How much would you pay?

[rainesridgefarm]

7 healthy hives in two deeps, 15 medium drawn supers, 13 drawn shallow supers. All inspected and healthy. plus all supporting equipment to manage them. Lets see the ranges. Keep it basic, no far out exceptions.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I have people coming into my store all the time wanting to get a quote for something sight unseen. There is no way to give an accurate answer without seeing it first hand. However I can give you a good rule of thumb on just about anything second hand; if it is like new, half of retail.

The problen here is do you really want someone's used equipment, even if it has been inspected? Inspection means what? That the inspector is going to replace your hives if you end up having to torch them? I doubt it.

Is the livestock in the boxes the type that you really want? And how strong is the colony?

Do you want deeps? I guess you could cut them down.

If you don't like the type of bees, you could requeen, that's more money.

Do you really want shallows? I guess you could make feeders out of them.

Screened bottom boards? Probably not, or you would have said so.

What is the other equipment? A brand new 9-18 extractor or just a pair of old gloves, veil, and hive tool?

I'd give you $50.00 per hive if they are in good shape, $75.00 delivered, and we will talk about the "other equipment".

To me, if it isn't mediums of PC setting on SBB's and have top entrances, I'd have to put a lot of money into it to get it where I would want to be.

The value here is the bees, tops, inner covers, and medium boxes. The rest is work. New medium boxes are $6.00 delivered, I make my SBB's for less than $5.00, top entrances for less than a buck, Inner covers less than a buck, and I can make a top for less than $5.00 also. In the spring people pay me $50.00 to haul off swarms. So there you go.

But then again, a newbe without connections will probably pay $200.00 for a starter kit, another $70.00 for a package. Now your seven hives are a gold mine.

As MB says, "It depends".

Buyer beware. One persons treasure is not always treasure, it could be junk.

[BjornBee]

I would go $75 on the hives, $7.50 each for the supers if in good condition, with GOOD drawn comb. About $2.00 for misc items like bottom boards, tops, etc. Rest of the supporting items would depend on what it is. I never buy used for more than 50%, and thats only excellent condition. I would have to be impressed for anything close to 50% on items as there are alot of used equipment deals out there. And time scraping, cleaning, painting, come into play. I expand with great deals, or just build it myself.

[kamerrill]

>Do you want deeps? I guess you could cut them down.<

>Do you really want shallows? I guess you could make feeders out of them.<

Come on now Bullseye, nothing wrong with deeps and shallows. They still seem to work fine for me.

[Michael Bush]

Of course it depends on what you want. If you want all mediums then you probably wouldn't buy it or you'd convert it all eventually. I'd buy it if it was cheap enough. It would be worth mor to someone looking for a standard hive setup like that. I've never been hesitant to buy bees in the boxes. I can inspect them myself and odds are if they are healthy now, they are ok. I'm more leary of boxes without bees in them.

I think Bjorn has the prices about right for what you might actually get. I'm cheap and I hold out for REALLY good deals and often find them.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

>Come on now Bullseye, nothing wrong with deeps and shallows. They still seem to work fine for me.


Of course not, they are just not right for me. You would understand if you had a broken back in your younger years and now are over fifty. And like I said, I could still make things out of those parts, but it would take more time and energy to do so.

[dcross]

I would be interested in buying them, and I could pick them up in northern IL, you can contact me at dcross_53042@yahoo.com. I could give you a ballpark figure on price with a complete description of the other eqipment, but it wouldn't be set in stone until I see everything.
Thanks!
David

[rainesridgefarm]

the reason I wanted to know is, I got a call last night from a man that just turned 80. He bought all new equipment 4 years ago. Now his wife is alergic to the stings she almost died last summer when her throat closed up. He has SBB on all of them. New smoker and a 4 frame galvinzed extractor that is coated. Two overalls with veils. He wants $900 to 1,000 for the lot. They are NWC from strachen. He wants someone that will take good care of them like he has done not one of these lazy sloppy people as he refered to them. He saw me speak at a soil conservation meeting with about 300 people at it and never got up to talk to me. I have not bought that much used equipment so I figured this is the crew to ask.

[dcross]

Rats! Oh well, I'm still interested if you decide to pass!

[Iowabeeman]

When I look at buying something, I always ask myself,"Can I make money on it the first year?". That would depend on what the average yield is in your area. If you get 80#/colony, that's $120 at todays prices or it can be more than that if you retail it. If the colonies are good enough to split, there is another $40 to $50 worth of bees. You can probably get $100 out of the extractor. You can rest assured that all of the colonies won't turn out good unless you are very lucky. If you harvest 80# from five colonies that is potentially $700. Extra bees from five colonies @ $40 each is another $200. If you get $100 for the extractor, it adds up to $1000 plus you still have some miscellaneous items I didn't take into account. Offer him $700 and see what he says.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

SBB and NWC! Gotta like that. Four year old equipment and bees from Stracken, my bid just went up.

$75 each on the hives = $525
28 med and shallow = $100
extractor and suits = $100
It might be a streach at $800 unless you really like the suits and extractor, but keep in mind if you make seven SBB and covers you could have 14 colonies in four months easy, and still have supers for honey as well.

I don't think you would get hurt with this deal.

[dcross]

And you could put the extractor on Ebay, label it "vintage" and probably pay for the whole deal! http://www.beesource.com/ubb/smile.gif