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Beekeeping is a very cheap hobby

64K views 283 replies 67 participants last post by  Nabber86 
#1 ·
I find beekeeping to be a very cheap hobby. You almost always get something back even if your bees die. Most hobbies are holes in the ground where you keep pouring money into and very rarely get something of value back other than entertainment.
It is the only hobby that I know of where you literally do not have to spend one dime to get into.
 
#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
Not one dime? That's preposterous. How come it cost me almost $1,000 over the last fours years? I must be a really bad hobbiest. :scratch:

This is the equipment that I purchased. I am sure you can cut some of the stuff out, but it has to be farily typical of a small hobbiest:
  • 4 complete hives each with 4 medium supers
  • 160+ frames (ALL woodenware came un-assembled so I could save money)
  • 160 sheets of foundation
  • 2 nucs purchased locally
  • 1 mail-order queen
  • a bottling bucking with honey gate
  • 1 bee suit
  • 1 extra vail
  • Smoker
  • a couple of epi-pens
  • 1 box of Api-Guard Thymol Gel
  • 200 squeze-top honey bottles
  • nails
  • 1 bottle of Tight-Bound Glue
  • 1 can of paint
  • Leather gloves
  • Latex gloves
  • hive tool
Heck, I have spent over $200 on shipping alone.

I have been able to not buy any bees since my initial purchase (catch swarms and do splits). I also managed to sell 60 pounds of honey last fall, so I can subtract $300 from my capital outlay thus far.
 
#3 · (Edited by Moderator)
well he is right. You really don't need any money at all to get into keeping honeybees. All you need is a rotted hollow log and a swarm of bees hanging in a tree. Now for the rest of us that use Langstroth hives and want to keep the majority of the stingers out of us. Well that costs money. Not a ton but I can tell you I can make a 10 gallon batch of beer cheaper than I can buy a beesuit with veil and gloves.
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
Dont even get me started on the money that I have spent brewing beer........


At least with a lot of luck, skill, and time you can re-coup some of the investment of hobby beekeeping by selling honey. I may even break even some day. None of my other hobbies have the ability to pay me back.


(Did somebody mention "Reef Tanks"? I got over 4 grand in one of those :eek:)
 
#24 · (Edited by Moderator)
All of my reef new would have cost me over 10 grand. most was used. Now lets add up the cost of fish and corals.I still fork out about 2 grand a year to keep it running (light bulbs, food,elect bill.

So far with bees I might have a grand in it. Should have dones bees a long time ago and would have saved some $$. And if all goes right (fingers crossed) I might get something in return for my hard work.
 
#6 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'm going into my second year of beekeeping as a hobby. As far as a hobby this is one of the few I have broken even or made money on and I've had a few. Now I did do quite a bit of work between breaking apart pallets, constructing boxes, grabbing swarms, and doing a cutout. But I enjoyed most of the work which is a sign of a good hobby. I had probably less than $100 invested last year which was a shop vac and a bunch of sugar to feed the swarms.
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
My point is you can make all the equipment yourself with scrap wood that people throw out and you can collect swarms. A bee suit is not required. For the first two years we used a straw hat and a mosquito net with heavy cloths as protection. About all that is required is a hive tool which again you could make or use a flat bar picked up at a tag sale. If you are going to value the honey you get from the hobby it more than likely will end up as a net gain (as far as hobby is concerned). Why else would so many hobbyist get the bright idea of going into business? It is that decision that makes the numbers go the other way because then your time is money.
 
#15 · (Edited by Moderator)
My point is you can make all the equipment yourself with scrap wood that people throw out and you can collect swarms. A bee suit is not required. For the first two years we used a straw hat and a mosquito net with heavy cloths as protection. About all that is required is a hive tool which again you could make or use a flat bar picked up at a tag sale.
Yes scrap wood can be used but to say you don't need to spend any money because you can use scrap wood to make equipment and you can make your own hive tool all requires tools. Those tools generally cost money less someone is a user of people and constantly milk folks for their tools.
 
#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
I did not say I didn't spend any money, I said it could be done. And I know people that have done it for years. What bugs me is when you join a club or take a class and they come out with that laundry list like you just posted saying this is what you got to have.

To answer your question, nothing. My wife pays for everything.:D
 
#146 ·
This is a very long thread, so I am doing a public service in providing one of the highlights below. :D

This is Acebird's response to other posters challenging his assertion that beekeeping can be done without spending any money.

I did not say I didn't spend any money, I said it could be done. And I know people that have done it for years. What bugs me is when you join a club or take a class and they come out with that laundry list like you just posted saying this is what you got to have.

To answer your question, nothing. My wife pays for everything.
 
#14 · (Edited by Moderator)
A hive tool isnt really necessary either Ive been using a bread knife. First time I ever worked the bees I must of used almost an entire roll of duct tape sealing my self up :lpf:. Anymore I rarely use the bee veil I made. Heres a picture of my very first "Bee Suit":

Table Grass Furniture Tree Bench


You can see my homemade smoker which consisted of 2 cans, a piece of wood, and a bunch of duct tape.
 
#17 ·
There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch..... That's what we were taught in economics. Which means that for everything we do, there is an opportunity cost, which is generally whatever activity we could have been doing instead. That being said.... what else would anyone want to do other than have their head in a hive all the time?!?
 
