Price of honey bees :(

[Wingy]

Originally Posted by kevrhcfag View Post
Now now behave local mongrels are the preferred and ideal option. Its easy just split the hive let them get on with it, 4 weeks later there you go another nuc done and dusted.

Sarcastic lol.

I was although it doesn't always come across as intended online sometimes.

So does that not mean you will have a load of nuc's you're trying to get rid of for peanuts next spring lol? After all it's been easy this summer ha ha
Wingy.
PS hope the PT is still standing

 

[Finman]

As I have stated in a previous post, I am not in this for the money, unlike those who make a living from it.

My bees are local mongrels and I am happy with them. Over the last few years I have practiced some selection, queens whose colonies show rubbish traits go for the chop, those that show desirable characteristics I breed from . Am I wasting my time then, having no control over the mating? Over the years my bees have gradually become more docile and productive. .

Really few get living from beekeeping. In Britain 96% of beekeepers have under 4 hive.

Your bees have become productive because other beekeepers select better queens. You get better drone genes from village air space.

I bet that most beekeepers do not mind about quality of their queens. And most advisors encourage tl continue their new family and nog to buy better queens.

That is the situation in this forum. IT is "do nothing" method.
And all goes so fine.

.but the smoker must be best in the world, even if the core of beekeeping, the queen, can be what ever.
.

 

[thenovice]

"if you join a club you get support and the bees for free"

That may be true regarding the bees in some isolated generous instances but it is certainly not the case in general.

PH

if you sign up at the swarm collectors contact list of the BBKA, you will get more swarms than you can deal with. for free...

 

[For want of a better word]

if you sign up at the swarm collectors contact list of the BBKA, you will get more swarms than you can deal with. for free...

Really?

I thought from my own experiences it ( The BBKA Swarm co-ordinators list) is a free advisory service to the great general public, with many hours spent running around after various, wasps, bumbles, hornets and their ilk... that the great unwashed assure you are honey bees.

This very afternoon I spent half an hour explaining to a ditsy yummymummy that the bees on her ivy covered wall in Hartley were simply collecting nectar and were not a swarm... and were unlikely to attack her little dahlings when the nanny brought them home from nursery!
Then she went on to say that she heard on BBC Spotlight that a new type of bee was being imported from Denmark and is threatening to wipe out our native bees...... at which point I thought it was a wind up... and gave her a number of one of the Plymouth beekeepers!

Free... I could have whittled a couple of spoons... or got on with extracting the 50 supers sitting in the Skibber!!

Yeghes da

 

[mazzamazda]

.
When I have put local adapted, non selected mongrels into hive, and then a good queen into such hive, good queen is now double size compared to local mongrels.

Most of beekeepers do not mind to buy good queens. And without buying you do not get good queens.

The price of good queen is 4 kg honey.
And the queen brings ten fold of its price.
.

It is same in all domestic animals.

Very good advice, looking at my bought in queen hives compared to the local AM aggressive mongrals, well no comparison, one lot i'm feeding and on the point of starvation, very little brood, hardly a bee in sight, lots of work. The other, calm, working the ivy, 8 frames of brood and already paid its price in food for the other. I'm not sure I'll ever rear another queen again.

 

[Anduril]

Really?

I thought from my own experiences it ( The BBKA Swarm co-ordinators list) is a free advisory service to the great general public, with many hours spent running around after various, wasps, bumbles, hornets and their ilk... that the great unwashed assure you are honey bees.

This very afternoon I spent half an hour explaining to a ditsy yummymummy that the bees on her ivy covered wall in Hartley were simply collecting nectar and were not a swarm... and were unlikely to attack her little dahlings when the nanny brought them home from nursery!
Then she went on to say that she heard on BBC Spotlight that a new type of bee was being imported from Denmark and is threatening to wipe out our native bees...... at which point I thought it was a wind up... and gave her a number of one of the Plymouth beekeepers!

Free... I could have whittled a couple of spoons... or got on with extracting the 50 supers sitting in the Skibber!!

Yeghes da

She may be talking about bumblebees.

 

[stilllearning]

I usually swap one hive of bees for 3 days work , saves any cash being used

 

[Beefriendly]

I'm not sure I'll ever rear another queen again.

