Professional Apiary Builders?

[tedstruk]

I have 5 acres and am considering putting in a commercial apiary for honey production. I think I would be interested in a single acre complex with an automated bee system and honey extraction system....
Are there any businesses that build apiaries on your land for a portion of the take?

[alpha6]

Not that I know of but here I would advise the following.

Visit a couple of honey houses. Get ideas of good and bad set ups. Basic things you need to consider. The rooms must be warm and its a very good idea for clean up to have in floor drains. I would go with a radiant floor heating system (this keeps the supers nice and warm for extracting) and a drain system that feeds into a gray water system.

Storage. You need a big area for supers to be stored, both full and then after extracting empties. Also areas for barrels and buckets. If you are doing bottleing in the same place you will need space for that also.

I would make entrances large enough at least where you bring in the supers for a forklift.

Get a beevac or some kind of vac system to get rid of bees that will accumulate that come in with the supers.

Have a good hot water system in place for cleaning and the running of your equipment.

Your equipment will take up space. These guys have what I consider the best commercial set ups going.

http://www.cowenmfg.com/store_items_...p?itemid=19258

You will need to build around these. Also a larger storage tank will be needed to pump the honey into before filling barrels. You also need space for a cappings separator and misc other equipment.

Put in sky lights or a good lighting system.

Have a loading dock for trucks coming in with supers and ramps.

That should give you some info to get started.

[Troy]

Could you clarify what you are wanting to do?

Sounds to me like you are talking about sharecropping.

You want someone to build the apiary and share the honey with you? That is the classic system that many beeks use.

You allow the beehives on your land and you are given some honey. Typically the beek would pay you a maximum of 10% of the honey made while on your land. 5 acres is not enough land for very many hives. Perhaps if you have other desirable nectar crops near you it could be worthwhile for 25 hives, but if it is just 5 acres total forage it isn't going to produce well.

25 hives times 50 lbs each is a total of 1250 lbs of honey. You'd get a max of 125 lbs if everything were perfect (and they seldom are)

Try an ad on craigslist.

Try contacting a local beekeeping group to see of anyone needs the space.

[TwT]

Are there any businesses that build apiaries on your land for a portion of the take?

I could be wrong about this but Troy looks to me he want someone to build a honey house for him and he pays them a % of the honey take. I don't think there are any out there that does this, you just have to bite the bullet and jump into thousands of dollars in dept to have one built or you can pay cash, I would be the dept side . if there is one let me know Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!