Large Scale Honey production.. Viable ?

[Chris B]

Selling in bulk?... just galls me to see the product that has been so difficultly gleaned being sold for a song.

Which is why I'd be delighted to sell you some for a song and a half.

 

[Into the lions den]

Did someone one here say 2 minutes per colony......


Selling in bulk?... just galls me to see the product that has been so difficultly gleaned being sold for a song.
We cut out the middleman and sell direct and still manage a profit... a very marginal one!..... but there is so much cudos in being told that YOUR honey is the best... isn't everyone's!!!

Our budget in 6 minutes per hive per examination per beekeeper. Works out a bit under that in practice as the fastest team leaders are quicker than that. Once your eye is trained it is amazing what you see in such a short time. Prolonged examinations just heighten colony stress anyway, easily measured by how long it takes the colony to get back into full working again after opening.

Being sold for a song takes a bit of analysis. Bulk blossom at 2.20/lb is actually equal in terms of returns to 3.50/lb sold in a jar to a shop, so you would then normally see that in the 5.25 to 5.75 range at retail. Direct sales to the public at full retail is obviously going to give you a high top line return, but again you have to cost it out and the answer might shock you. Its the bottom line return that really counts.

BUT...you touch on one of the main reasons beekeepers love packing their own honey and selling it on to the public. Pride. Nothing wrong with that. Being a beekeeper and having a pride in what you do, getting the public to part with their hard earned cash for YOUR honey, and engaging with them and getting feedback that pleases you are all really nice things to experience. They are not bill payers but so what? You enjoy it and enjoyment is the primary motivator of the vast majority of UK beekeepers.

 

[Hawklord]

It takes me longer than 6 minutes to get the smoker lit.

 

[Thymallus]

A harvest in itself. It is wrong just to measure harvests in pounds and pence as not everyone is doing it to keep the mortgage paid.

Monetary returns give the 'Standard of living' rewards.
Pleasure in what you do gives the 'Quality of life' rewards.

They are equally valid.

Spot on, if it was simple financial gain I was after I'd get a part time job. Regular hours, no getting up at unearthly (for some) hours.
For me it's a hobby that has a little bit of financial payback to re-invest into my hobby. and an few excellent days out on various markets.
It's amazing what you can exchange a few jars of honey for on a good farmers market.

 

[For want of a better word]

Spot on, if it was simple financial gain I was after I'd get a part time job. Regular hours, no getting up at unearthly (for some) hours.
For me it's a hobby that has a little bit of financial payback to re-invest into my hobby. and an few excellent days out on various markets.
It's amazing what you can exchange a few jars of honey for on a good farmers market.

At our local producers market, one of our local fishermen will regularly swap fish for honey... I love red mullet, and he always puts back some dab for SWMBO.
The Bohetheric cherries are delicious... and we know they have been pollinated by our bees......

One does meet the odd crabbie old sourpuss who would only buy honey in pound jars ( but she would not pay the price we would have to ask for it)
Then announces to anyone in earshot that her friend sells honey in Tavistock for half the price!

( Best the old crab should stay that side ( Devon) of the Great Grey Green Greasy Tamar River.. all set about with Social Housing)

Enjoy your bees and Beekeepering

Yeghes da

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It's amazing what you can exchange a few jars of honey for on a good farmers market.

Or elsewhere for that matter - hardly ever exchange cash at the cobbler's now - repair to belt - jar of honey - spare keys cut - two jars. Same at the local chinese takeaway -meal for two with side order of spring roll and prawn crackers - four jars of honey

 

[td4bees]

A harvest in itself. It is wrong just to measure harvests in pounds and pence as not everyone is doing it to keep the mortgage paid.

Monetary returns give the 'Standard of living' rewards.
Pleasure in what you do gives the 'Quality of life' rewards.

They are equally valid.

However the thread WAS about making a living. It can be done but expect to really thrash your body in the key months. The bees ALWAYS have to come first in season.

I regard myself as one of the luckiest people around as I am privileged enough to make my living doing what I love, and if I get spare time I just want to go and do more bees. You cannot get anywhere in this game without really enjoying doing bees and devoting yourself to their welfare. This point is often lost on amateurs, especially the new and easily lead, hearing about the 'evils' of greedy commercial beekeepers. They miss the crucial point, we are essentially the same, just some are lucky enough to have it as the day job.

Getting the bees to give more honey, more nucs, anything of their main attributes in fact, is a measure of their health and the care and effort the beekeeper puts in. Migrating them when they need to be, feeding judiciously, watching their health. Those and countless other factors are in your everyday thoughts. Poorly cared for bees rarely give good harvests. Higher crops are not greed, they are the consequence of better husbandry.

FWIW....husbandry includes location selection, floral knowledge, and judicious migration. Not just the stuff you read in the bee books.

well said that man

 

[BrianO]

It takes me longer than 6 minutes to get the smoker lit.

Too funny !!

Takes me that sometimes to find the Smoker !!

 

[psafloyd]

Are we talking small profit or livelihood as in sole income? My hobbyist accounts tell me I may make my smallest loss in years.

At least, that's what you'll tell your accountant, right?

 

[Thymallus]

Seeing as I married my accountant it's difficult to hide the facts.
Since starting keeping basic accounts of outgoings, incomes, mileage, expenditure etc it's amazing how much money you still have to plow into your hobby.