When you see the increased yields I can understand your sentiment. But I like breeding queens, the uncertainty of their mating...the relief when seeing them start to lay. One can get quite maternal...
Some get a bit of heterosis from mating with my local barstewards , which in some (not all) cases makes them even more exceptional than their mothers.....so worth doing a bit of queen rearing....be warned..... it's tempting to breed from your own bred exceptional gentle fecund productive F1's but PAINFUL experience says NO!

 

[mazzamazda]

When you see the increased yields I can understand your sentiment. But I like breeding queens, the uncertainty of their mating...the relief when seeing them start to lay. One can get quite maternal...
Some get a bit of heterosis from mating with my local barstewards , which in some (not all) cases makes them even more exceptional than their mothers.....so worth doing a bit of queen rearing....be warned..... it's tempting to breed from your own bred exceptional gentle fecund productive F1's but PAINFUL experience says NO!

Dont get me wrong, I also like raising queens, when they are mated with horrible local drones and there is no getting away from it. When you consider resources needed and for poor results it is so much more beneficial buying in.

 

[kevrhcfag]

So does that not mean you will have a load of nuc's you're trying to get rid of for peanuts next spring lol? After all it's been easy this summer ha ha
Wingy.
PS hope the PT is still standing

No I will have to pay people to take them away, as not of the highly evolved ideal local mongrel variety.

Also I didn't find them on a bush, threw them in a box with 10 year old black comb on knackered frames and charging £120 for the privilege, cheap at twice the price.

Might aswell give in and sell the kit.

Just - thank you

 

[Finman]

But I like breeding queens, the uncertainty of their mating...the relief when seeing them start to lay.!

Oh dear... You are serious...

 

[chrgai]

In Germany is a colony 145,- € and a nuc 60,- €.
Mated Buckfastqueens 25-30 €.
All prices are just for the bees (without any material).

Chris

 

[For want of a better word]

She may be talking about bumblebees.

But the Cornish Native dark bees on the ivy wall on the Manor were really loudly humming all of last week... and the aroma of ivy around the hives was overwhealming... I can see how to some this could seem like a swarm!



Yeghes da

 

[Finman]

But the Cornish Native dark bees on the ivy wall on the Manor were really loudly humming all of last week... and the aroma of ivy around the hives was overwhealming... I can see how to some this could seem like a swarm!



Yeghes da

IT sounds that hives are absolutely too much. Flowers are not able to feed swarm with their flowers.

1 bee/m2 is too much. Nothing to get from flowers.

.
.

 

[bontbee]

This very afternoon I spent half an hour explaining to a ditsy yummymummy that the bees on her ivy covered wall in Hartley were simply collecting nectar.....

Bees here are going mad for ivy, even in the rain...

I know Hartley very well. (Well, at least I did many years ago, when I were a lad).

 

[Into the lions den]

In Germany is a colony 145,- € and a nuc 60,- €.
Mated Buckfastqueens 25-30 €.
All prices are just for the bees (without any material).

Chris

In Europe the prices are well below those in the UK, and the further south you go the cheaper they get. (Germany, with most other northern provenances are excepted from what follows.)

That's why the temptation (and it has been done...and recently) exists to bring in, say Spanish, bee sourced at 50 euros, and sold for triple that amount in the UK. One Spanish breeder I know of was raising bees on BS frames JUST for a single UK trader (find that on your BeeBase import page!) who sold them on at a fat profit.

BUT...............its done with less selection, less failures, far cheaper gear, cheaper labour, longer season, reliable weather, grant aid....etc etc. Many factors that make it economic nonetheless despite it being below UK production price.

However, the price being that low in Germany surprises me a little, as my Italian contacts take more than that from their German *wholesale* clients and they cannot satisfy the demand.

 

[Finman]

.
We have spring prices and summer prices.

Spring hive can be splitted after 6 weeks in summer to three hives.

 

[B+.]

However, the price being that low in Germany surprises me a little, as my Italian contacts take more than that from their German *wholesale* clients and they cannot satisfy the demand.

Me too. I'm not sure where these queens are quoted at that price but Celle queens mated on Neuwerk will cost around 60 euros each (plus 10 for the health certificate and P&P ontop).
The standard price within BeeBreed is about 40 but this is between breeders. AGT charge 55.

 

[Finman]

.
I know that you can get queens £ 10 / piece from Italy. I do not know how much you must buy then.


.

 

[B+.]

.
I know that you can get queens £ 10 / piece from Italy.

Its easy to buy cheap. The question is, how good are the queens?