#19 · (Edited by Moderator)
While it does cost money to get started for most of us.....if you handy and want to work at it you can get every dollar back that you spend and then some.

I make all of my own equipment......Home Depot Cull Lumber is great. Just about free. I sell honey, candles, nucs, and woodenware. This winter I turned a profit. Going to raise about 20-30 queens this year and sell them too.

All of this while working 7 days a week in my day job.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
I guess I'm as close to the topic as can be.

Tree Vehicle Landscape State park Land lot
Wood Tree


I made the saw from 2 saws that were in a trash pile. got the materail for the barrel from a wire supplier that was throwing them away. and cut and dry the trees for the wood for the boxes. the tablesaws were my fathers and grandfathers pass down. I now have 25 hives and my tools are hand made smoker from bean cans hive tool from peace of metal from the trash. vail from a piece of netting from old torn tent. hard hat from long ago job.I form my own foundation sheets now made from a fiberglass model I made. I have a total of 75.00 which has been payed back in full.

guess I just a lucky and handy man.

john
 
#95 ·
It is great but a little slow. I built mine from a discarded rack used to transport hunting stand on atvs. I removed the atv mounts got 8 inch 3/4 alltread from a shop that suts off the excess from brake boosters for trucks. I drilled and taped the ends and welded flat metal to frame. used 2 nuts on each to mount to frame. drilled bar to run bolts threw and into altread. whalla perfect level cuts on each pass.
I cut 1 1/4 inch slabs and dry then plane to 3/4.

john
 
#27 · (Edited by Moderator)
Well I guess it is all relative. Compared to hobbies like salt water aquaria, compitition BBQ, scuba diving, golf, snow skiing, etc., beekeeping is inexpensive, but not free. Compared to knitting, crochet, and belly button lint collection, beekeeping is outrageously expensive. Beer brewing is somewhere in between, depending on how many extra fridgerators, soda kegs, 3-tier brewing systems, stainless steel, and recirculating mash systems you have.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make earlier is that the idea of beekeeping for free (not spending a dime) is ridiculous. For those who make all of their own woodenware, that is awesome and I applaud you. But aside from cobbling some boxes together with a circular saw (which I have done), building the frames requires a little more skill and woodworking equipment than most people have. If you already have that kind of skill and equipment, how much have you spent on your woodworking shop already?

Also consider - How many hobby beekeepers start out by building their own equipment and then going out and trying to catch a free swarm to save money? From all the newbie posts about which is better (nucs or packages?), my guess is ziltch.

Can beekeeping be done for little money? Heck yeah, for some very few prople. For free (less than a dime)? Hell no.

In conclusion, Ace asserts that anyone can start up and keep bees for free, yet he remains silent as to how much he (or his wife) has spent on the hobby. Nice diversion, but I suspect it wasn't free!
 
#39 · (Edited by Moderator)
Compared to knitting, crochet, and belly button lint collection, beekeeping is outrageously expensive.
Do you knit or crochet? The yarn will cost you more than the garment is worth.


In conclusion, Ace asserts that anyone can start up and keep bees for free, yet he remains silent as to how much he (or his wife) has spent on the hobby.
You really do have a problem with reading comprehension or maybe it is just that you like to twist the words of other people. I suspect the latter.

Does anyone care that we spent more than 300 on our hobby? It is enjoyment for us. A lot of people blow that for two months of thumb crack.

Some of the previous posts proves my point but you keep arguing that it is false. Is everybody doing it? No, I didn't say that.

Barry, that is cool that you can strip an off topic from another thread and make it separate.
 
#29 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'm in the process of building trebuchet out of treated lumber. When finished I will be able to sling a 10 lb. object 200 plus meters. A profit will never be made with this machine. I probably have a $1,000.00 in my three bee hives after the first year. They could eventually be profitable, but I don't care one way or the other. I have worked long and hard and the bees and the trebuchet are my toys. To my way of thinking I am a hobbyest, but that doesn't mean I want to learn any less than the rest of the beekeepers.
 
#34 · (Edited by Moderator)
I netted about 5 k my first year by doing cutouts and catching swarms.
How much was the equipment that you need to properly do a cutout?

Some cutouts don't require much equipment (a ladder, a multi-tool, and a box to put the bees in) but others will require much more (scafolding, permits, a truck, gas, ect.).

Even if you had the equipment given to you, how much was the labor involved in removing them?

To say you made $5k your first year from doing work, sure. To say you didn't spend a dime to make that first $5k is a beast of a different color.
 
#31 · (Edited by Moderator)
I did start catching swarms instead of using a package or nuc. Langstroth hives are a little more complicated to build but a Top Bar Hive is incredibly simple to build. Building a Top Bar Hive could be done with just a handsaw and some scrap materials. One of the plastic blue 30 or 55 gallon drums cut in half and some pieces of wood placed on top. I built my TBH out of an old fence my folks had just torn down. In my case I didn't actually keep bee for free I actually made about $50 doing it. I understand that what I did is not the norm but it is definately possible.
 
#32 · (Edited by Moderator)
Those that don't have time or a lot of shop tools spend money.
I'd have done better last year to spend time, maybe. But I
Would have had to just skip bees, and books are no substitute
For hands on experience. I had no free time in the spring.
Either way it would not have been free.
 
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