No fun being a bee farmer

[Chris Luck]

Sugar farmer it is then.

Chris

 

[Limousin Lass]

So much easier than Bees, You Think!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKBodG-0I_0"]Sugar Beet Field After Rain 2012-11-05 [www.plakys.lt] - YouTube[/ame]

 

[thurrock bees]

Sorry to hear about you giving it up. I considered trying bee farming but decided not to in the end, I thought about what happens when you have a bad year with no honey yet still have the same outlay, then we had last year when my honey production was down 86%.
Thought to myself that it was the right choice when that happened. I have no problem selling the honey tho.

I will let the bees slowly grow in numbers and see what happens but I wont plan for a full time job. I spend a few days with a bee farmer in kent, helping him and asking questions, he was on a apple orchard to got use of their land and billed them for pollination on top ( 7 grand he quoted to me).

 

[Chris Luck]

So much easier than Bees, You Think!

Well at least you get the subsidies and easier compensation payouts although personally if I wanted to do something with the main aim being making money or a "living" I wouldn't choose either. Even the man I know nearby with 1200 hives has other income streams.

Bee keeping for me is fun and the bit of extra money is handy, but then I'm retired.

Chris

 

[Limousin Lass]

Well at least you get the subsidies and easier compensation payouts although personally if I wanted to do something with the main aim being making money or a "living" I wouldn't choose either. Even the man I know nearby with 1200 hives has other income streams.

Bee keeping for me is fun and the bit of extra money is handy, but then I'm retired.

Chris

Compensation- this would be to compensate for not being able to farm your ground (that you pay a mortgage or rent on ) as it should be.
Subsidies; in reality tax payers subsidise the supermarkets and those that fall below the tax threshold, by providing a base payment to farmers , so when the vagaries of the weather destroy the crop, the farmer will plant it again. This ensures the supply of food to one of the most heavily populated parts of the planet (Europe). We are loaded down with regulations and employment laws, which would be fine if only food produced to these standards could be sold here. But no, cheap food from countries paying workers as little as a dollar a day, with no regulations and controls is imported and sold next to ours. It costs over a Thousand pounds an acre to grow Potatoes for example, this is seed , fertilizer, sprays ,labour and sundries. You haven't bought or rented the ground, put a tractor on it and fuel in it or included any other fixed cost yet .
This is going off topic so I best desist before a mod sends me to the naughty step.

 

[pargyle]

.
This is going off topic so I best desist before a mod sends me to the naughty step.

I think the overriding charm of this forum is that, amogst all the useful, sensible, helpful and informative advice, there is a wacky bunch of lunatics keeping us entertained with off topic chit chat ... not to everyone's taste but I like it !

Brushing up my, well out of date, Latin abilities today thanks to another thread meandering into the wilds !

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think the overriding charm of this forum is that, amogst all the useful, sensible, helpful and informative advice, there is a wacky bunch of lunatics keeping us entertained with off topic chit chat ... not to everyone's taste but I like it !

Brushing up my, well out of date, Latin abilities today thanks to another thread meandering into the wilds !

Oi! I resemble that remark

Have you seen the price per ton of best anthracite lately? and it is only cheap African imports!!

 

[pargyle]

Have you seen the price per ton of best anthracite lately? and it is only cheap African imports!!

Good grief !! £285 a ton collected for best welsh steam coal .....

http://gfluckettcoal.com/page3.htm

Best dump the bees and start digging JBM - there's a fortune under your feet and a niche market judging by the number of steam engines at the Dorset Steam Fair !!

 

[Chris Luck]

Compensation- this would be to compensate for not being able to farm your ground (that you pay a mortgage or rent on ) as it should be.
Subsidies; in reality tax payers subsidise the supermarkets and those that fall below the tax threshold, by providing a base payment to farmers , so when the vagaries of the weather destroy the crop, the farmer will plant it again. This ensures the supply of food to one of the most heavily populated parts of the planet (Europe). We are loaded down with regulations and employment laws, which would be fine if only food produced to these standards could be sold here. But no, cheap food from countries paying workers as little as a dollar a day, with no regulations and controls is imported and sold next to ours. It costs over a Thousand pounds an acre to grow Potatoes for example, this is seed , fertilizer, sprays ,labour and sundries. You haven't bought or rented the ground, put a tractor on it and fuel in it or included any other fixed cost yet .
This is going off topic so I best desist before a mod sends me to the naughty step.

Potatoes?

Well here in France the subsidies per hectare and any compensation for lost crops are easily enough for a good living, I understand they are the same for the UK. Cereals are good and easy, farmer I know has just brought in 100 hectares of sunflowers in the last 24 hours, now that's a crop that's easy, plough, sow, leave alone, harvest. Land rental here is €80 to €120 per hectare a year, not exactly a fortune.

Mind you we also have the EU sugar price hike to ensure we pay well over the global going rate.

Goodness, where will it all end?

Chris

 

[thorn]

Have you seen the price per ton of best anthracite lately? and it is only cheap African imports!!

