How many years of beekeeping have you all taken to get to a larger/commercial scale ?
and what do you consider commercial scale?
Ben
and what do you consider commercial scale?
Ben
Sideliner. A Commercial Beekeeper is a fulltime beekeeper who pays his bills from his honeybee business. May have a spouse who works too. Who doesn't?That word commercial is your issue. If you are making living at bee's that would be commercial right? But, what if you have a day job and run 150 hives are you commercial or a sideliner.?
I like what I read. I work that 9 hour job daily and have an hour to and from that job for a commute. I also try and run 400 or so colonies. I can attest to the 18 hour days to make all this happen. It is as Joel pointed out. I see the dream of walking away from my well paid job and keeping bees full time, but I am not there yet. It is coming closer and closer, but so is retirement from my cush daily job. I never want to be late on my mortgage and I never want my kids to go cold in the heart of the winter. So for me until mortgage is paid in full I will work my 9 hour daily job. I believe then it will be time to make a leap and hopefully drag my sons with me.4) Quit your job when the time come - Bee prepared, plan well, have a reserve and make the jump. Nothing will motivate you and bring out the best business man beekeeper you can be like getting the late notice on your mortgage. Hunger can be a real motivator. Working 18 hrs a day - 7 days a week, trying to work full time and run a commericial operation will cost you more than you will imagine so make you plan, prepare and go for it if that's your dream.
Most of us who do this for a living are just people who would rather work 12 hours a day and own our time than sell our lives to someone else 8 at a time. We love the creative, challenging process it takes to succeed by our wits and are willing to risk it all to do it and that risk is virutally every day. It is this wonderful roller coaster which as it reaches each new peak we love the anticipation of riding it over the top and screaming down the other side in the face of fear and the face of each victory. Today my 22 year old son sits next to me on this ride now and that's pretty cool too.
I knew a hospice worker who I spoke with before I made the jump. She told me the only consistent regret she saw with terminal patients was the one thing they really wanted to do in life but didn't go for - With that thought in mind then it really for me was just about what I really wanted. I walked away from a 60K a year job (very good in my area), full bene's and have not regretted it for a day.
As they say, all beekeeping is local. I'd suggest visiting with several larger beekeepers in your area about splitting. I'd think even a two or three frame split from your strong hives would not hurt the strong hive, and there would (that's the question, isn't it?) be time for the split to get strong enough to survive your winter. Then the next spring/summer you've got more colonies to produce honey, make more splits. Is that a reasonable hypothesis?... I don't want to split my strong hives in spring , because from what i was told , it will decrease the honey production in those hives. But i am only going by what i am told here. ...Ben
You have to figure at least $200 per hive. That covers brood chamber and supers, bee's and % of truck and forklift. I spend 20k or so each year on build up from my day job. Maybe some day I can get rid of the day job.you went from 8 nucs to over 300 + in 3 years !? wow you must have invested a large chunk of money in bee packages or nucs ? And here i was a little concerned about buying another 5-6 this spring .Ben
I've gotten to 40+ hives in two years by doing paid removals. Provided free bees and more than enough funds for equipment, and kept the wife happy with a couple nice vacations.The main reason for this thread was to hear how individuals grew into the "scale" business they are currently in.
Ben
I sure agree with that. I have stacks and stacks of unassembled equipment higher than my head in my unheated workshop. I can dress warm and get it all cut and ready but it is too cold to glue and paint.The hard part of expansion is keeping up with the equipment. you can build hundreds or thousands of colonies within a couple of years for pretty much nothing, but you need the equipment to house them in
I'm a small but growing sideliner. I'm driving 2500 miles round trip to bring a load of bees to Indy in April. I've had them on craigslist since November. Sales have been good, and I should grow by 50 hives for my effort. This may become an annual endeavor.I really like the stories everyone : ) Keep them coming !