Potential business startup

[K bee]

Hey all, we're 2 young friends from Dorset and have both been struggling to find direction for quite a while. After some deliberating we have decided that beekeeping is an interesting direction that we want to focus on and start selling honey/honey related products.

We're thinking of starting off with 15 hives? While this may seem like a lot for a beginner one of us is unemployed and the other has very flexible working hours, plus it would help speed up the process of learning all things bee-related. We've accepted that this isn't the highest earning profession but feel 15 hives gives us a good baseline of honey to harvest, and is enough so that if/when we do lose some hives there should be enough left over.

For the hives we're thinking Abelo national poly hives as they're longer lasting and apparently are better at encouraging honey production?

We have a potential area of land already that is around 4 acres.

We're very new to the world of beekeeping and are excited to embark on this journey, we have already been researching heavily for a while now and our next step is to get some hands-on experience. We welcome any and all tips/advice and questions.

Thank you

TheBeeBoys

 

[Sutty]

The best way to make a small fortune in low-numbers beekeeping is........... start with a large fortune!

I'd find other work, start beekeeping as a hobby with 2 or 3 hives, learn a lot, and if you're still interested in a few years think about converting it to a business then.

 

[user 11159]

15xhives15xbees .one of you out of work .thats a lot of cash .without the rest of kit you need .but good look to you ..

 

[Amari]

I admire your enthusiasm but, as above, the cost of buying all the basic equipment will be large - and things can go wrong eg. poor weather = poor crop, bee diseases, winter colony losses etc. Keeping bees requires quite a lot of theoretical knowledge but most beginners' training courses take place during the winter months. Does your local beekeepers association have a club apiary with training sessions and maybe the need for volunteer help? Have you any bee-farmers in your area who might need paid help this summer?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

We're thinking of starting off with 15 hives

15 hives is not going to turn any kind of income for you, especially in the startup years, you have to anticipate next to zero income off them for the first few years, and consider the initial outlay - 20 hives and ancillary equipment, 20 colonies, extractor, settling tanks, a clean extracting area, public liability insurance etc. etc. winter feeding, varroa treatment. not to mention an outlet for any honey you get. Stot=rage for both equipment and any harvested honey.
fifteen hives would be a good weekend starter with both you and your oppo finding another income whilst you learn about the bees then start networking, finding more apiary sites and increasing your number of colonies

 

[The Poot]

Hey all, we're 2 young friends from Dorset and have both been struggling to find direction for quite a while. After some deliberating we have decided that beekeeping is an interesting direction that we want to focus on and start selling honey/honey related products.

We're thinking of starting off with 15 hives? While this may seem like a lot for a beginner one of us is unemployed and the other has very flexible working hours, plus it would help speed up the process of learning all things bee-related. We've accepted that this isn't the highest earning profession but feel 15 hives gives us a good baseline of honey to harvest, and is enough so that if/when we do lose some hives there should be enough left over.

For the hives we're thinking Abelo national poly hives as they're longer lasting and apparently are better at encouraging honey production?

We have a potential area of land already that is around 4 acres.

We're very new to the world of beekeeping and are excited to embark on this journey, we have already been researching heavily for a while now and our next step is to get some hands-on experience. We welcome any and all tips/advice and questions.

Thank you

TheBeeBoys

Where in Dorset might you bee?

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

15 hives is not going to turn any kind of income for you, especially in the startup years, you have to anticipate next to zero income off them for the first few years, and consider the initial outlay - 20 hives and ancillary equipment, 20 colonies, extractor, settling tanks, a clean extracting area, public liability insurance etc. etc. winter feeding, varroa treatment. not to mention an outlet for any honey you get. Stot=rage for both equipment and any harvested honey.
fifteen hives would be a good weekend starter with both you and your oppo finding another income whilst you learn about the bees then start networking, finding more apiary sites and increasing your number of colonies

This gives a good picture of what's involved. I'm in my seventh season, and expanded my beekeeping most years. I want my retirement activity to pay for itself so I've kept a tab since day 1. A lot of money has gone out and lot come back in again, but I've not covered my costs yet. Maybe this year.

 

[ericbeaumont]

speed up the process of learning

True, provided you have an aptitude that is practical, intuitive, strategic, flexible, problem-solving, not afraid of long hours and able to combine three variable factors: reading a colony, knowing the environment in which it lives, and understanding the kit.

we're thinking Abelo national poly hives as they're longer lasting and apparently are better at encouraging honey production?

