Whats the percentage ?

[GLOCK]

Whats the percentage of people that start beekeeping and quit in the first 3 years?
Seem like to me the longer ya have bees the more thing that happen that can make some think twise about beekeeping.

[JRG13]

I think it's probably pretty high, especially with failures in concurrent years of either hives dying or not getting any honey. Just around here, it seemed there were 3-5 sideliners/small commercial guys throwing the towel in every month and I bet hobbyist were dropping quicker. Also from posts on the forums, seems like a lot of people just wanted to get bees because they're 'cool' but when it actually came to managing the hive and doing inspections it was way out of their comfort zone.

[Michael B]

I find that small backyard beekeepers get overwhelmed with the knowledge needed and the time to get things done. Most of my customers who fail in the first couple seasons fail because timing of inspections and not taking proper actions. I just had a guy looking for Apiguard. Kinda too late for that kind of treatment. I asked him when he did his last inspection/mite load test? He replied in July.

Not his fault..............3 kids, wife, and dog. Just doesn't have the time.

Another trend here in New England is larger sideliners going out of business. Two in New Hamshire in the last month. Just missed out on a great auction.

[DC Bees]

Sometimes i feel overwhelmed when it comes down to all the things that can or do go wrong.I have never had a mentor so i usually learn the hard way.Finding time to all that you should be doing can be difficult and when it comes to beekeeping i can't imagine my life without it.Keeping bees has changed my life in so many ways and all for the better.

[psfred]

In my personal experience, quite a few. Many because they refuse to either feed or to do the proper inspections and insist that the bees are supposed to take care of themselves. No one told them that 90% or more of swarms don't make it through the first winter on their own.

I can understand, though, since I lost my first hive (should have started two that first year) and buying packages or nucs gets expensive.

As for sideliners and small operations, I can see how it becomes impossible to continue, expenses can easily outstrip the productivity of your hives, and nothing gets cheaper. We still have varroa problems significant enough to cost too many hives to keep going on a marginal situation, it's not like it was in my Grandpa's day when you only occasionally lost a hive over winter and the worst thing you had to worry about was AFB.

Peter

[sfisher]

I have only been in it for three years and I cant get enough. The harder it gets the more I want, I refuse to be beat by a bug.