Gary -
I'm in expansion mode, and recently moved shop, so calculations are done in reverse order as if I'm where I want to be next year, looking back.
Before starting, go and get your county beekeeper number and order (or make) your branding iron(s). I can't afford to make woodenware that others will steal and use to compete with me for the prime locations, and I doubt you would want to.
I start out anticipating what my limiting factors will be - this year it should be money, a lack of available, free, scrap wood. Running around gathering scrap wood is an option available to someone who is still small scale enough that time is not the limiting factor, as the scale of the operation grows, it is not an option - gotta' sawmill and cure the trees yourself, or buy the cut & kiln-dried lumber, depending on your location, zoning, and how you're set up.
My truck bed has space for 20 pallets, or 80 colonies. Right now, I use a pallet jack and a ramp, so I can't stack them 3 high. I plan on making 2 runs with the truck, so 40 total pallets, or 160 colonies. Later, when I can afford a forklift, I can stack 3 pallets high, that's 60 pallets plus whatever I can fit on the trailer that the forklift doesn't take up, but that's not this year.
Shop efficiency is my first concern - one might be tempted to take a cheaper route and buy mere
doability - but that can be an evil trap and should be avoided. Put you money into decent production equipment and don't waste time. I have to schedule time and money for building tools, machines, jigs, and fixtures, and leave enough time and money for making bee equipment.
Atop that list are a box assembly jig and a frame assembly jig. Also on my list of priorities: double chop saw; an out-feed table for the saw and the planer; 2 router tables; a finger box joint sled; some gang-frame cutting fixtures for top bars, side bars, and bottom bars; a pallet assembly jig, a dipping tank for linseed oil, and a production saw. The production saw will take some time, and I do not anticipate completing it this year, but will be happy with some essential parts. If time runs out, it waits. Meanwhile I will continue to use the table saw - doability that will make way to efficiency in 2 years, when I will be big enough to need it. 2 more solar wax melters, capable of holding 5 frames each, will be in order during this year.
So next year's goal is 160 colonies. I need 40 screened bottom pallets. I use 10-frame medium Langstroths, 3 brood chamber boxes each, plus 3 honey supers, so 6 boxes per colony. 160 x 6 = 960 boxes and 9600 frames. Figure 200 commercial tops with metal - I like tops that last.
Many beekeepers are not former carpenter/cabinetmakers, and they consider that boxes are easy enough to make, but frames are not. Most of them buy knock-down frames and do the stapling on the assembly jig. Larger beekeepers don't have time to "play woodpecker", and just buy the assembled frames, some even the knock-down boxes. Most have at least a compressor, a staple gun, and a paint roller. I'm still making my own frames from scratch, as I'm still small enough that cash is less plentiful than time, and I have the carpentry background. Making parts fit is not too challenging for a former machinist, but I understand it's not easy for those who have not done it most of their life.
I try to aim for about 11 times as many queens as I have colonies. Not all will make it to next year's splits, some will be used in over-wintered nuc's, some for re-queening, those left over are for sale. 160 x 11 = 1760 queens. I'll build that many queen bank cages, even though they won't all be banked at one time. At 40 cages per queen bank frame, that's 44 queen bank frames.
My queen cell bar frames handle 32 queen cells each. 1760 / 32 = 55 queen cell bars, used over a 5-week breeding season, so I really only use 11 at a time, but keep at least 3 times that so I don't get caught behind, I'll make only 33 of them. I'll make 2,000 queen cell cups. a sixth week of grafting can get me out of a shortage - down here I may get good nectar flow for 10 weeks of grafting or more, but I don't like to go that intense for that long. (OK, I suppose I can run 12 cell raiser colonies instead of 11 - that's 3 per day on a 4-day rotation - and I throw in an extra day - a 5 day queen rearing cycle - for sanity
)
160 colonies, I'll probably try 160 nuc's to overwinter. My boxes have partition slots for use as double-nuc's, so 80 extra medium 6 5/8" Lang's, some of which will be unused honey boxes, but 800 extra frames.
Excess queens will probably go into cardboard or styrofoam nuc' boxes - I'll buy those, and mark the cost up a little bit to pass along to the customers - gotta mark up to stay even with inflation. I don't set these out for mating, though, a customer gets a new box with his/her colony.
I sell queens with a Laidlaw push-in queen introduction cage. Laidlaw cages are not large, store easily, and have a long shelf life, so they'll be mass-produced in lots of 1,000.
Remember - I calculate for some % more equipment than I need, depending on the item. Don't run financial projections expecting 100% bee resource success on your target number of colonies, but know that you will NOT be making MORE than these limits! It's all you have equipment for, this year.
There are as many ways to skin this cat as there are beekeepers, plus a bunch more - this is only a peek at how a plant engineer might look at the question, "How much to produce of what?" Other factors will be more important for other beek's in other situations, mine is a view from a small guy in expansion mode. I hope this helps.
