New Apiary set up

[Swn58]

I have finally made the jump in to full time beekeeping. It is a relatively small start but I hope that within three years the business will be making a modest profit. I just thought that I would jot down a few notes about the last few months!
I have two small apiaries in Birmingham, but they are limited to how many colonies I can actually have on them. So, I wrote to half a dozen farms, asking if I could keep bees on their land. I had one very good reply and was subsequently offered a small wood to keep bees in. My new landlords are very forward thinking and fully understand that the business I am setting up will greatly benefit all of us eventually.
I'm sure that many of you, myself included, will not want to read a huge diatribe, so I am going to break up the subjects that I feel may be of interest to certain individuals. They will be based on the hives, equipment, purchasing nucs and general experiences over the last few months. The next post will be about how and why I chose the hives I am using.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I have finally made the jump in to full time beekeeping. It is a relatively small start but I hope that within three years the business will be making a modest profit. I just thought that I would jot down a few notes about the last few months!
I have two small apiaries in Birmingham, but they are limited to how many colonies I can actually have on them. So, I wrote to half a dozen farms, asking if I could keep bees on their land. I had one very good reply and was subsequently offered a small wood to keep bees in. My new landlords are very forward thinking and fully understand that the business I am setting up will greatly benefit all of us eventually.
I'm sure that many of you, myself included, will not want to read a huge diatribe, so I am going to break up the subjects that I feel may be of interest to certain individuals. They will be based on the hives, equipment, purchasing nucs and general experiences over the last few months. The next post will be about how and why I chose the hives I am using.

Good luck with your new venture I look forward to hearing how you get on.
I also have gone from just a few hives to 20+ colonys in and around the Clee.
Im not quite at the stage of making a business as half of my colonys are nucs. But my plans are to keep expanding.
Ive now four apiary sites and growing.
Have you tryed your local Facebook sites?
This is how I've recently found more apiary sites.
Cheers

 

[Swn58]

Yes, this is my intention as well. My new apiary will become my HQ, because it is infinitely expandable. However, I think that having multiple apiaries is a good. It may cost more in having separate equipment, but this prevents cross-contamination in the case of disease and insures that one cannot lose everything in one go to disease, vandalism or theft!

 

[Red Bee]

Hi.
How many hives are you wanting to build up to?

Will be interesting to know how you get on, so keep the posts coming ��

 

[Swn58]

How many hives indeed!

I did a business course. Using my experience in beekeeping, I worked out that to make it just about profitable, I would need seventy five national hives. To ensure success I will need upwards of two hundred. The more hives, the more work obviously. The biggest problem ahead though will not be maintenance of the colonies themselves. It will come in produce production, especially honey!
My new apiary has been set up with ten national hives, populated with ten 6 framed nucs. I hope for them to just survive and be strong this season. My other two apiaries only have three hives each on them at the moment due to some unexpected winter losses. However, they are all very strong and already bursting at the seams. The two strongest have been turned into 'hive-builders' by adding an extra brood box. I am looking at a lot of queen rearing and will be using the hive-builders to help populate my own nuclei of bees this year. It's early days though!

 

[Red Bee]

75 hives sounds achievable, what are your honey yield predictions for those 75 so you break even? 20,40,60 lbs per hive?

 

[gmonag]

Where do you expect your profits to come from?

Honey, queens, nucs or all three?

 

[Adam Bourne]

Good luck with the new venture - Keep posting as I'd be interested to see how you get on!

 

[Swn58]

I would expect a minimum of 20lbs of honey per hive. I know that it gets complicated with kilos pounds etc., but I find that each full super frame often weighs in at around 2 kilos which is over 4lb. There are eleven in wooden super and ten in a poly super. Last year I did a first harvest in late June. We only had 5 honey producing hives, but we we potted over 100 8oz jars and still had loads over. Later in the year we harvested a lesser amount, but it was still over two gallons! I'm mixing my measurements I know, but basically, I would expect 40-60 per hive per year.

 

[Swn58]

Where do you expect your profits to come from?

Honey, queens, nucs or all three?

I would reckon that all three will yield profits, but queen and Nuc rearing seems to be where the money is. My new six-frame nukes cost £290 each. The last queen I bought cost £75. There may be money in honey....but my dreams involve queens. I may have to copyright that!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My new six-frame nukes cost £290 each.

Eh!?

 

[Ian123]

Lol thornes price! I would swap you some 5 frame nucs for some bs poly nuc boxes if you like. Say 4 per nuc.

 

[thorn]

Eh!?

Presumably including bees.

 

[Swn58]

Presumably including bees.

OK....here's the story. Last year, after the Brexit vote and bearing in mind that I was already committed to being a full-time beekeeper I started looking for 2020 stock. I 'reached out' to a supplier who had been advertising the season previously and I had bought things from in the past. I got a message back from them, on the lines that the world was ending, they wished they hadn't delayed their move to France etc.. Ho hum. Also bear in mind that I really wanted British stock and not imported from Italy. I then emailed another purveyor of bees, asking what their situation was. Their reply was of total panic. 'OMG.....we rang our Italian suppliers and they said that as far as they knew, they would not be exporting stock to the UK in 2020.
Guess what I did? I went to Thorne's, because they were taking orders for British bees in 2020. I needed the guarantee that I would actually have the bees I needed! The last time I bought a 5 frame nuc was eight years ago for £150. I thought that Thorne's 6-frame nucs were expensive, but at least I would have the bees I needed. However, this transaction did not go without some dispute........

 

[Red Bee]

Thread bump!!

How’s your season going?

Hive numbers rising?