Before I decided to start the company, I had to take some issues into consideration. I focused on the three primary expenses associated with starting up a beekeeping operation; the equipment, the bees, and the feed for the bees. The costs associated with the transport and location of the bees was omitted solely because I have access to about an acre of land. The first step was finding a supplier for the woodenware for the bee equipment, I chose Dadant because I could use my recently purchased truck to avoid shipping costs. A trip to their branch in High Springs was only going to cost me about 5 hours and 306 miles (or 22.3 gallons of fuel).
The Equipment:
The primary cost of equipment is the hive itself. The hive is going to be one or more hive bodies full of frames. Typically there will be one or two hive bodies that are part of the brood chamber or box, and numerous supers or honey boxes on top of the brood chamber. While calculating the costs, the economies of scale were more effective when all of the hive bodies were the same size. I’ve heard from a number of regarded beekeepers, David Miksa of Groveland, FL in particular, that they use Mediums (6 5/8” tall).
To quickly cover the tops and bottoms, I determined it was too expensive to buy screened bottom boards and I'd never need a telescoping cover (which requires an inner cover, noted in the link) and would give small hive beetles a safe haven. So I decided to look into buying cedar lumber and assembling screened bottom boards myself with hardware cloth. The tops are even easier, any 3/4 4x8 sheet of plywood that can be used outside will produce 10 tops per sheet. The big box, and most good lumber yards, will cut the plywood for free, so I have them cut the sheets into 5 16 1/4" widths and take them home where I cut them to 21" lengths. Avoid "treated" lumber as the chemicals can harm bees in the long run. In the meantime, paint the tops as you would the hive bodies.
Why Mediums?
1. Economy of scale when buying new (easier to get quantity discounts)
2. Initial cost of woodenware is much less (Deeps start at $12.70, and Mediums start at $9.30)
3. When the older commercial beekeepers go to sell out their business, there will be more mediums than deeps, as medium is the most common honey super/box. More importantly, you can expect your average commercial beekeeper to have directly applied chemicals to the brood chamber and few, if any, chemicals were ever used in the honey suppers.
Next, I had to consider the foundation for the bees. There are plenty of advantages to using the plastic foundations; the plastic is resistant to wax moths and only the drawn wax would be lost, the cell size will be uniform to potentially regulate varroa mite populations, and is less susceptible to being blown out during extraction, unless using a radial extractor. Radial extraction prevents the risk of blowing out wax foundation. After all those considerations and some experience with the plastic, I decided to go with bulk wax foundation.
Why Wax Foundation?
1. The estimated price per sheet is $0.5545 (25lbs at ~11 sheets per pound) with wax and the plasticell requires you buy over a thousand to get to $0.59 per sheet, unless you want it coated with a little wax to promote its use by the bees, then it’s $0.69 on 1,000+.
2. The bees will be able to chew down the wax to suit their needs; after all, no comb in a feral hive is rectangular. And, if they have problems with diseased brood, they will be more apt to deal with the bad cells. I’ve seen anecdotal evidence that my Carniolan queen won’t lay on plasticell foundation after there was a diseased brood in it but lays in the wax cells I have from the initial split.
3. I don’t have to worry about what’s in the wax when it comes to plastic stabilizers like Bisphenol A (BPA). I know that the chance of leaching is low but it reminds me of something my Biochemistry professor said, “there is no greater chemist than Mother Nature”.
4. You can choose to skip buying wax foundation and just turn the wedge, of the wedge top frame, 90 degrees so it hangs down like a starter strip and tack it into place. The bees will take it from there so you don't even need to spend the money or worry about where this bees wax came from.
The Bees:
I’m not going to defend or extol the various lines of bees, simply, I know a local queen rearer who uses Carniolans. By the time I have more than 60+ hives, I will probably, and purposefully, have multiple lines in my apiary. It takes only a basic course in genetics to promote the idea of hybridization. Mutts have the genetic diversity and increased resilience because of it. The real consideration was how to grow the apiary and quickly. What I know is that there are beekeepers that sell by the package, by the queen, and by the Nuc.
