I forget who first said it, but it is hardest to keep bees when you only have a couple of hives. The beekeeper with two hives who loses one has a 50% loss, whereas the beekeeper with 20 hives is hardly affected by the loss of one. If the fellow with 20 hives is hit with a 50% loss, he still has resources to build back up.
I am in the same boat as you. I have always kept between two and four hives in the past. This year I am looking at things differently. I don't think I can manage 20 hives, but I would like to get up to at least eight, and see where I can go from there. I am going to learn how to produce my own queens, and I hope to learn more about sustainable beekeeping.
Something else I have realized is I need to be more fluid in my thinking when it comes to the hives I have. I need to be better at splitting strong hives when they need it, and combine weak ones, rather than just nurse them along. And if I can raise my own queens, I can have more control over requeening mediocre hives, replacing their queens with genetically superior ones.
This spring, I could hardly beg, borrow or steal bees. The packages I ordered arrived dead. The nucs I paid for were a month late. Luckily I was able to catch a couple of swarms in April--without these I would have been a beekeeper with no bees. I think in the future we will have to become more sustainable in our own apiaries.
I am in the same boat as you. I have always kept between two and four hives in the past. This year I am looking at things differently. I don't think I can manage 20 hives, but I would like to get up to at least eight, and see where I can go from there. I am going to learn how to produce my own queens, and I hope to learn more about sustainable beekeeping.
Something else I have realized is I need to be more fluid in my thinking when it comes to the hives I have. I need to be better at splitting strong hives when they need it, and combine weak ones, rather than just nurse them along. And if I can raise my own queens, I can have more control over requeening mediocre hives, replacing their queens with genetically superior ones.
This spring, I could hardly beg, borrow or steal bees. The packages I ordered arrived dead. The nucs I paid for were a month late. Luckily I was able to catch a couple of swarms in April--without these I would have been a beekeeper with no bees. I think in the future we will have to become more sustainable in our own apiaries.