produce a nuc to sell that'll bring in a decent sum and cover full consumables cost for a good few hives.

Just bought 50 x DN4 seconds from C Wynne Jones at it cost £62 ex VAT for 50 including foundation. So given a three year life for a frame/foundation, cost per year would be for 10 frames £4.13 (or £12.39 if you want to pay it over one year).

You should allow something for the hive cost as well and reckon on a 10 year life for a cedar hive, say £15 per year plus another £10 for suits, smokers, etc (this figure will go down consdierably the more hives you have)

 

[isc26]

As the saying goes, you can earn a little money from beekeeping but you have to spend a lot in order to do so.

 

[masterBK]

Are we beekeepers or do we expect the bees to keep us (in the manner to which we are accustomed)?

 

[Chris B]

I've discovered profitability in my beekeeping is partly down to good apiaries. Even this year, I've got 4 or 5 apiaries that did fairly well, pretty much the same ones that always give the best. I could do with a few more bankers really.

Somebody asked why would anyone do it for a living. I wish I knew. Maybe the same reason people climb mountains?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Somebody asked why would anyone do it for a living. I wish I knew. Maybe the same reason people climb mountains?

??? what's molesting sheep got to do with it?

 

[Elaine]

I don't know how significant it is - but there seems to be a move towards 'easy manage' gardens - with a lot of hard landscaping and a few 'ornamental' (far too frilly ) flowers that are of no use to bees. Maybe insignificant in many areas, but for urbasn bee keepers I gues it coudl make a difference

 

[Hivemaker.]

I don't know how significant it is - but there seems to be a move towards 'easy manage' gardens - with a lot of hard landscaping and a few 'ornamental' (far too frilly ) flowers that are of no use to bees.

Thats most likely a good thing for the bees.