Price of honey bees :(

[Into the lions den]

Funny thing is that those 10€ queens are reselled 45€/piece.

Being a bit provocative there old chap.............

Those selling individual queens at 30 to 40 pounds are mainly selling ones and twos to small scale beekeepers. The queen might not have cost a huge amount but there is very large chance you will be subjected to lots and lots of 'needing advice' calls, and calls because some opinionated 'big dog' in their association has criticised their choice, and general calls for a chat (because we sold them a queen we have endless time to chat. Right?) Most of all its the nervous and inexperienced who have been motivated into worrying by someone.

However...its also true that most of the expensive ones you are talking about are really bred here by moderate scale queen rearers. Imported stock is very rarely seen at those kind of prices unless its speciality or niche stock such as from Denmark or Ireland

The guys selling at the high rate in small numbers deserve every penny! Same with those selling nucs at £280 and even higher. I bet they are often giving £100 worth of advice along with it, and the time taken harms their own businesses.

FWIW...and this is a rebuttal not an advert.......... I buy top lines, or have bred for me from our own best, in Piemonte and it costs £15.00, JUST to pay for the breeders work. (Cheaper stuff been tried but don't cut the mustard) I sell at £20.50, carrying all the loses etc, the endless polite arguing with those who fail to introduce them safely and blame the quality of queen, arrange health certificates, pay for special delivery, and do a good bit of admin to ensure traceability. Then I get MY butt kicked when the client has sold them on (eg in a nuc) and THEY did not keep records. I don't think that's a big profit, and indeed sometimes its not a profit at all (for those whose viewpoint makes them think I do it from greed).

 

[For want of a better word]

No one has afford to Lada. IT consumes 10 litre / 100 km. When Soviet Union stopped, all Finnish old Ladas were sold to Russia 20 years ago.

Lada was actually old fashion Fiat.
.

I have to admit to once having the great privilege of being the proud owner of a new '76 Lada estate.... and having thrashed six bells of b*****y out of it for two happy years, sold it for £100 more than I paid for it. No problem in parking it all day with the keys in... in the depths of Balham... and the hub caps were never stolen!

Happy days



Yeghes da

 

[Finman]

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In Finland Queen breeding is very risky business. Native mated queens are possible in July. Seldom in Juni. Mating gap is narrow. The process from grafting to selling is long.

Imported queens are plenty, and you may start a nuc with them. Later you may change it to a Finnish Queen.
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Young bees start to emerge at the end of May. At the first week of June normal hives have 2 boxes.
Best swarming time is about 25. 6.

Mating days are rare at the first half of June.

 

[Finman]

I have to admit to once having the great privilege of being the proud owner of a new '76 Lada da

When I was going to buy the first car, I was warned about British Lada, Sunbeam.

 

[For want of a better word]

When I was going to buy the first car, I was warned about British Lada, Sunbeam.

Or the Italian rust bucket... Alfa Romeo... RIP ( Rust in Peace)

Nos da

 

[Beefriendly]

Rightly or wrongly I pay quite a lot of money for isolated mated queens. Talking between £70 to £120 per queen, depending on source. Obviously some variability, but in general extremely good...and the F1 (their daughters) that I breed are at least as good and in some case better than their dams, which I presume is due to heterosis.
All I know is they approach Finman's yields and pay for themselves several times over. Many beekeepers whom I've given these F1's to are often amazed how they perform.

 

[Finman]

All I know is they approach Finman's yields and pay for themselves several times over. Many beekeepers whom I've given these F1's to are often amazed how they perform.

High yields come from pastures, not from bees.

 

[For want of a better word]

High yields come from pastures, not from bees.

Adaptation of bees to local climatic conditions must have something to do with production of a good honey crop.
Buckfast type hybrids did not do any much good in comparison to the Native dark bees I now keep in my hidden Cornish valley...Even taking into account the naughty little girls found a field or two of OSR to fill a super or three with this season. Still hammering home the Himalayan Balsam this afternoon!!