Yield is dependent to a greater extent on the three factors above than hive type, but Abelo is the best National poly box on the market (you may sell nucs in future, which is where the money in beekeeping lies, and National dominates the market) not because its thermal efficiency is likely to return about 15% more honey, but because the light weight saves beekeeper energy and transport fuel.

starting off with 15 hives

That's a fair chunk of money and the hives are only part of the total: bees to go in them, vehicle, storage shed or barn and food-grade processing unit (kitchen to begin with), extractor, bottling blah blah, frames, foundation (for best ready-made contact Helen at Denrosa), varroa treatments, er, much more. As JBM said, it's sunk money until you learn not to lose bees to swarms, winter and disease, and to bring in the yellow gold regularly.

We have a potential area of land already that is around 4 acres.

That is enough for 15 colonies (hives are merely the boxes in which they live) but you will be dependent on forage within 2 miles, and in a bad year... Better to research and find two or three sites within 20 minutes drive with variable forage, and aim to run 10-15 in each.

bee-farmers in your area who might need paid help this summer?

Good idea; talk to BS (if they're not too busy) and they'll tell you that they started by going to the Antipodes to learn beefarming before they set up in 2011; check out their story here and you may see similarities to yours.

The BFA used to run workshops at the shows to give the expanding hobbiest an idea of how to develop, and the general advice was to increase numbers in line with experience and capital. This guide escaped the budding beefarmer I met at a Spring Convention workshop many years ago: she'd spent her working life in an office crunching numbers and two garden hives had lifted her heart to an alternative, an escape from the grind. First thing she did? Buy a brand new Land Rover Defender and 60 colonies!

You won't get carried away with such a daft dream, but do get ready to learn fast in our short seasons and to make a lot of mistakes; above all, bear in mind that beefarming is as much to do with logistics as bees.

 

[Aneebe]

This gives a good picture of what's involved. I'm in my seventh season, and expanded my beekeeping most years. I want my retirement activity to pay for itself so I've kept a tab since day 1. A lot of money has gone out and lot come back in again, but I've not covered my costs yet. Maybe this year.

Ditto!

 

[SWEET]

Hey all, we're 2 young friends from Dorset and have both been struggling to find direction for quite a while. After some deliberating we have decided that beekeeping is an interesting direction that we want to focus on and start selling honey/honey related products.

We're thinking of starting off with 15 hives? While this may seem like a lot for a beginner one of us is unemployed and the other has very flexible working hours, plus it would help speed up the process of learning all things bee-related. We've accepted that this isn't the highest earning profession but feel 15 hives gives us a good baseline of honey to harvest, and is enough so that if/when we do lose some hives there should be enough left over.

For the hives we're thinking Abelo national poly hives as they're longer lasting and apparently are better at encouraging honey production?

We have a potential area of land already that is around 4 acres.

We're very new to the world of beekeeping and are excited to embark on this journey, we have already been researching heavily for a while now and our next step is to get some hands-on experience. We welcome any and all tips/advice and questions.

Thank you

TheBeeBoys

It can be done, but requires an insane person happy to work 100 hours a week for free for 3-5 years with a lot of capital investment before you start gaining anything back.

I've gone from 1 hive to 100+, state of the art LAB and processing facilities, BFA/DASH/II and spent prob 80k+ and 1000's hours reading/research and testing. Over nearly a decade with a lifetime interest in entomology backed up with a career in tech/marketing.

Did I say insane?

Was it worth it?, some days it's the best job in the world, others are dark and depressing - i'd not change it for the world but it can be hard graft at times.

Have fun, there is a ton of wonderful advice on these boards.

S

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hey all, we're 2 young friends from Dorset and have both been struggling to find direction for quite a while. After some deliberating we have decided that beekeeping is an interesting direction that we want to focus on and start selling honey/honey related products.

We're thinking of starting off with 15 hives? While this may seem like a lot for a beginner one of us is unemployed and the other has very flexible working hours, plus it would help speed up the process of learning all things bee-related. We've accepted that this isn't the highest earning profession but feel 15 hives gives us a good baseline of honey to harvest, and is enough so that if/when we do lose some hives there should be enough left over.

