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natural beekeeping business

15K views 35 replies 14 participants last post by  sqkcrk 
#1 ·
hi i'am bill
my friend and i have started a bee business
we have set up my friends apiary just over 2 years ago and now we are setting up my apiary .
we will have around 100 each to start .(not all in the same place )
we have farmers that have our hive on there orchards and so on .
i am a member of some other forum and they are not happy that we use warre hive in our business .
they say we can not use warre hives in business they are not for business .
well i say we use them as they are good for our bees and that is what we want .
natural way of working with bees .
we know we can get more honey from commercial or langstroth hives but we want to move away from hives like that .
we build all our hive from wood i get free form a friend that get all there goods in big wooden boxes so i make them in warre hives .
so what do you the people of this forum think are we mad ?
do you think this will be bad for our bees .
we know we are not going to get rich working with just warre hive but as long as we can make some money we are happy .
i can not see why some people say it will not work we made some good money from the hives we have at the apiary my friends runs last year .
we have not lost any hives this winter so we are off to a great start .
we are moving all our stock from langstroth and commercial hives in to warre hive .
we are moving the last into warres and put them on my site .
please tell me what you think of this .
my friend has worked with bees for years over 20 and i only 2 years working with my friend i know i still have a long way to go before i'am a beekeeper but i will get there with help from my friend .
it all takes time read and do that is the way i'am doing it and it is working for me .
thankyou for your time
all the best
BILL
 
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#2 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

Good luck. Never be afraid to try something different if it is based on what you consider to be real "bee"observation. Don't try it with more than you are prepared to lose. Be prepared for others to tell you how dumb you are. Ask for their advice in return. Never be afraid to learn something from someone who thinks your wrong. Never be afraid to be wrong. Many new things are learned that way.

Good Luck.
 
#4 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

The grammar police are out in full force. I rather like the fact that he corrected the misspelling but did not offer any help regarding the question. If all you can offer to a conversation is your negativity then you most likely do not need to respond at all.
I have seen the Warre hives and have mixed feeling about them. My first is the materials used at the top of the hive could attract SHB. I seem to have a problem in TN with the SHB but manage it well naturally. I do not use any antibiotic or medications in any of my hives. I have 2 langs, 1 nuc and a TBH.
This is my first year with a TBH and I am a bit apprehensive about losing comb when the weather turns warmer. I say do what you are the most comfortable with and what your bees seem happy with.
I have people in my bee club that seemed downright angry that I got as TBH but I wanted to try a bit of everything. If the Warre hive works for you and your bees then I say use them. I may even set up a Warre hive next year because I want to experience all aspect of keeping bees, not just the comfortable ones.
Good luck on your endeavors!
 
#5 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

The grammar police are out in full force. I rather like the fact that he corrected the misspelling but did not offer any help regarding the question. If all you can offer to a conversation is your negativity then you most likely do not need to respond at all.
There are quite a few members of the "Grammar Police" roaming this forum. Do not consider it a "Negativity", think of it more as an attempt to enhance or clarify the correspondence's message.
 
#6 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

>so what do you the people of this forum think are we mad ?

No.

>do you think this will be bad for our bees .

No. Bees don't care what kind of box they are in. But they would be easier to manage and still have natural comb in a Langstroth with foundationless frames. Or, assuming you are in the UK, maybe with a British Standard with foundationless frames...

>we know we are not going to get rich working with just warre hive but as long as we can make some money we are happy .

Then be happy.

>i can not see why some people say it will not work we made some good money from the hives we have at the apiary my friends runs last year .

If doing Warre' hives is saving you costs on the hives, you may actually come out ahead on that...

>we have not lost any hives this winter so we are off to a great start .


Yes, you are.

>we are moving all our stock from langstroth and commercial hives in to warre hive .

If you already have Langstroth equipment, why not just go to foundationless and use the equipment?

>we are moving the last into warres and put them on my site .
please tell me what you think of this .

I think it would cost less money and work to just move to foundationless on the Langstroth equipment, but there is nothing wrong with using a Warre.
 
#7 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

Maybe I missed it, but how many warre hives are you two currently running? You said that your friend turned a profit running 100 hives last year. How many were warre and how many were langs? I think it's important to know that first. If your friend turned a profit running 100 warre hives then why not expand that? If your friend turned a profit running all langs and you want to switch to warre then that is a risk.
 
#13 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

well i did not think that a typo would start a war .
sorry my spelling may not be up to what you want but until 4 years ago i was not able to read or write so i think i'am doing fine.
i do hope i do not need to get my dictionary out everything i post or reply i would be here all day ( ha ha )
thankyou for all your replys .
we did run 100 warre hive last year and made some money not alot but it was only year 2 for the hives they will do batter this year .
my friend lots more and more hives every year when he used just commercial and langstroth hives and when we changed to warre hive the first year we lots 1 hive and this wintwer we did not lose any .
i get free wood from my other friend he runs a business that get all it's good in big wooden boxes so i turn them into our hives at a cost of around £2 to £3 per hive .
we will build our business up in time .
this year we started my site and in time around 2 years we will look to start a new site .
the thing is to find the right sites it is no good having 100 hive if the bees have no food for your bees as you all know .
i would like to thank everyone for the reply and if my spelling is not that good please do not let it up set you .
all the best to you , your familys and your bees
 
#14 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

Good luck with your bees! Spelling is unimportant, good people are important! My broken English is much worse than yours. Nevertheless, I am still using it...