Nos da

 

[mbc]

Some good points made here, I sell bees, queens and nucs, but generally only to relatively local beekeepers who want native bees. I price myself at the higher end but offer discounts to members of local associations, I'm a one man band and I only sell bees surplus to my own requirements and my focus is on honey production for my own bread and butter so there's only so much I can do to scale up to sell more. Supply and demand, the price is what it is, no one stays in business long selling overpriced product, though I cannot help but turn a green eye on resellers making good money for little effort.

 

[Stiffy]

Location, good husbandry and queens have far more to do with high crops than being locally adapted, which frankly unless you are in the far north is nonsense.
My Buckfast have produced double the blacks brought in this year and are now in a far better state going into winter. The blacks will be requeened early next year, tried them for 3 years and not worth the hassle
S

 

[Beefriendly]

Buckfast type hybrids did not do any much good in comparison to the Native dark bees I now keep in my hidden Cornish valley.

Not what I hear from those who keep them in your area. There are many reasons why one might wish to keep native bees, honey production is not one of them.

 

[Beefriendly]

High yields come from pastures, not from bees.

You need both Finman. Poor colonies or those never selected for honey production do not bring in as much honey even when the pasture is good.

 

[Finman]

You need both Finman. Poor colonies or those never selected for honey production do not bring in as much honey even when the pasture is good.

Good to know that! But If the hive density goes too high with those food producers, you get nothing.
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You can select as much as you want honey producers, but if you have too much those good producers in same area, they do not produce, they compete with each others.

 

[Finman]

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But However, when I buy queens from different origins, differencies are amazing. And they have been along decades.

Bee breeders use all the time imported queens and try to pick good genes from them.

Native bees, their genes have been used ten times. They do not offer any advantage.

 

[B+.]

You can select as much as you want honey producers, but if you have too much those good producers in same area, they do not produce, they compete with each others.

While this may be true under extremely dense concentrations, I have never seen it in practice. Even with the high concentration that has been reported in this country I still get 6 box hives (https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/album.php?albumid=751&pictureid=3832).
A selected queen will always prove her worth. As ITLD said: a selected queen doesn't cost. She pays!

 

[sean-a]

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.

Pretty much describes my introduction to bees. I bought a hive from the Gloucester BKA auction knowing very little about what I should be looking for and got it back with the filthiest black comb you could imagine, frames propolised and the box on its last legs....
I had thought that there would be some quality control as it was run by a BKA, but looks like they only check for disease .

Cavet emptor!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Pretty much describes my introduction to bees. I bought a hive from the Gloucester BKA auction knowing very little about what I should be looking for and got it back with the filthiest black comb you could imagine, frames propolised and the box on its last legs....
I had thought that there would be some quality control as it was run by a BKA, but looks like they only check for disease .

Cavet emptor!

A real practical demonstration of the value of going to any auction with a guide who knows what they are doing.

 

[Eyeman]

Location, good husbandry and queens have far more to do with high crops than being locally adapted, which frankly unless you are in the far north is nonsense.
My Buckfast have produced double the blacks brought in this year and are now in a far better state going into winter. The blacks will be requeened early next year, tried them for 3 years and not worth the hassle
S

At least you've gone to the trouble of comparing and contrasting the 2 types of bees and can speak from experience!

 

[pargyle]

Pretty much describes my introduction to bees. I bought a hive from the Gloucester BKA auction knowing very little about what I should be looking for and got it back with the filthiest black comb you could imagine, frames propolised and the box on its last legs....
I had thought that there would be some quality control as it was run by a BKA, but looks like they only check for disease .

Cavet emptor!

You were lucky .. if I recall correctly, in 2014, the auction was stopped part way through when some colonies being sold were found to have AFB ... hope their pre-auction health inspection has improved since then ...

 

[Beefriendly]

As have others. I don't like to say too many negative things about our native bee...but a Buckfast she is not ...