Mated Queens: The advantage is that I’ll be able to keep costs down given that I’ll be splitting off my own hives and a mated queen runs about $15 to $25. If I split my own hives, I’ll have to be aggressively splitting and feeding. And have to make nucleus hives which is a little more hassle than I’d like for my weekend beekeeping.
Packages: These are bees that are shaken into a cage and have a mated queen, each package costs $65 to $80. The advantage is that they can be put into a hive with a couple of frames of drawn comb and that will speed their progress, in combination with feeding. Also, they can be dropped into any size hive body, remember, I’m targeting Mediums. The drawback is that I’ve heard from numerous people that the queen may be superseded. Here in Hillsborough, we have Africanize honey bees (AHB) which would almost assure the virgin will be producing F1 hybrid Africans.
Nucleus Hives: With a nucleus hive, there is no question about the viability of the queen, they have brood, and drawn comb. Drawback is the initial cost for 3-5 frames is about $80 or more (typically more) and the frame sizes are typically Deep. Finally, there is added transportation and financial overhead with the nucleus hive bodies. There is usually a deposit that will be required up front.
The Feed:
There are two contenders for syrups and numerous ways to feed pollen substitute. I'm not even going to consider corn syrup as I don't see it as any kind of substitute for nectar which is both fructose and glucose. The big warehouse stores will sell 50 pounds for $20 to $24 a bag and if you have the space, buy it when it's $20 and store it in buckets with tight lids. As for the delivery, there are only a few options; frame feeder, hive top feeders, entrance feeders, and a derivative of the entrance feeder is the pail that is inverted over a hole in the hive top. I've had experience with all 4
Entrance Feeder:
The entrance feeder is an excellent feeder for the quick feed; it doesn't require any modifications to an existing Langstroth hive (the standard) or intrusion into the hive. The con is the 1 quart capacity and may require multiple refills a week, which isn't a problem unless you don't live near your apiary. I would a regular job so the hour round trip isn't appealing.
Frame Feeder:
These have a great capacity in comparison to the entrance feeders, typically 1 gallon, which means fewer refills and less disruption to the hive. The largest negative is that unless you buy one with mesh ladders you will drown a few hundred bees. The frame feeder also requires the hive be opened and a frame removed. I don't recommend filling the feeder in place unless you want to risk washing your bees in syrup. I've only every been able to safely fill a 1 gallon frame feeder about 3/4 full. NOTE: In a weaker hive that is in an apiary with an active ant population, the ants will find this feeder, especially in hives with a screened bottom.
Hive Top Feeder:
These have one of the greatest capacities (off the shelf), typically have protections to prevent drowning, and are the most easily refilled while in place. Capacities range from 1 to 4 gallons. There appear to be no drawbacks until you discover ants have found the feeder. Ants are a big problem because most feeders prevent the bees from propilizing the gap between the cover and lip of the feeder. Hive top feeders that utilize the floats to prevent drown are probably better than the once that have the mesh ladders, as they allow the bees to move around.
Pail Feeder:
There are a few ways to set these up and essentially they are all the same in principle. Like the entrance feeder, they are all inverted containers with a screen or lid with holes punched in it and the syrup remains in the container from the vacuum. I've seen unused gallon paint cans, quart jars, and buckets of various sizes. All of the containers require a hole in the top cover or an inner cover. My "pail" feeder is a plywood top with a hole cut in it with a hole saw. This hole was cut to the exact diameter of the lid from a frame feeder. Exact construction will follow in another post. The tight fit and gravity/vacuum feeding prevents the ants from robbing. I'm planning on graduating to using buckets obtained from local bakeries, delis, and doughnut shops.
I think that buying 50 pounds of sugar at a time and getting packages will be the best option. The bulk rate for buying package bees could be less than $65 and 50 pounds of sugar ($20-$24; Prices have increased as high as $28) will make 56 quarts of 1:1 sugar syrup (1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water) and a 1/2 cup (~5oz) pollen patty costs me about $0.35. The estimate is about 2.5 gallons of sugar syrup per hive, and a couple of patties, totaling $4.27 a hive in feed, round up to $5 for any extras I’ve missed.
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