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How much honey?

12K views 36 replies 22 participants last post by  Ben Little 
#1 ·
Me being new not quite sure where this should go but move the thread if need be.

How much honey should I be able to get out of a first year hive? Just looking for an estimate.
This is my first year and before I spend the money on everything I would like to know if I should be able to make money or at least break even the first year.

Thanks, spencer
 
#2 ·
I used to keep bees right up the road from you in Warner N.H. The over-wintered hives usually made a crop to harvest depending on the weather etc. Like any other agricultural pursuit there are no guarantees. If your looking for a real money-maker you might want to consider another sideline other than keeping bees for honey (money). Most hobbyists keep bees because they find them fascinating and they provide a valuable source of pollination.
 
#3 ·
I can’t speak for your part of the world but….my advice to beginning beekeepers in my area is not to expect any harvest the first season. The task for first season should be to make certain that the bees build a suitable nest and provision it for the upcoming winter. You may make a surplus….but I don’t advise counting on it.
 
#6 ·
So basically you let the, build p what they need to live through the winter the first year? Then harvest the honey the next year? That makes sence to me, what would you consider a small harvest, like in the first year?

My first year hive would be a package I would guess? I would buy a new hive and then buy bees and put them in the hive, not sure what all the terms are yet but that sounds like a package to me
 
#4 ·
Well I've already got a "money" maker cause I do sugaring in the spring, but i was thinking if it would be worth it to get bees and sell honey to, to add to the line of products. But I still might end of doing it as a hobby and selling what I make. Anyone have an estimate?
 
#5 ·
Gonna give you my honest answer... Making money your first year should be the least of your concerns, why don't you focus on learning to keep bees and the honeycrop will then handle itself. You must also define first year hive. Nuc, package, established hive you buy frome someone else??
 
#14 ·
The bees will be beneficial to your garden but your garden won't do much for honey production when you consider bees have to visit approximately 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey. This is why JR is asking if you are putting them on crops. I am not sure about your area but a good portion of the nation has been in drought conditions on and off for several years now and honey production has suffered for it.
 
#15 ·
Spencer, unless your bees have a truly fantastic first season, you'll get a taste or two. In our neck of the woods the first year honey is for the bees to eat for 7 long months of winter... You will get honey to take the second year. Did you find a local club and bee school yet?
 
#16 ·
Spencer, if you do indeed get a honey harvest form a first year hive, any proceeds from selling that honey should be set aside to buy your second hive. Assuming your lone hive makes it thru the winter, you will come to realize that your chances of success increase greatly when you have at least two hives. You can borrow resources from a strong hive to diagnose and fix a problem hive. If you only have one hive, there are few options - except buy more bees - when you have a problem.
 
#18 ·
camprn, i have found them, but havent joined a club yet but im probably doing a bee school when it starts soon.

thanks for all the info guys, looks like if i have the money to buy all the supplies i need for 1 hive i will and then get another with whatever amount i make off honey, or would i be better leaving it in the hive to increase the chance of them making it through the winter?
 
#22 ·
I don't know about what "should" happen, but I can tell you that I didn't even need to buy my first case of bears until my second season because I didn't have anything to put into them. The hives (I had 2 that first season) needed every bit of their honey to make it through til spring. That 2nd season I split them and I think I got a dozen bottles or so that year. But the 3rd season more than made up for the first two!

HTH

Rusty
 
#24 · (Edited)
As a businessman's out look in the honey business.
First find a big beekeeper and buy wholesale the first year until you make enough to buy your first hive or hives. Really after your first year you might find that it is just easier to buy and resale for the biggest payout $$$$$$. Only wish someone would have told me that 30 years ago.:digging: Now I just have an out of control hobby.:scratch:
 
#27 ·
I would buy nucs. Just from reading on this site most of the time they do better.[/QUOTE]

I would not buy nucs unless I knew exactly where they were coming from, what was used in the hives WRT to antibiotics and chemical treatments and what the bees/wax had been exposed to WRT fungicides and pesticides.

