My first two hives of 10,000 have been ordered :)

[scoobertdoo]

Reread Harry Vanderpool’s post. The best thing you can do is start at a slow steady pace. You don’t even have the infrastructure to support 20 hives no less a thousand. You have not idea what it is like to opearationally support a commercial Bee operation. Wake up and listen to the people that are doing it. Your like many others that have posted here Year after Year. Most are never heard from again.

I am not ignoring anyone's posts. I find all the advice helpful, and meaningful.
I will not however be spending the next 15 years slowly building up. It is not my thing. I like to place my toe in the water (two hives) and if the water feels good for me, I jump in. If not, I will have two hives, and enjoy the honey that comes from them, as well as a lack of trespassers in my backyard. I get to play with a hive tomorrow, with the local inspector. I picked the right time of year to launch this.
My black lab however will be staying home, I will upgrade to a yellow lab in a few years, LOL.
20180401_144227.jpg

[Apis Natural]

thanks for the morning funny, love to laugh.

after working bees since 1982, and knowing the Reality.

honestly...thanks for the morning funny, love to laugh.

for real Thanks.

[scoobertdoo]

thanks for the morning funny, love to laugh.

after working bees since 1982, and knowing the Reality.

honestly...thanks for the morning funny, love to laugh.

for real Thanks.

Did you want popcorn with that laugh?

[Beekkirk]

Like you I had big ideas but reality kicks in.
https://www.beesource.com/forums/show...g-to-make-a-go
www.HeritageApiaries.com
Im 23 at 150 +/- hives now and plan to stay there for a while. All my income from my bees is from nuc production. Its taken me 8 years for me to consider myself a knowledgeable beekeeper but there is still so much I dont know. I need to focus my big dreams towards making the numbers really work with a little hives.
Ive now moved my feelings from Ya! 1000 hives full time work.......to..... let me make as much money as i possibly can from 150 hives and keep my day job at the same time. Im very profitable I just want to be more so. I can push and manage my hives very well when I only have 150 ish.
Its been working out very well the past 3 years.
Sink in some initial capital to get you going..... $15k and then only spend what you make.
Good luck, but reality will sway the direction of your business

[Allen Martens]

I did what you are trying to do. My first year I ran 260 hives and had production average of 207 lbs/hive. Beginners luck I guess; took me 10 years to reach that average again. My only prior experience was helping harvest honey for a month and a half. I did have a mentor from whom I purchased the hives and equipment which was very beneficial. I did need to readjust my growth projection a number of times at the beginning to match reality; instead of reaching a 1000 in 3-4 years, it took me more like 12 years.

Time is the biggest enemy. If you don't have a lot of it beyond your job it will be difficult to pull off any type of explosive growth.

If you can purchase an existing smaller operation with bees, equipment, contacts, contracts, locations and mentoring you will have a much greater chance of succeeding quickly IMHO.

Look to learn from bee operations which are bigger than you. They have the systems in place you will need in order to get things done quickly and efficiently.

Good luck in your endeavor.

[scoobertdoo]

I did what you are trying to do. My first year I ran 260 hives and had production average of 207 lbs/hive. Beginners luck I guess; took me 10 years to reach that average again. My only prior experience was helping harvest honey for a month and a half. I did have a mentor from whom I purchased the hives and equipment which was very beneficial. I did need to readjust my growth projection a number of times at the beginning to match reality; instead of reaching a 1000 in 3-4 years, it took me more like 12 years.

Time is the biggest enemy. If you don't have a lot of it beyond your job it will be difficult to pull off any type of explosive growth.

If you can purchase an existing smaller operation with bees, equipment, contacts, contracts, locations and mentoring you will have a much greater chance of succeeding quickly IMHO.

Look to learn from bee operations which are bigger than you. They have the systems in place you will need in order to get things done quickly and efficiently.

Good luck in your endeavor.

WOW, I can't say I was expecting to get any honey this year at all. Getting honey had not even crossed my mind for year one.
Good info, thank you!

[HarryVanderpool]

WOW, I can't say I was expecting to get any honey this year at all. Getting honey had not even crossed my mind for year one.

BINGO!!
I think that the many responses to your post would indicate that 99.5% of what you need to know, do, manage and control has NOT crossed your mind.
Why? Because you have not been there, done that.
You asked for advice; right?
We all want to see beekeeping operations succeed.
But there is a pattern of failure that we have seen over and over and over again.

It always begins with, " I know better than everybody else".

I hope that you don't fall victim to that line of thought as so many have in recent years.
Best wishes!

[MartinSzy]

I started in 1985. Only to find out Varroa and a Tree called California Buckeye killed my Bee's in 2000 when I moved to the Foothills of Sierra Nevada. With the information age the Buckeyes are sawed and Varroa Mites are Oxalic Acid tamed. I am so Old I did not know what Varroa Mites were. Wish Me Luck.