What would Able Seaman Goldstein have to say about that?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Good grief !! £285 a ton collected for best welsh steam coal .....

http://gfluckettcoal.com/page3.htm

Best dump the bees and start digging JBM - there's a fortune under your feet and a niche market judging by the number of steam engines at the Dorset Steam Fair !!

Ah! but we don't have steam coal here (that's the high bitumenn 'soft' coal of the South wales coalfield - the rhondda and all that) we have grade 1 south west Wales anthracite - hard as glass and almost as clean - smokeless, less dust and ash and will melt your fireplace if not careful - was mostly imported to America in the old days, but lovely stuff although the northerners whinge 'because they can't light it proper'

 

[susbees]

Sorry you've decided to give up Biggles. maybe creep up slowly and see how it goes (do a bit in Tescos to bolster the income - at least there's a chance of some free sugar!)

I see in the bee press a certain Essex division has been kindly given 100kg of sugar by an ice cream company to see their bees through winter. A nought or three missing???

 

[Limousin Lass]

While rents are lower per Hectare here, you have conveniently left out land tax and MSA. Tournesol is good when it's good and when it's bad it's god awfull. If farming was as easy as you make out the supermarkets would all be farming their own ground. The constant "get bigger and more efficient" mantra they come out with is a joke as when the Co-op in the UK tried, it with Seven Thousand five Hundred dairy cows, they made a huge loss and all the cows went, beef as well. Headed by Christine Tacon at the time she is now the supermarket watchdog, some hope for a fair crack there then.
While your neighbour has cleared his Tournesol, how has it yielded? All cereal yields in this area have been a disaster this year. Clearing ground means nothing, bottom line margin is everything.

 

[Chris Luck]

Doing well enough to have all new kit, five houses and a swimming pool and that's only what he admits to.

Cereals is "blue gold" all the way and MSA ain't that bad* - I've lived and worked here a long time before I retired.

Chris

*Other than the fact that their pension fund is €19 billion in debt and will require bailing out by the taxpayer - but that's France - makes the UK debts look like a party in the park.

Chris

 

[Limousin Lass]

For every 1 doing well there are 20 just getting by. You do live in one of the best Arable areas in France mind. Our MSA was over €110 Hc this year, I could pay a nice mortgage with that. I See in France Agricole there will now be aid for Bee farmers. Don't know why, all you do is roll up and take their honey after they have done all the work. So easy when the facts are ignored.

 

[biggles]

I didn't think this thread would get many answers so Thanks to everyone who has or sent me a PM.

I like to say I am still doing another job as a mechanic that I do 5 1/2 days a week so the bees have been taking up my spare time. I've not even had enough time to go to the local BKA that I was chairman of a year or so ago.

The hives are now all tucked up for the winter so like them I'll see how we feel when the weather is once again warm. I will probably move them about in the spring for the pollination, that will bring in a few quid and build the up. Then sell off 75%. Depending on number through the winter.

Anyone who wants to just be a bee farmer would need a min of 400 hives

Anyone who is a bee farmer has my respect. (or they might just be mad)

 

[pargyle]

Anyone who wants to just be a bee farmer would need a min of 400 hives

QUOTE]

And a modicum of good luck ... I don't think you got your share in the luck department. But wish you lots of it for the future.

 

[Chris Luck]

I didn't think this thread would get many answers so Thanks to everyone who has or sent me a PM.

I like to say I am still doing another job as a mechanic that I do 5 1/2 days a week so the bees have been taking up my spare time. I've not even had enough time to go to the local BKA that I was chairman of a year or so ago.

The hives are now all tucked up for the winter so like them I'll see how we feel when the weather is once again warm. I will probably move them about in the spring for the pollination, that will bring in a few quid and build the up. Then sell off 75%. Depending on number through the winter.

Anyone who wants to just be a bee farmer would need a min of 400 hives

Anyone who is a bee farmer has my respect. (or they might just be mad)

Once again sorry if this offends but I would have thought that with that much experience, chairman of your local BKA and therefore a knowledgeable bee-keeper, you may have known all this or researched it beforehand.

Putting hives on other peoples property is risky for a starter as is getting any new business of the ground especially one that involves livestock and the vagaries of the weather. Hopefully you are young enough to move on and benefit from the experience.

Good luck.

Chris

 

[rugbee]

I really must find out how many 'guardians' he has!
Doesn't take many to finance a trip to NZ!

I tell you none so far made £100 with last years failed crop and spring losses still £170,k to go
Any time you want to find out how bad this job is come and see me for a heads up
100 hives is not bee farming just playing we can't make a living with 800
Living the dream comes at a price

Richard Lindsey

 

[For want of a better word]

Anyone who wants to just be a bee farmer would need a min of 400 hives

AND 400 strong colonies of bees fit for the environment they have to forage in!

My bank manager advised me strongly about spending my pension fund on beekeeping... specifically honey farming.....
However a hobby like beekeeping can become a bit like little Topsy and keep growing.

At what point does a hobby become another job?

IF you want something to pour all your hard earned cash into either marry some lass less than half your age or buy a boat!