Almond Horror Stories day late for halloween

[SgtMaj]

Oh yeah Rdy-B, They are looking good, too. Really good. Had more bees this year than boxes to put them in. I'm hoping to get up to 25 hives by this time next year. If next years' swarms are anything like this years' were, that won't be any problem at all, the only trouble will be building boxes fast enough.

[suttonbeeman]

For 90-120 dollars I'm not fighting Barney Fife (AKA CA Ag inspection border control). I'll stay in Fl make splits to sell, increase hive numbers and try to make a crop of orange!

[wfarler]

Originally Posted by JohnK and Sheri

Sheesh, and I didn't even know I was being picked on, lol. Shows how oblivious I am.

Yeah, we know a few of those folks too. Pie in the sky, no idea what they are getting into and you can't tell them, they won't listen. One here started out with 6 colonies (a pretty big start from not knowing what a beehive is) and thinks he can build to the point of being commercial in a few years from splits. Actually he is much better off than the ones that strip the retirement fund, his niavete won't bankrupt him.
You would think the "Last Beekeeper" would be very sobering to newbees, is it having the other effect?
Sheri

It's called Spreadsheet Beekeeping. The theoretical limit of splitting is 64 colonies per package per year. I think you have to use royal jelly mixed with jello you get from some eastern european dude in canada to duplicate the results but with 6 packages you are pretty well assured to be at 1 semi in year two and then 10,000 colonies in year 3. That's when you have to hire a helper.

[JohnK and Sheri]

I gotta get me some of that jello.
Sheri

[tecumseh]

please buy two packs of that jello for me sheri.

[Keith Jarrett]

Originally Posted by JohnK and Sheri

I gotta get me some of that jello.
Sheri

It's sitting right here in blue tubs.

[Gene Weitzel]

Well......here sits one of them guys that started with 6 packages. Lost em all that first year.......Wouldn't give up though, bought 6 nucs the next year instead of packages and started doing cutouts (not for free), ended up the year with 27 colonies......bought 26 nucs the next year (financed with cutout revenue) and continued doing cutouts ended the year with 60+ colonies.....every year after that I bought queens and did splits after the flow and continued doing cutouts....... so far, all I can manage along with my day job is around 100+ colonies going into winter each year. I split and do cutouts and my colony count peaks in August near 150 but after deadouts and combines in the fall, a little over 100 seems to be the limit..........until I pull my 401k and go full time that is.

PS: I have absolutely no intention of ever going "into the almonds", but I may be interested in a load or two coming out of the almonds next spring (paid for with 401k funds ).....just kidding...on the 401k that is, not on the bee loads.

[wfarler]

my bees are the best performing account in my 401k.

Not to belittle this guy (see link below) but I am sceptical even if they did get apimondia to publish their paper. Just don't buy off on any version that the concoctor won't say what they are selling (Nosevit, Caspian, whatever). I think you were kidding Sheri when you said you wanted two. I think it is stuff like this that people use for their assumptions in their spreadsheets. I personallly think increasing from 1 package to 64 hives producing surplus is a better assumption for a go bankrupt business plan. In fact every bad business plan needs a big spreadsheet to keep the owner out of the bee yard and sitting in front of the computer. However, if you want to be more conservative these guys only claim 1:10 and you get to keep the bucket it comes in. Gotta go feed bees now.

http://caspianapiaries.com/products.htm

[PDF] INCREASING FROM 100 TO 1000 HIVES IN THREE MONTHS Introduction ... File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
caspian solution (a stimulative supplement containing royal jelly, pheromones and ... At the beginning of the week each colony received 6 liters of caspian ...
http://www.apimondia.org/apiacta/slo...yeganehrad.pdf - Similar

[MadBowbee]

No, I heard 140 for paramount. I think we'll come down from 150 to 140 for this year.

[tecumseh]

wfarler writes:
I think you were kidding Sheri when you said you wanted two.

tecumseh:
sheri only want one pack of jello and I am the one who want two. this time of year the jello just stretches further in michigan than in texas.

100 to 1000 in three months huh? the 100 must have been awfully large and the 1000 awfully small???