Mistake

[Newbeebeekeeper]

His anyone else made the mistake recently of adding up all the money they have spent on bee keeping? I am just buying and kitting out my second hive and i was surprised already how much the costs have been.

 

[its.only.money]

No! I haves started a mental count several times,and quickly stopped.

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[Hivemaker.]

His anyone else made the mistake recently of adding up all the money they have spent on bee keeping? I am just buying and kitting out my second hive and i was surprised already how much the costs have been.

Keep doing that, especially if your ultimate aim is to make money from keeping bees.

 

[Newbeebeekeeper]

I always feel that its good practice to know how much hobbies cost. I don't do it to make money but i hope that some day it will cover itself. Has anyone money saving tips? I don't have a workshop anymore to make hives if i wanted to which i don't as im getting great ones from a local man. Though i would happily make nucs.

 

[madasafish]

Make all your nucs - of any size - from foiled insulation board. Approx £5 each..
(Measure twice, cut once)
Make your own hive stands from recycled wood.

Make a list of everything you want to buy - at start of Year. Cost it up roughly, then weed out what are nice to have and be left with essentials.
Buy at sale time only .Price compare offers.Set up spreadsheet of purchases and prices so you control everything. (especially treatments where savings can be 30%+ ). Joint buying to get volume discounts helps. Watch for P&P costs so sometimes buying one expensive item to hit free P&P targets is worth while.

Maximise honey sales through nice labelling and simple marketing - talk to people etc..free samples.

Ensure you are disease fees, cull weak/nasty queens and use only a jacket and veil.
Use only free smoker fuel.
Buy little used s/h extractors out of season on ebay/Gumtree /local FB selling - people giving up, little used - half new price.
Recycle used food plastic containers to store honey. Buy cheap taps from China rather than expensive but the same item from UK - half price or less.
Recycle old wax for new foundation (DIY solar melter).

If using vinyl gloves ECP are cheap in bulk (100 gloves), have regular sales and deliver FOC. Aim for 50% off list at holiday times.

Plastic QEs are cheaper and work.. BE sell cheap steel round rod ones.

Raise your own queens. And sell surplus - they should be good tempered...or no-one will want them...

To show how mean I am, I line the runners edges of all my nucs (not mini mating nucs) with aluminium sheet - easily cut/shaped. I have never bought any as vehicle exhaust heat shields occasionally fall off and lie unclaimed on roads. They are an ideal thickness and being shiny are clearly visible...My latest find is off a small lorry/large van approx 800 x400 mm.

New jars are much cheaper in volume - Local Associations are good for bulk deals.

Despite all the above, building up and frames/foundations for 8 hives, 30 supers and 20nucs/min nucs in three years has cost a lot of money .

I broke even last years at 160lbs.. intend to produce double this year - with good weather ...If I costed my labour I would still make a loss but it then becomes a less expensive hobby.

Finally : the most expensive purchases are those you NEED in a hurry. So planning saves ££s

I have tried to list everything that comes to mind..but no doubt others will...Permanent searches on ebay are very useful. Gumtree great for cheap wood/insulation. Small ads local paper as well.

Finally:1 for complex beekeeping operations - which can go wrong and be costly to fix- set up an itemised list of to dos by day and follow it carefully..2. keep records . 3. Compare year by year results so you find what you do wrong/right. Mistakes cost £££s

 

[MartinL]

It's my hobby!

Take a quick look at what other hobbies cost;
Football Season Ticket?
Vet bills / Stabling for a horse?
Insurance & Garaging for a second car?

I reckon it really isn't that expensive!

 

[Eyeman]

I broke even last years at 160lbs.

Is that per hive or in total as you would be hard pushed to better 160 lbs / hive next year.

 

[enrico]

Don't forget each hive cost is divisible by the amount of years you have run it for. The first year is full price but the second year, provided you have not purchased anything new for it, will be half the price. So it will always seem expensive in the first few years. To be honest though I don't think I have made a profit in thirty five odd years. But....... It is a cheap form of entertainment compared with going to the gym etc..!!
E

 

[B+.]

Keep doing that, especially if your ultimate aim is to make money from keeping bees.

Thats good advice if you intend becoming a commercial beekeeper. IMHO, the only way to make money from beekeeping is to do one of two things:
1. Do something nobody else is doing (so you can charge premium prices)
2. Do more of it than others are doing (so your fixed costs can be spread over more units of production)
If you can't do either of these, the best advice is to treat it as a hobby and only spend what you can afford.
MADASAFISH gave some excellent advice about controlling your costs. The things that will probably need most attention are frames/foundation and boxes. Look for sales or buy at events such as Stoneleigh or the Spring convention.

