Re: OA Dosage
Posted: November 3rd, 2016, 8:48 am
For myself, I don't think I ever got to the profitable/sustainable part until I got about 25 hives.
I think I paid about $400 for a 3 frame hand crank extractor. I was bottling honey with a 5 gallon bucket with a plastic honey gate. It's really hard to do enough volume to make any money.
By the time I was at 20 or 25 hives, I could justify the cost of a $1,000 motorized extractor, a $1,000 bottling tank, etc. By that time, I also started having enough drawn comb to do something. (Don't plan on making much honey if all your supers are foundation. You need drawn comb.) In my area, you may get a 1,500-2,000 pound honey crop with 25 hives. I had enough honey to supply a store, and I started seeing monthly checks rolling in. I tried to buy used equipment when possible, rather than buying new equipment. 25 hives or so is about when I learned to graft also. Prior to that, I had done walkaway splits and caught swarms for increase. I started selling honey at shows about that time, which helps so you get retail price. (I didn't start doing farmers markets until a few years ago. I still have mixed opinions about farmers markets.) I'm not saying that I was getting rich, but the bees were paying for themselves at that point.
I've sold the occasional nuc or queen, but have never put much effort into selling those yet. I mainly use queens for my own use, and use overwintered nucs to replace deadouts and for increase.
I had 25 hives or so when I gave up the treatment free ideology, and began treating my hives for mites too. Had I started treating before then, I may have been able to be profitable sooner. I would have gotten to 25 hives a lot faster too, so 25 hives may still have been the breakover point for profitability.
This is what has worked for me in Ohio. I have no experience with keeping bees in Canada.
I think I paid about $400 for a 3 frame hand crank extractor. I was bottling honey with a 5 gallon bucket with a plastic honey gate. It's really hard to do enough volume to make any money.
By the time I was at 20 or 25 hives, I could justify the cost of a $1,000 motorized extractor, a $1,000 bottling tank, etc. By that time, I also started having enough drawn comb to do something. (Don't plan on making much honey if all your supers are foundation. You need drawn comb.) In my area, you may get a 1,500-2,000 pound honey crop with 25 hives. I had enough honey to supply a store, and I started seeing monthly checks rolling in. I tried to buy used equipment when possible, rather than buying new equipment. 25 hives or so is about when I learned to graft also. Prior to that, I had done walkaway splits and caught swarms for increase. I started selling honey at shows about that time, which helps so you get retail price. (I didn't start doing farmers markets until a few years ago. I still have mixed opinions about farmers markets.) I'm not saying that I was getting rich, but the bees were paying for themselves at that point.
I've sold the occasional nuc or queen, but have never put much effort into selling those yet. I mainly use queens for my own use, and use overwintered nucs to replace deadouts and for increase.
I had 25 hives or so when I gave up the treatment free ideology, and began treating my hives for mites too. Had I started treating before then, I may have been able to be profitable sooner. I would have gotten to 25 hives a lot faster too, so 25 hives may still have been the breakover point for profitability.
This is what has worked for me in Ohio. I have no experience with keeping bees in Canada.