 

[Into the lions den]

Too funny !!

Takes me that sometimes to find the Smoker !!

Even at our scale you would be amazed how easy it is to waste very costly time. Drive 70 miles to the bees only to find any combination of the following.

No smoker/s
no hive tool/s
no lighters
fuel wet after someone left it on the back of the truck and it rained.

Takes time to rectify any one of the above, be it a return to base or a visit to the local shop for the supplies you forgot, only to get back to the bee site to find that there is another deficiency. My personal speciality is having nothing to actually light the smoker. I now buy lighters by the dozen and have them everywhere.

Once we were many miles from home and found we had no smoker fuel left, it had been raining and even the pine straw was unlightable. Had to go to the local charity shop half an hours drive away and buy a couple of pairs of old jeans, very good fuel they make too! A lot cheaper than driving home.

Seriously though, we used old jute sacking for our fuel, and one spark is often enough to relight the blackened section of the day before's load, and it takes maybe one minute to light the smoker and get it going. Unless.........

The real 'bring forth intemperate language' thing is to arrive and find you have left the beesuit in another vehicle. Have done supering runs at the heather before with a jute sack over my head.......surrounded by blue air...mainly at my own stupidity.

Worst act of forgetfulness? Had been working most of the season as a team of two, things got busy so we added a gopher. Finished at a bee site, jumped into the truck, drove off perfectly happy only to realise we had left the gopher behind several miles down the road, the penny only dropping when we spotted their lunchbox sitting on the seat. Unhappy gopher picked up about 40 mins later. They had nipped off into the bushes to perform a natural function and we just left.

 

[Hawklord]

I find the inspection takes very little time, it all the preliminaries like putting enough of the right gear in the car, getting the suit on. I keep notes on each colony and therefore can look at these before setting off to the apiary thus I never seem to forget anything now. Getting into a routine of loading the car also helps.

 

[Goodwood]

Itld
I miss your posts but then i guess you are flat out!

 

[Into the lions den]

Itld
I miss your posts but then i guess you are flat out!

Currently moving about 150 a day to the heather......plus caring for the nucs for next year (and there are a lot of those).......and getting 'harassed' by our queen breeder who is landing 20 to 40 queens on me every day needing homes. You got posts from me because I have been laid up for a couple of days after turning my ankle over on a stone hidden in the grass, and ending up thigh deep down a rabbit hole, while shifting the hives of an indisposed friend who needed his bees taken to the heather. That's what you get for helping people lol.

 

[For want of a better word]

Currently moving about 150 a day to the heather......plus caring for the nucs for next year (and there are a lot of those).......and getting 'harassed' by our queen breeder who is landing 20 to 40 queens on me every day needing homes. You got posts from me because I have been laid up for a couple of days after turning my ankle over on a stone hidden in the grass, and ending up thigh deep down a rabbit hole, while shifting the hives of an indisposed friend who needed his bees taken to the heather. That's what you get for helping people lol.

Twisted mine too yesterday... Badger has decided to dig a new entrance right under a double stand.... and Cameron wants to "have a conversation" about bloody sea gulls... still not forgiven for the pasty tax!

Yeghes da

 

[pargyle]

Currently moving about 150 a day to the heather......plus caring for the nucs for next year (and there are a lot of those).......and getting 'harassed' by our queen breeder who is landing 20 to 40 queens on me every day needing homes. You got posts from me because I have been laid up for a couple of days after turning my ankle over on a stone hidden in the grass, and ending up thigh deep down a rabbit hole, while shifting the hives of an indisposed friend who needed his bees taken to the heather. That's what you get for helping people lol.

It's an ill wind ... still good to hear from you with real insight into 'proper' beekeeping. Hope you are back up and walking, if not running, soon ... must be a real PIA at this time of the year.

 

[Into the lions den]

It's an ill wind ... still good to hear from you with real insight into 'proper' beekeeping. Hope you are back up and walking, if not running, soon ... must be a real PIA at this time of the year.

LOL....you obviously don't know me.....if *I* run nearby buildings fall down and they detect it on seismometers in Tierra del Fuego!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

and Cameron wants to "have a conversation" about bloody sea gulls...

Well what do you expect? his party are nothing more than a flock of parasitic shite hawks!

 

[pargyle]

LOL....you obviously don't know me.....if *I* run nearby buildings fall down and they detect it on seismometers in Tierra del Fuego!

Nahhh .... You're just WELL BUILT ...but perhaps fast walking would be less injurious to the local architecture !!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Currently moving about 150 a day to the heather......plus caring for the nucs for next year (and there are a lot of those).......and getting 'harassed' by our queen breeder who is landing 20 to 40 queens on me every day needing homes. You got posts from me because I have been laid up for a couple of days after turning my ankle over on a stone hidden in the grass, and ending up thigh deep down a rabbit hole, while shifting the hives of an indisposed friend who needed his bees taken to the heather. That's what you get for helping people lol.

What does a 6-minute inspection consist of? May I guess? Hefting the supers, splitting the brood boxes to look for QCs (which also confirms stores present), going through the top box for evidence of Q+, appraisal of strength of colony, and twice-annual disease check (all bees off frames etc) spread across the average.

ADD Since Langs, maybe not all on doubles, in which case rather than splitting and lifting a few frames, a quick rifle through frames looking for QCs and Q+ not every visit but according to judgment.