For the hives we're thinking Abelo national poly hives as they're longer lasting and apparently are better at encouraging honey production?

We have a potential area of land already that is around 4 acres.

We're very new to the world of beekeeping and are excited to embark on this journey, we have already been researching heavily for a while now and our next step is to get some hands-on experience. We welcome any and all tips/advice and questions.

Thank you

TheBeeBoys

I hope things go well for you but I fear you may be wearing rose tinted spectacles regarding the income generating potential of beekeeping and honey production/sales.
Have you ANY prior knowledge of beekeeping? Perhaps you should make contact with a local beekeeping association and ask if there's any taster days available. It would be wise to discover if both of you are comfortable with bees bumping against your veil within inches of your face and ears, plus if you are sting tolerant both from the pain (minor) or more importantly allergic reaction (major) effects. It would be devastating to commit major investment in equipment only to find one or both of you cannot actually work with bees.
I doubt if local association training will be currently available as it tends to be run in winter/early springtime over a number of weeks and you may have to book it early. I can't honestly advise attending a short potted beekeeping course which you see being sold from time to time. There's a lot of knowledge required which needs more than a couple of days to soak in and digest.
So overall don't rush into things without preparation.
Good luck.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Ditto!

I feel ya!
Imo I would want to learn a fair bit obtain as much practical experience for a few seasons first and build bee hive numbers slowly along side that gained knowledge.
Also imo to make any sort of half decent income you need lots of hives 50+ would be a good start and 200+ would be a good number to aim for.
including in this would be queen rearing/sales and nucs, also scope out your retail outlets prior and in the early years keep your outlets to a small amount ie one or two shops per town so you can keep them supplied all year.

Some of my retailers I’ve been supplying for 5 years and at times I’ve scraped the barrel to supply them untill the next honey crop comes into play.

 

[Murox]

Irrespective of hive numbers you really will need to have access to more than one site. You should also establish what the local forage is, how reliable it is and what the local competition is around each potential site.

 

[Mint Bee]

Some of my retailers I’ve been supplying for 5 years and at times I’ve scraped the barrel to supply them untill the next honey crop comes into play.

And there in lies the dilemma if its a major source of income. Supply too many outlets to maximize money in from honey sales, and risk running out and the disappointed outlets going elsewhere. I think it was here years ago that someone gave the advice that they kept at least a years honey worth of projected honey sales to cope with the vagaries of the weather leading to a failed honey crop.

 

[solonik29]

Sorry for being a voice of doom here

I did not read all the comments but if you want to start business I suggest to invest into anything else but not beekeping. It is a very hard business and I would be dreading try to make full time living. You really need to put all the effort,time and some hard work into beekeeping and also consider to include diversification with nucs,honey,bee products. The investments is quite higher so be warned. You will need to invest into hives equipment, learn how to manage your bees, marketing strategy, tax, VAT all these things will need to be considered. The bulk honey is pretty much dead on the UK and with unsettled weather it is really hard to predict the honey crop so you need to contentiously be very competitive to get profits. Good luck with your journey.

 

[philat98]

Is it possible to get any state contributions for this sort of start up enterprise?
I get the impression that the UK agricultural sector is in a muddle at the moment with the change in the payment schemes and food products coming from outside the EU. It is sometimes possible to take advantage of things going wrong.

 

[ericbeaumont]

bulk honey is pretty much dead on the UK ... hard to predict the honey crop ... be very competitive to get profits

At fewer than 50 colonies the boys ought to aim to sell at top price to select outlets, to avoid the bulk market and anything that gives a poor return.

To achieve sales in a niche market they must certainly get their packaging right, but also be able to converse with suppliers and customers about bees & honey. Put it another way: buyers must have confidence in the seller and trust in the product (two factors often missing in contemporary retail).

 

[Swarm]

Sideline. There are very few in this country who make a living solely through beekeeping so best find a reliable income source to support your sideliner business.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Is it possible to get any state contributions for this sort of start up enterprise?

No

 

[ericbeaumont]

Starting with 15 hives sounds like a solid plan, especially with one of you having flexible hours. Abelo national poly hives seem like a wise choice for durability and honey production. Having 4 acres of land is a great asset too.

You are an electronic beekeeper bot thing and have no experience whatsoever, so clear off and don't come back.