Where are your bees taking you?

[troutstalker2]

  Are you guys expecting me to believe that there is a possibility of making a dollar or two doing this?

[eri]

I'm with Brian on the sustainable farming / barter approach. After starting last year with 1 hive that died just before spring in an unusual cold weather event, I'm starting over this year with 4. No idea what a realistic goal is for number of colonies -- maybe it is to quadruple the number each year until I discover it 

[johnnybigfish]

I mostly like just having the bees, but a dollar is a dollar and I never have enuff honey for everybody who wants to buy it from me.I have 6 hives now, but have had up to 10....I like having alot and plan on getting a bunch more swarms this year...Its like any hobby...If its not growing, its gonna get boring sooner or later!(At least thats what Ive found out happens to me).
your friend,
john

[annette]

Have had 1-2 hives over the past 3 years. Will hopefully have 4 hives this coming Spring. Totally for the fun of it and I donate my honey to the yoga school where I keep my bees. Have spent quite a lot of money and see it only as a hobby.

Would like to continue for as long as it remains fun and I can help the bees. I still consider myself very new at this and always learning, learning, learning.

[slaphead]

I'm starting the year with 5 hives and hope to grow to 8 through collecting swarms.  My goals for the next few years are to learn how to successfully keep bees in the Pacific NW without using chemicals; to select for naturally resistant colonies; and to have fun.  Expect to lose a fair number of colonies in the first few years but as I learn and stumble upon a hardy hybrid hope to reach a steady state of about 10 hives with sales of perhaps half a dozen nucs to offset some of the expense.  Hard to imagine I'll ever make a profit from this  .

SH 

[mastro]

I really can't answer this since I am waiting on my first package I can say if everything goes good for the first year then maybe up to 50 just for fun.

Where in the chicago area are you located? 
I live in Naperville

I'd like to expand to a full time business, but I have limited land available to me right now.

[mastro]

I have six colonies of bees now. Never wanted that many but last year had to do splits, had no one that wanted the extra bees. This year it looks like the same will happen. I need to find them a home. Have honey comimg out of my ears. This year I'll try some comb honey.

I sent you a pm.

I don't believe you, too much honey? That's just not possible.

[SlickMick]

I had 2 hives in my suburban backyard for 15 years. I now have 3 and will take it to the limit with 4 from swarms that I hope to catch this coming season

Mick

[vermmy35]

I really can't answer this since I am waiting on my first package I can say if everything goes good for the first year then maybe up to 50 just for fun.

Where in the chicago area are you located? 
I live in Naperville

I'd like to expand to a full time business, but I have limited land available to me right now.

I live over on the good side of Midway Airport

[alfred]

Not realy sure where I am goning with my beekeeping. Quite often I daydream about having a ton of hives and polination contracts and such. But I realise that I don't know what I am talking about. No idea what it takes to run such a thing. probably much different than the fun I am having now with it.

I will say that I am an addict. I have 4 hives this spring and I want more. I plann on getting as many swarms as I can this spring! I think that I could put 5 or six more in the backyard before the neibors got fussy. Then what? I guess to look for out yards.. Farms, BLM or Forrest land not sure...

Then how will I sell it all? That's assuming there will be tons of product. Local roadside, not for me done my time sittin by and waiting for a sale. farmers market? better but not by much. Maybe internet. If I sell it off in bulk to a packer(now were talking big here) it looks like the price is too low to make it worth while. Sell it myself and I become a salesman and am no longer a beek.

These are the thoughts that go through my head when I think of expansion. It would be great to hear from those who have made the transition from a couple of backyard hives to a bigger opperation. What are the realities? How do you sell or market. What was your progression? At what point did you begin to make money? And most important did a great hobby deteiorate into work and drudgery?

In the meantime I plan to merrily catch swarms and build boxes untill the wife or the local code officer make me stop.
Alfred

[TwT]

so Bjorn what you think of the votes so for???

[BjornBee]

so Bjorn what you think of the votes so for???

TwT,
About what I thought. I have always been told that for every 100 new beekeepers, possible 5 of them would get it to a sideline level, and if 1 of them became commercial, that would be good. I am just wondering about the next generation and even the possibilities of a huge demand for bees (nucs/queens) but lack of a supply, especially in the north. I see a local pollination demand from year round angle, instead of the traditional migratory business setup. Just trying to get a feel for the industry.

I am also probably getting out of many of my commercial pollination contacts this year. Yet, I have nobody that could handle the numbers. I also wish there were many more northern breeders to pass along some of the demand too.