Some nucs are from legitimate overwintered colonies sold intact in the spring. At the other end of the spectrum are nucs made up of busted up hives treated with terramycin/tylosin and coming off of pollination of crops that use high levels of fungicides. I would not expect that type of nuc to do better than a package on clean frames. If you get a nuc with bees that are resistant to antibiotics or you don't plan to treat with antibiotics you may be looking at an AFB outbreak down the road. If the bees were treated with tylosin and are resistant to terramycin, your outbreak may be a year away and impact much more than the nuc/s you started with.

Get to know your supplier and make sure you can trust what he/she is telling you.

A nuc is not a nuc is not a nuc to quote the poet...

Ramona
 
#32 · (Edited)
Some nucs are from legitimate overwintered colonies sold intact in the spring. At the other end of the spectrum are nucs made up of busted up hives treated with terramycin/tylosin and coming off of pollination of crops that use high levels of fungicides. I would not expect that type of nuc to do better than a package on clean frames. If you get a nuc with bees that are resistant to antibiotics or you don't plan to treat with antibiotics you may be looking at an AFB outbreak down the road. If the bees were treated with tylosin and are resistant to terramycin, your outbreak may be a year away and impact much more than the nuc/s you started with.

Get to know your supplier and make sure you can trust what he/she is telling you.

A nuc is not a nuc is not a nuc to quote the poet...

Ramona
How would a nuc with "bees that are resistant to antibiotics" be better then a package with "bees that are resistant to antibiotics"?
"nucs made up of busted up hives" packages arn't?
"hives treated with terramycin/tylosin and coming off of pollination of crops that use high levels of fungicides" and packages arn't?

You are more likely to get packages from a bigger commercial operations that produces thousands of packages and sends them to hundreds of bee stores for resale. (ask your bee store where they get their bees from, not all of them raise their own. Caged for two weeks before you even get them, 10-20% of the bees already dead is acceptable loss of a package.
You are more likely to get nucs from the place that raised them.
Nucs are more likely to be locally raised another plus.

"Get to know your supplier and make sure you can trust what he/she is telling you."
Yes you are correct about that.
 
#28 ·
A few things to consider. Do you have bears in the area; If there are you will need an electric fence. Second, not all hives make it through the winter. Honeyhouseholder has a good point - if you wanted to test the market at a low cost buy a 5 gallon bucket of honey from a local beekeeper, bottle it, and sell it at a mark up. If it sells buy more, talk to the beekeeper, borrow a veil and see if it is the bees you are interested in or the honey.
 
#31 ·
Spencer,

These folks have offered some very good advice. First requirement to be a successful beekeeper is to be a smart beekeeper, meaning listen to others who have already been there. Learn from their successes & failures. Why should you spend your money to reinvent the wheel? :scratch: I have read your conerns about a honey crop from a first year hive. FORGET IT! I'm not saying they won't make it, I'm saying wait till next years flow starts, if you have excess in the hive then, harvest it & put empty supers back on for refill. Good advice to start with 2 hives and yes I would recommend buying/building as many supers as you can afford. My first year I made a honey crop but my focus was on the bees drawing comb in the supers, gave the 2nd year a big head start.:banana:

As to nucs, nucs are good, very good. But as has been commented on already KNOW YOUR SOURCE! Of course that also holds true with packages. I also saw where you mention making enough money to pay for bees, equipment and possibly another hive. I don't know about your area, but around here you would have to sell a lot of honey to make that. Last year with 15 hives I only sold $4000.00 worth of honey. I still have some left, but I have wholesalers calling all the time wanting to buy all I can produce because they know it's chemical/antibiotic free for $4.00 a qt. Not happening here. :no: I feed it back in place of sugar or make mead, creamed honey or honey jelly.

I'll get off my soapbox now.
 
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