Beekeepers

[Tangri]

Can you change(with your own view) words of below statement?

Most beekeepers are hobby beekeepers. [These people typically work or own only a few hives. Their main attraction is an interest in ecology and natural science. Honey is a by-product of this hobby. As it typically requires a significant investment to establish a small apiary and dozens of hours of work with hives and honey equipment, hobby beekeeping is seldom profitable outside of Europe, where the lack of organic bee products sometimes causes buoyant demand for privately produced honey.[citation needed]

A sideline beekeeper attempts to make a profit keeping bees, but relies on another source of income. Sideliners may operate up to as many as 300 colonies of bees, producing 10–20 metric tons of honey worth a few tens of thousands of dollars each year.

Commercial beekeepers control hundreds or thousands of colonies of bees.
Most beekeepers produce commodities (farm products) for sale. Honey is the most valuable commodity sold by beekeepers. Honey-producer beekeepers try to maintain maximum-strength colonies of bees in areas with dense nectar sources. They produce and sell liquid (extracted) and sometimes comb honey. Beekeepers may sell their commodities retail, as self-brokers, or through commercial packers and distributors. Beeswax, pollen, royal jelly, and propolis may also be significant revenue generators.

Some beekeepers provide a pollination service to other farmers. These beekeepers might not produce any honey for sale. Pollination beekeepers move honey bee hives at night in vast quantities so fruits and vegetables have enough pollinating insects available for maximum levels of production. For the service of maintaining strong colonies of bees and moving them into crops such as almonds, apples, cherries, blueberries, melons, and squash, these beekeepers are usually paid a cash fee.
Should we add a section for people who are afraid or bees or allergic to them who would rather we weren't allowed to even keep bees? Of course not. Those are all different subjects entirely.

[Aspen]

I have found keeping even four to 8 hives of bees to be moderately profitable. It has been consistent for the past 15 years. All you have to do is build a base of customers that are willing to pay a fair price. I charge slightly more than the pasteurized honey found in the big box stores. Customers who love honey and who appreciate the quality of honey that comes from the small beekeeper will be loyal customers. They phone me when they run out and I deliver and keep a stockpile. Honey doesn't go bad. You can keep it for years. I have found that the trick is to put the honey into 1 kilogram or 3 kilogram size containers. That is the size that most people can afford to purchase and pay a price that is fair to the beekeeper. It is not true that the costs outweigh the benefits financially. I guess it also helps to live in a part of the world where it is normal get 150 to 200 pounds of honey per hive (over 60 kg) because of the long daylight hours in northern Alberta.

[Tangri]

I have found keeping even four to 8 hives of bees to be moderately profitable. It has been consistent for the past 15 years. All you have to do is build a base of customers that are willing to pay a fair price. I charge slightly more than the pasteurized honey found in the big box stores. Customers who love honey and who appreciate the quality of honey that comes from the small beekeeper will be loyal customers. They phone me when they run out and I deliver and keep a stockpile. Honey doesn't go bad. You can keep it for years. I have found that the trick is to put the honey into 1 kilogram or 3 kilogram size containers. That is the size that most people can afford to purchase and pay a price that is fair to the beekeeper. It is not true that the costs outweigh the benefits financially. I guess it also helps to live in a part of the world where it is normal get 150 to 200 pounds of honey per hive (over 60 kg) because of the long daylight hours in northern Alberta.

Thank you, :o

[sandy]

There are quite a few Bee Keepers here where I live and they are a subsidiary sideline for some of the farmers in this district.

Some are Bee Keepers that breed Bees for pollination only and they are called Cutter Bees so I am told and are much smaller. There are huge grain farmers here that need these pollinators for their grain crops. Sometimes they get waylay-ed and end up having fun in my flowers and house. I love them and they do not sting but they bite instead. :)

We also have Honey Bee Keepers as well and their honey is yummy, I keep myself well stocked.

[wnlight]

I kept bees once, about thirty-five years ago, strictly for the experience - and some honey. I don't know why, but they never stung me when I would open the boxes for maintenance, inspection, and a little honey. After a few months, I stopped bothering with protective gear. Eventually, I had to give them up because I moved so much.