I'm hoping that this whole CCD thing, and the influx of new beekeepers can be seen "growing bee business'" in the future. We also need to produce more honey as so much is shipped in to the country. I also wish we did not need to fly thousands of packages in from other countries. It is a real shame we are a importer of bees and honey, capable of not even producing what we need.

Will the bee industry benefit from so many hobbyists getting into the business, or will we just see a passing fancy hobby fade out over time?

[tlynn]

Will the bee industry benefit from so many hobbyists getting into the business, or will we just see a passing fancy hobby fade out over time?

Perhaps.  I think we're moving into a new era, one where small business entrepreneurship trumps the big guys, where a new economy is rebuilt from the ground up.  Barter networks will be reestablished in the US after decades of dormancy as cash becomes scarce.  The hobbyist beekeeper will be just one link in this network.  Someone here just commented on how people will readily work as barter for goods, and he uses his honey as that currency.  It's what real estate investors did in the 70s in the last big recession and during the 80s when interest rates were double digits and the banks weren't lending money - they traded assets to make deals.  They were called exchangers.  They got creative because they had to.  There is a resurgence in that strategy because we're in a similar situation now.

We've gotten lazy and stopped thinking and that will change out of necessity.  More people will take up beekeeping just as much as a form of currency as a hobby.  People in the suburbs are building vegetable gardens and raising chickens and bees.  Is that a fad?  Will they get rid of the farm animals and go back to eating out three times a week and burning a hundred bucks in the jet ski on the weekend when their house goes back up to 2006 levels - maybe, but that's not happening anytime soon.

This just isn't another recession, folks.  This is a fundamental swing in behavior and thinking happening, and it's just getting started.

[fermentedhiker]

While I went with the majority in currently viewing it as a hobby there is the little voice in the back of my head hinting at something more  .  In fact it would be ideal if I could work into queen production eventually.  Not terribly interested in pollination contracts although I have to admit Bjorn your year round contract arrangements have got my wheels turning.  Only time will tell.  Started with 1 hive last year and hoping to end this summer with 4 or 5.

[Bee Happy]

I think the way you asked the question is perfect. I'm brand new to beekeeping so I will see where they take me. My most immediate goal is to have around 4-8 next year. deciding whether to pursue certified organic, play with Langstroth vs top bar; a combination topstroth langbar foundationless - I dunno - I'll experiment and see how I fit with the girls.

[pollenchucker]

I'm just learning.  Just began my first hive.  I do plan to expand to 2 by next year.  But the expense divided by the return is extraordinary.  The only way I can see someone making money at this is by doing field pollenations for farmers etc or setting up hundreds or even thousands of hives for big honey production which also means access to crops that produce the best honey, as well as selling bees and other products to other beeks.  I have some land and resources and am using them in a modest fashion but I don't believe there is any reality to becoming a pollenation or honey mogul.
I just really enjoy the local honey, the bees, and what they do for the countryside.
When you do something for a hobby that means you put in more money than you expect to get out.  And if you break even then you are ahead of the game.
-pc

[lenape13]

I'm just getting started this year... my first three packages arrive later this month.  It's something I've wanted to do since I was a small child.  Now that I have 1 1/2 acres in the country, thought it was time to do it, especially since we have a small apple orchard down the road a bit, and tons of berry bushes of every variety, as well as your varied assortments of wildflowers of all denominations.  All of the neighbors are supportive (we have a wonderful group of families here) and have offered to take all of my excess honey off my hands (and they'll even pay for it...)

I also have a farm and a commercial orchard/berry farm wanting to talk to me about renting some hives, so if things go well this year, I plan to expand.  Don't plan to get rich, I really just want to help out as much as possible.  Any profits would go right back into the bees for the following year, trying to make it a self-sustaining hobby, if there is such a thing!

[pdmattox]

I started out just looking to rent some bees for my 30 acres of watermelons and could not find any to rent. I did find a guy that had 21 hives for sale due to health reasons but did not feel i could take care of them so I only bought 4 that Friday from him. By Saturday night and sunday morning I was bitten by the bee bug. Monday came along and I then owned 21 colonies and still not a clue of what to do. Long story short I never intended on being a beekeeper but now run around 200 colonies and rent bees from other beekeepers to keep up on all the pollination in my area. I don't do this full time but it is a great sideline.

[TwoBigCats]

i have two hives now (1 is struggling) and intend to stay @ 2-3 hives in the future.  friends and family have paid a small fee to "sponsor" 1 side of medium frames and take whatever honey comes from that frame. (likely i'll just divide the honey by sides of total frames and divvy it up... i hope to avoid actually "selling" honey

we'll see, i've got the talkin' part done.