 

[SDM]

Don't forget each hive cost is divisible by the amount of years you have run it for. The first year is full price but the second year, provided you have not purchased anything new for it, will be half the price. So it will always seem expensive in the first few years. To be honest though I don't think I have made a profit in thirty five odd years. But....... It is a cheap form of entertainment compared with going to the gym etc..!!
E

5 hives averaging just 25lb of honey a year for 35 years gives 4375lb of honey or
£15312 if sold at £3.50/lb
Where did you buy your hives?

I've followed similar rules to madasafish , bought some poly hives made other wooden ones, was lucky with finding a huge supply of free cedar and having a background in classic yachts to help with the woodwork.my local lithographic printer has supplied the aluminium for 55 roofs at a cost of 4 jars of honey. Being prepared to be a skip rat will save you a fortune.
2015 I made a first big jump to 30 colonies , at the end of that year I had recovered the entire £6.5k I'd ever spent on Beekeeping and made enough pocket money to notice the extra cash.
This year I've actually made a modest living from Beekeeping and should start next season with around 60 colonies.if it's a good year I'll jump to around 100. If not I'll add the 15-20 hives I can build over winter each year til I hit 100-120 colonies( I'm sure others could rack up a lot more hives than me in the same time). That figure I reckon is manageable and as a one man band, enough for me to support myself even in poor years.
I've never costed my time( no doubt my hourly rate would be depressing) nor do I cost fuel as all my apiaries are on a route i have to travel a 3 or 4 times a week anyway.
My aim is to get to my colony goal having spent less than £7.5k and for now I can't think of a reason why I won't do it.
Better management could have probably got me an extra 1000lb of honey this year, lessons I intend to put into action next year. The 18 nucs I sold could have been double that on the first day my local association advertised them( within the first 3 hrs actually) something I'm better prepared for this year.
I still consider myself an enthusiastic novice with a lot to learn, but I'm totally optimistic( apparently unusual for a Beekeeper) that a reasonable living can be made despite modest investment.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Although it's a hobby I do keep track of how much it has cost me financially.
After the first few years outlay it gets better, well it has for me anyway.
I do make as much as I can to keep costs down like other people have said, hive stands, nucs, crownboards, rooves and floors are easy to make.
It starts to come back slowly, my honey crop is increasing year on year.
Hoping to break the 1000lbs this year.

I have never kept a mental note of how much money I have spent on beer over the years.. That would far outweigh the money I've spent on beekeeping.
People think nothing of £10 a day on cigarettes.

 

[madasafish]

Is that per hive or in total as you would be hard pushed to better 160 lbs / hive next year.

In total

 

[Noddy]

I've just blown £1500 on the sales (not all items were in sales). My wife says that beekeeping is an expensive hobby - I'd better not tell her that my Amateur radio and photography hobbies cost cart loads more..... :O

 

[Newbeebeekeeper]

I tried spending a bunch more but somone got the refurbished extractor i wanted. Im on just 2 hives this year so hoping to lift honey. I had a list of everything i though i would need this year in advance the only thing i missed out on was verroa treatment.
Does anyone buy fondant online? I priced baking websites and they were much cheaper though i havent bought any yet.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Shepcote.com for fondant.. .. £9.90 With free delivery

 

[Millet]

I make all my own floors,crown boards and stands, it might not cost much to buy one or two of what i make but once you get past seven the cost of those items sharp goes up when all are added together, as for fondant i have been making it for the past two years but it too much of a faff on, i bought a 12.5kg block this year and i have only used 3kg up to now so the money spent on that is very little compared to other items needed.

 

[Finman]

.
The most expencive is to overwinter bees with honey.

Next expencive is to use natural combs versus foundations.

Impossible to count the cost when you let the swarms to escape.

Very expencive is to rear own mongrel queens, and not to buy professional- quality queens.

 

[Anduril]

.
The most expencive is to overwinter bees with honey.

Next expencive is to use natural combs versus foundations.

Impossible to count the cost when you let the swarms to escape.

Very expencive is to rear own mongrel queens, and not to buy professional- quality queens.

Not forgetting buying expensive queens and letting them swarm. Just another way to look at a bigger picture.

 

[fatshark]

Correx ...

Roofs, floors, split boards, landing boards, nucs ... fill yer boots.

 

[wightbees]

I get my new Queen this year, she will be kept in a Nuc 6frame and will not be allowed to build up too strong.