As for Langs - in my opinion,the "profit" from using Langs is based on reusing comb and stealing all honey from the bees leaving them to winter on syrup... not really "natural"... In this sense, Warre is much more natural to me! From another hand I do agree with Michael Bush, that one could use Lang boxes for Warre-style beekeeping. I am using Lang boxes with top bars, it works for me and my bees.
 
#16 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

As for Langs - in my opinion,the "profit" from using Langs is based on reusing comb and stealing all honey from the bees leaving them to winter on syrup... not really "natural"... In this sense, Warre is much more natural to me! From another hand I do agree with Michael Bush, that one could use Lang boxes for Warre-style beekeeping. I am using Lang boxes with top bars, it works for me and my bees.
Sergey, I think if you have the right philosophy, you can keep bees in Lang boxes without resorting to much in the way of unnatural practices.

Tim Ives is a treatment-free beekeeper in northern Illinois. He overwinters in 3 deeps. By March, he starts supering those massive hives, and by mid-April he has to use a stepladder to work his hives. He produces huge amounts of honey, but here's the interesting thing: he does not feed, either pollen sub or syrup.

I love my long hives here in Florida. But I plan to start a couple of Lang colonies up in NY, because I can't be there all summer. They'll have to take care of themselves for a month or so. But if I ever get up there on a permanent basis, I'm going to try some long hives. They are equivalent to 3 deeps in volume, but can be supered. So if I can figure out how to make the long hive mostly brood nest, as Tim does his 3 deeps, then I can put 9 supers on the hive without needing a stepladder.

Maybe that's excessively ambitious, but why not dream big? Dreams are inexpensive, and entertaining.
 
#15 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

My latest favorite book quote:

"Natural beekeepers come in various shades of ecocentricity and apicentricity. I suggest that we keep bees in a hive that suits us and in a way that satisfies us. So feel free to pick and choose!" ― David Heaf, Natural Beekeeping with the Warré Hive: A Manual (2013)
 
#20 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

So how does one make a Profit with Warre hives? Is it just a honey deal? All crush and strain, or maybe cut-comb? The Warre hive looks like it would be very difficult to use in pollination, but I suppose with a 100 hive operation a strong back could manage it. I have no idea how one would load 100 warre hives on a truck.... I do not think they can be stacked.... Several other questions come to mind..... all and all, it looks like a very tough way to turn a profit.
 
#22 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

i have seen some people online that have over 100 hives to work with and are building on that .
thay do say they make money at it .
i did read that one person has over 250 warre hives and is doing very well and the post i look at he told us he had no perblems with his bees for 6 years and had not lost a hive in all that time .
he was in the EU but i can not remember where .
i know some one that has 4 perone hives and some warre hive they are building more perone hive they say they are great but very very big and form what i read you can get a lot of honey from them but only after 3 or 4 years .
they are that big you have to give the bees 3 or 4 years to build the hive before you get any honey .
have you ever seen a perone hive ?
hope to talk soon
all the best Bill
 
#23 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

Is there something special about a particular type of hive which will effect the colony which lives in it, making that colony perform differently than another type of hive?

Hasn't lost one colony in 6 years? Skeptical. That's better than the average pre-varroa days.
 
#24 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

you make a profit the same way you do with any other hive .
you can stack them if you take the roof off and put a transport roof on until you get to where you are going .
why would a warre be hard to use to pollination the bees come and go in the same way as other hives ?
please let me know your other questions .
thanks bill
 
#25 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

i can only say what i see onling .
natural hives are better for the bees .
commercial / langstroth / wbc and the others are all about just taking honey
natural hives are about the bees .
that may be why he did not lose any hives
i hope that is right then the more of us that use natural hive the more bees we will have .
 
#26 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

I could see making money with a warre. First to harvest the honey, you will destroy the combs. Then letting the bees clean out the comb that was harvested from, you could use the wax for candles, cosmetics, or even your own foundation to sell ( since it is natural and you have a mill). I see potential for the warre hive owners.
 
#27 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

I guess it is possible that if you keep bees and don't do anything w/ them, then they will swarm when they want to and you may not notice when a colony has died.

Six years w/out any colony mortality doesn't happen in Nature. That's why I am skeptical about his claim. Could be, but I doubt it. Not that it really matters.

"natural hives are better for the bees"? How so? Wouldn't it more likely be the way those so called "natural hives" are managed or not managed?
 
#29 ·
Re: natrual beekeeping business

I guess it is possible that if you keep bees and don't do anything w/ them, then they will swarm when they want to and you may not notice when a colony has died.

Six years w/out any colony mortality doesn't happen in Nature. That's why I am skeptical about his claim. Could be, but I doubt it. Not that it really matters.

"natural hives are better for the bees"? How so? Wouldn't it more likely be the way those so called "natural hives" are managed or not managed?
If you let the hives be natural, the queen would be replaced every year with a new one from swarming. I could see a colony living that long, My parents had one in the top of a tree when I was younger for right at 7 years, That is where this passion first started when I was 8. I like this quote from a well known beek on here, "bees need beekeepers like fish need bicycles".
 
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