How much is too much? How desperate are people?

I read somewhere that the closing of the US/Can border - (Alberta in this case), to migratory beekeepers, for fear of AHB, was leaving vast tracts of bee pasture unattended... 'Kinda up's the stock for some?

That's about what bees hives are worth here. There was an auction sale of 1200 nucs, selling for north of $200, last selling off at $150. $60 box is high...
I just culled out and rendered a bunch of old comb... I should of put them in an old box and sold it off for $30!

Not all bee ventures are based on the value of honey!

Colobee said:

I read somewhere that the closing of the US/Can border - (Alberta in this case), to migratory beekeepers, for fear of AHB

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Has the Alberta border ever been open to migratories ? Bees on comb has been a no-no for a very long time, since long before AHB.

I am having trouble finding drawn supers in southern MB for my expansion. Even very sad looking supers of drawn comb are going for above $35 and they are gone within a week of being posted anywhere, The same price as brand new assembled and painted supers. larger operations could be swapping out their 5 year old frames and supers for brand new equipment and making a profit on it.

The minute they open the borders to canada from us. I'm changing my business plan and going on my own. 2000 packages right to Canada.

Alberta is the third largest beekeeping province/state in North America with 280,000 colonies. If there's vast bee pasture anywhere in this province, I'd sure like to know about it. As mentioned elsewhere, we can only import US queens, not packages or live hives.

Wow, the May sale in Scandia, AB couldn't even attract a half dozen buyers. Bee auctions always seem to go terribly here, since most of the sales seem to be people going broke/out of business and are selling junk.

pleasantvalley said:

Wow, the May sale in Scandia, AB couldn't even attract a half dozen buyers.

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Couple years back, I went to a poorly advertised Beekeeper bankruptcy auction in Arkansas... I bought a bunch of random stuff, including a silverqueen uncapper for ~250 bucks.

But there were several hundred pallets of supers and deeps stacked chest high. They went for less than 2 dollars a pallet. Each box came with a division feeder and frames.

I wish I had bought them, but I couldn't fathom how to move all the equipment in the times given. (1 week). Was probably close to 2k deeps and twice+ that in mediums.

Full cowen extractor line went for ~5k.

There are definitely deals to be had, if you look for them.

I've been very shocked at the drastic price increases on bees for the last ~4 years that I've been getting into keeping bees.

Lots of new guys getting into the business. That always helps support sales.

The crime here is only charging $2 for honey. We retail at $10 per US pound.