Rapid Expansion

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Countryboy
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Rapid Expansion

Unread post by Countryboy »

I'm looking to expand my small beekeeping operation (just 6 hives) to about 100 next year. Just wondering what your opinion would be as to how I should go about this - packaged bees vs. nucs vs. full colonies, and who in Alberta might be able to supply me with some good quality bees.

Thanks for any advice,
You haven't mentioned how much time you have to dedicate to bees, or your financial situation, your management situation, or things like that...or your experience level. (ie., have you previously worked for a commercial beekeeper, and know how to manage hundreds of hives at one time...or are you a hobbyist who plans on managing 100 hives the same way you manage your present 6?)

I think I have been keeping bees for about 9 years now. I started with 3 full colonies, and I now have about 75 hives, and probably 20 or 30 nucs. Eventually, I want to get 150-200 hives. That will give me a nice income, without requiring me to be a complete slave to the bees.

I have enough boxes and frames to get probably 150 hives going. What I don't have is enough drawn brood combs, and enough honey supers with drawn combs. Drawn comb has limited my expansion more than any other thing.

Regardless if you start with packages on foundation, nucs, or full-size colonies, you are going to need a bunch of drawn combs. Where do you plan on obtaining quality drawn comb? It is more valuable than the bees themselves.

If you don't have drawn combs to give the packages, plan on buying more packages next year due to poor overwintering on new combs. If you have nucs or full-size colonies, plan on them swarming (and not getting a honey crop) if you can't give them drawn comb.

When I had 3 hives, I had a little hand crank 3 frame extractor. Now, I have a motorized 18 frame extractor, and I wish it was bigger. And we don't have huge honey crops in my part of Ohio. 50-70 pounds is average.

How do you intend to deal with honey? (assuming you can get enough drawn comb.) Do you have enough room to deal with extracting, storing, and bottling 10,000 pounds of honey? Where do you plan on getting all the extracting equipment? How do you plan on marketing your 10,000 pounds of honey? Selling honey from 3 hives was a piece of cake when I started. It's a whole new ballgame trying to move thousands of pounds of honey a year.

I was given some good advice from Grant Gillard several years ago. His advice for expansion was to double the size of your current operation in a year. The following year, maintain the same number of hives and do not expand. Just get accustomed to dealing with things. Then the following year, double again. The following year, maintain current numbers. Do this until you reach the desired number of colonies.

His advice is very good. You are going to have bugs and hiccups to work out when you expand. Problems get a lot bigger when you have more hives to deal with. Time management and logistics change with more hives too. It takes 10 minutes to super up a handful of hives in your backyard. Now try to load up the truck and trailer, and visit 10 different beeyards putting on supers. Don't forget anything, because it is a half hour drive back home to get whatever you forgot. Plan on getting stuck in the springtime mud too...you learn to carry a 4 foot farm jack and a come-along winch and a shovel. (Those are beekeeping tools, right.)

My advice....find out how much drawn comb you can source. Then let that be your guide how big you expand. If I was in your shoes and could afford it, I might go to 25 or 30 hives next year if I could get comb. Then make sure I could handle managing that many, then expand on down the road.

I think the general rule of thumb is to plan on about $400-$500 for every hive by the time you pay for the bees and all associated equipment. (boxes, extracting equipment, etc.) Can you afford $40K-$50K cash right now to finance your expansion to 100 hives next year?

When I started out, I sold wholesale cases of bottled honey to stores. This year I have started doing more farmers markets, trying to tap into more retail sales. I'm doing 3 markets a week, and may pick up a 4th. (2 afternoon/evening markets, and Saturday) I find myself wishing I had more time to work bees, and at the same time wishing I was doing more markets. Do you enjoy often staying up until midnight bottling honey?
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Allen Dick
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Re: Rapid Expansion

Unread post by Allen Dick »

Wow. I could not have said it better.

Only thing to add is if one wishes to do things faster, find a beekeeper who wants to sell out and work together a year or two while you learn and pay off the purchase.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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Metropropolis
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Joined: May 10th, 2012, 10:28 pm
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Re: Rapid Expansion

Unread post by Metropropolis »

Countryboy wrote:

I was given some good advice from Grant Gillard several years ago. His advice for expansion was to double the size of your current operation in a year. The following year, maintain the same number of hives and do not expand. Just get accustomed to dealing with things. Then the following year, double again. The following year, maintain current numbers. Do this until you reach the desired number of colonies.
Such good advice. I've seen many get "bit by the bug", and scale up aggressively, only to find out that more hives is just very different. One fellow I know went from 3 to 50 in one year, only to get wiped out by.... Cows.

Like Phillip Anderson said: More is Different.
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