[MTN-Bees]

Buckeyes sawed???

[scoobertdoo]

It always begins with, " I know better than everybody else".

I am the opposite.
I came in with an "ask what I need to know" mindset.
I will not however be dissuaded.
Yeah, I will have some hard, expensive lessons to learn.
Lesson 1 was last night. You never get stung only once, and stings don't really hurt.
Lesson 2 bee bumping is a real thing. 20 people, standing in front of a hive, will cause them to be angry.
Lesson 3 long sleeves are a must if you are going to make bees angry.
Lesson 4 if the head of the heads of beekeeping inspectors for your state is wearing a veil, wear one too.
Lesson 5 only do a western deep here, bees will not fill a double deep.
Lesson 6 get ready for honey, because we make honey all year long.

It was a worthwhile trip. Seems EFB/AFB is not an issue here at all. Should not even be treated. Verroa is in all hives, and it needs to be monitored constantly.
I live in a great area to do this. The local area has some very good experts, who basically said they are always open for a phone call to come look at your hives.
A master keeper??? runs our local chapter. Privileged to be in the midst of such great and friendly bee folks in my town. I pickup my first 3 nucs in two weeks.

[Roland]

We started beekeeping in America in 1852. Seen alot of upstarts come and go. Good luck.


You stated:
After weighing the cons of doing an apiary in NY I knew I couldn't do it there.

If you can't do it in New York, what makes you think you can do it in Florida? A knowledgable beekeeper should be able to adapt to either location.

Crazy Roland

[Hillbillybees]

You would be wise to listen. Most are not. Started bees in 1976 with my grandpa. Anybody could raise bees then. Always loved it. Did life and find myself with time and money on my hands and started again 8 years ago. Its a different world. My advice is the same as the others. Slow start. Get a job with a commercial operation.
Can your plan work? Sure, its possible but you will be one of the few and you can count on spending 2 or 3 times more than a guy that starts slow. When you get tired of cleaning up deadouts and your sitting on your bucket with your head in your hands remember you would not be dissuaded.
If you really want to spend the money and have the greatest chance find a beekeeper that is wanting to be fulltime but has kept bees 10 years and pay him a nice salary to run your hives. Tell him you want to see year over year growth and when he needs help you will hire it or come in and help him.
Either way your going to help the bee industry cause your money is going to someone. You need bees were all here for you.

[Blue Monarch]

If you have the resources and a solid business plan, I'm sure it could be done. So many variables though, that it would scare me.

[homegrown]

I’d recommend following Ian Steppler from Steppler Farms. You’ll need to make some adjustments for your southern climate, specifically varroa management. He has a blog and posts his videos on YouTube under Canadian Beekeepers blog.

[MartinSzy]

I’d recommend following Ian Steppler from Steppler Farms. You’ll need to make some adjustments for your southern climate, specifically varroa management. He has a blog and posts his videos on YouTube under Canadian Beekeepers blog.

Ian has done a great Vid Blog representation. He has only 1500 to 2000 Hives. The Canola Oil is where he profits along with Family.
He is now worried about Spring Expansion with Natural Spring Honey Flow in the Future. Good Man.

[MartinSzy]

Buckeyes sawed???

Yes. Animal Poison. https://wagwalking.com/condition/buckeye-poisoning I gave up with my Bee's Unknown.
I sawed around 28 Tree clusters within 500 Ft of Home that were 3 to 12 inches at base, some 25 Ft tall.
I can send you some Chestnuts if you want some. I have a Lot :-)

[JTGaraas]

I too was puzzled about the reference to Buckeyes. A web search found numerous stories about the poisonous effect on honey bees. Learn something new everyday. https://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden...es-3226596.php

[johno]

I no longer tend to find interesting discussions taking place on beesource so I have decided to take the $10 I have profited from my beekeeping efforts and invest it in the stock exchange and wish to turn it into a million bucks in the first year. I would like to add that I have little to no financial knowledge but will ask every I see for advice which I probably will ignore anyhow. I will probably place more credibility on the advice of the homeless folks I come across than on the successful investors who make their living on the stock exchange, sounds like a good plan to me.
Johno

[Hillbillybees]

As usual you are entertaining Johno. But I think you should take out a loan and make it a $20 investment so you can get really rich. I'm going to play it safe and watch you for one week then I'm putting $50 in the market with your help of course.

[JWChesnut]

I took Johno advice and invested 59 cents each in two balsa wood toy gliders.

I plan on flying to the moon in the year 2020. I am more brilliant than silver polish, so the Law of Gravity no longer affects me.

Since I still have $8.82 after subtracting the cost of my two balsa wood aeroplanes, I am going to invest that in chinchilla futures.