[Ellisa]

Do you know that if someone they know dies you should tell the bees?! Sometimes too they do strike up a friendly relationship with their keeper and do not sting, perhaps because they are usually allowed to keep some of the produce. Many years ago we had bees in my school grounds. No one ever got stung possibly because we respected the bees!

In the Melbourne CBD (in Victoria, Australia) many of the high rise buildings have hives on top of them. The owners often have multiple hives. Melbourne has many parks and gardens and the honey produced is a very fine quality and has the long evenings described by Aspen.

Another thing about Aussie bees is that many of them were sent to the US to help pollinate the orchards as bees are dying quickly there. Unfortunately they cannot return as we do not have the mite responsible for the deaths and we don't want it imported on our bees when they come home.

[amor]

This subject on bees gives me an opening to tell of a recent experience with a tiny, baby bee, which would have a bearing on the subject of the disappearance of bees. I recently had to spray around the doorways and window sills of my house with "Deamon" which is used, among other things to kill roaches, this because of a drainage well from which they arrive in large numbers. I was feeding sparrows in my back yard when I noticed this tiny bee crawling away from the perimeter of the house. Its steps were faltering; it tried to flutter its wings but they would only move with a weak flutter unproductive of any lift. When the bees encounter insecticide and other chemicals in the wild which attack the nervous system, they are unable to get back to the hive. I felt very sorry for the bee and vowed to be more careful about where I sprayed.

[Tangri]

Feeding bees with glucose or sugar water is an ethical?

[william r sanford72]

Feeding bees with glucose or sugar water is an ethical?

ethical to let em die if there starving??
a goodkeeper learns to not rob em of all there honey...pluss there is a food shortage/forage.
sugar water can bee a hive saver for those just taken the honey and not leaving any...in north am ya need or would recommend atleast 60lbs of honey..depending on the season and winters and necter dirths inbetween seasonal foraging.
also...sugar water shortens there life...leave some for the bees and don't bee greedy.
truth and balance.

[Tangri]

Feeding bees with glucose or sugar water is an ethical?

ethical to let em die if there starving??
a goodkeeper learns to not rob em of all there honey...pluss there is a food shortage/forage.
sugar water can bee a hive saver for those just taken the honey and not leaving any...in north am ya need or would recommend atleast 60lbs of honey..depending on the season and winters and necter dirths inbetween seasonal foraging.
also...sugar water shortens there life...leave some for the bees and don't bee greedy.
truth and balance.

You mean , we shouldn't buy early spring's honey because of the winter's feeding?

[william r sanford72]

Feeding bees with glucose or sugar water is an ethical?

ethical to let em die if there starving??
a goodkeeper learns to not rob em of all there honey...pluss there is a food shortage/forage.
sugar water can bee a hive saver for those just taken the honey and not leaving any...in north am ya need or would recommend atleast 60lbs of honey..depending on the season and winters and necter dirths inbetween seasonal foraging.
also...sugar water shortens there life...leave some for the bees and don't bee greedy.
truth and balance.

You mean , we shouldn't buy early spring's honey because of the winter's feeding?

get to know your beekeeper..who your buying from.are they ethical in their treatment of bees...???
buy local.
don't buy major label or big brand market honey..things like that.
tho...maybe they robbed em out to make enough to keep going next year.who knows.
didn't say a word about not buying early spring. tho..most beekeepers I know and had the honor to hang with wouldn't harvest honey here in north America until august or September...maybe even later.
you could robb em of the there first necter pull..early spring.
depends on your motives or...ethics.
wouldn't recommend it.
truth and balance.

[william r sanford72]

also..some keepers pull twice/honey in a year.late summer and late fall.
here where im from I would only pull once a year.and I would wait until the purple aster in the ditches and fields were blooming.
aster honey is very bitter and way to flowery to even blend with other sourced necter/blooms.
also golden rod blooming was really the first sign to watch for the asters.
golden rod honey when first harvested is also much to strong and bitter for most taste.
but can bee mellowed by harvesting it and letting it set for couple months in storage.
your simple question are very thought provoking.
may I ask ifn you keep the little ladies/bees??

truth and balance
William..