Is old Equipment Worth the Extra Work?

This is great! Yeah, I've been down this road.

In a nutshell, my answer is "yes," old and used equipment is a bargain....if it doesn't require any more work. I'm speaking mostly of boxes, tops and bottoms. But once you start cutting off rotten bottoms to make a brood box into a super, replacing ends....well, this takes time. Maybe you have the time. I spend a lot of my winter down-time in my shop fixing and repainting. It's relaxing work for me, but once spring arrives, I don't have the time to be messing around with rehab work.

Frames? I'd simply pitch the old ones if they show any wear, weakness, etc., and buy new ones. By the time you cut out and/or boil the frames, re-wire (if that's your preference) and stick in new foundation, it's faster to simply buy and assemble new frames. I've tried reclaiming the wax from old frames and that's also very time consuming and the wax yield hardly justifies the time. Unless the frames are good enough to go right into a hive body as-is, I pitch them.

The clean up? Bird poop and mouse poop is dusty, and the clean up is far more dustier than I ever imagined. My sinuses protested for days following this work. The nagging cough lasted a week. My wife thought I developed lung cancer.

Unfortunately, I possess some kind of a genetic disposition to frugality. Both my parents grew up on farms during the Great Depression in Minnesota. I have a really, really difficult time turning down ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that might be fixed up and reused. I have a shed full of old boxes that need a little TLC. I keep promising myself that "some day I'll have the time."

All the best! I'm excited for you. It sounds like a great opportunity.

Grant
Jackson, MO

Roland:

Take a vacation. I know I earn mine.

One the topic side personally I'd avoid using old equipment. I like newer looking equipment, especially if you do pollination. I think the customers like to see good equipment. They pay for the bees but at least they see where some of the money goes.

It costs a lot of money to cull equipment if you pay staff. It's best to do it when the deadouts come the equiupment shed. The run down looking stuff bothers me so I like to cull it. If you plan to do beekeeping for a long time then get new stuff. It's cheaper in the long run, easier to sell later if you want to get out.Your time is the most valuable asset you have, because it is limited. You can't borrow it. You can't create it. Money cannot buy you more time, it will not prolong your life, so personally I feel it should be treated with the upmost respect and not with an attitude of what else am I going to do. I feel that this attitude devalues ones efforts. Unfortunately it is very prevalent in beekeeping and I think that this is the one thing that has hurt us the most as an industry. If as an industry we don't value our time and efforts how can we expect our customers to value our time and efforts?

Jean-Marc