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Author Topic: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?  (Read 7411 times)

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #20 on: August 18, 2018, 07:56:38 am »
By our second year we had 40 hives with a 16 hive trailer, thought we couldn't get any busier, moved up to 70 with the new 44 hive trailer, then 120 and to 170.
You seem to grow with the increases and look back and say how did we seem so busy with 40 hives.
Right or wrong with opinions we run queen excluders and single brood boxes, also clearer boards or bee escapes for honey harvesting.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing your experience. With that kind of progress it's no wonder you're comments seem to always make scene, Experience is invaluable! Along with others here. Thanks, Phillip Hall
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #21 on: August 23, 2018, 09:16:57 am »
I have a full time job.  I had 70 hives and 150 mating nucs about a month ago.  When I wasn't trying to raise so many queens I was running 200 hives and a full time job.  But it's like having two full time jobs... 40 hours a week of job and 40 hours a week of bees...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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Offline hilltophermit

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #22 on: August 23, 2018, 12:59:54 pm »
I think a lot of it depends on how flexible your "real' job is.  Can you take time off when the bees need you? Can you leave on short notice? If you can work nights, That might be an advantage working the bees in the day time. Sometimes when you wait for the weekend to do something you find the weather doesn't cooperate. Just keep building up your stock until you scream "uncle!" lol It helps if you love what you do.

Offline tanamonn

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #23 on: June 14, 2021, 05:03:44 am »
I want to take up beekeeping but without quitting my job, I think I can try with 30 hives.

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #24 on: June 14, 2021, 08:13:20 am »
stephpull,  tanamonn Welcome...
« Last Edit: June 14, 2021, 11:17:03 am by Ben Framed »
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Bob Wilson

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #25 on: June 14, 2021, 08:51:09 am »
Yes, Takamonn. We assume you already have gained experience as a beek and know the pitfalls? Hives crash and die. It is an expensive investment for 3 hives, much less 30.
I hope I am not pontificating. Just encouraging. Beekeeping is a wonderful endeavor.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #26 on: June 14, 2021, 09:13:11 am »
Tana and Steph,
Welcome to Beemaster.
Taking on 30 hives to start is risky business. Unless you have a lot of experience, I would not do more than a couple of hives.
Jim Altmiller 
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline 2Sox

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #27 on: June 14, 2021, 10:59:54 am »
I look at how long it took me to really know all the pitfalls of disease, forage and type of bee then my management technique.
If I dont do something stupid my total hours per hive for the season is probably about 3-4.
Then add in queen rearing and nucs and honey you can easily throw about 50 hrs in on top.
Add equipment maintenance like painting and making frames there's another 30 plus.
Dont forget 2 to 1 syrup making and distribution another 20 hrs.
Requeening swarms all extra on top.
Self employed I try to take may off as that is your season
I run about 180 hives.
I do occasionally have a helper but they seem to quit by july.
To get to where you can read a hive in under a few (3) minutes...disease, mites, stores, demeanor, vigor is the challenge. After that its factory work.
Luck

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This is a GREAT post. Thanks.
"Good will is the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful." - Eli Siegel, American educator, poet, founder of Aesthetic Realism

Offline 2Sox

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #28 on: June 14, 2021, 11:37:46 am »
I'm just wondering how many hives one person could manage while keeping a full time job?


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This is a great question.  And reading the responses has been an educational experience for me.  When I started beekeeping about 13 years ago, I thought I could run 50 hives. I was teaching full time and could only get to my hives - 150 miles away - on the weekends, during school breaks and in the summer.  I was up to 39 hives. The hives were kept at my second home in the middle of the New York State watershed. Pristine, endless forage for acres and acres. Development is forbidden. The weekends were spent on bees ONLY and my beloved sideline was starting to be NOT fun anymore. I felt I was neglecting other things - the central being my wife. The bad thing is I dismissed the reality of this feeling and thought I could take it on.  I was a few years from retirement and felt things would soon change. They didn?t. It was too much for me. I was in just turning 60 then and in excellent health, but it was just too much for me.

I guess what I?m trying to say is that the answer to your question is different for everyone. But, as I see it, the CENTRAL  question is the same for everyone - and it?s a multifaceted question; Do you want to be completely fair to the beings whose lives you are responsible for and all that takes in? What would that MEAN? And how fair do you think you CAN be - with all the facts present?

Guys who start beekeeping in their 20s and 30s will have a very different answer than us older guys and gals, many with children, wives/husbands, and challenging and/or difficult full time jobs.  Age, physical condition and general health are critical factors. I?m 74 now, retired from teaching, and still in very good shape but at this point, 8-10 hives - tops - is all I can handle - and all I feel I can sufficiently be fair to.



 
"Good will is the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful." - Eli Siegel, American educator, poet, founder of Aesthetic Realism

Offline Oldbeavo

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #29 on: June 14, 2021, 06:59:04 pm »
This topic has too many variables to draw a concrete conclusion.
Your individual circumstances have to be built into your decision.
We ran 170 hives with both of us having full time jobs, went to 220 and i was full time bees while my partner kept her teaching job.
At 300 hives Karen quit easy teaching job and we were then full time bee keepers. We have peaked out at 360 hives.
We try to keep our bees about 80 miles from home in various locations depending on what is flowering. The winter 170 miles from home which we find is a time stretch due to driving time.
As you get more hives you tend to become more efficient in time you spend on each hive, some very good hives have a Spring inspection, brood, queen and frames. Then taking honey off when needed and a final inspection in Autumn before packing down for Winter. Would love to have 360 of these hives.
But others have queen quality, poor production, queenless etc that soak up more time, our quick fix is add a nuc, so they get new queen, brood and more bees. Need to make a decision that will not need you to come back in a few days to check what ever.
Our other advantage to our bee keeping business is that my partner is as good in a hive as i am, has a total working knowledge of bees and the honey business. At times if we are replacing queens we do a frame each looking for the queen to cull, speeds things up.
Our business is fully migratory with most hives doing 5-6 shifts per season.
We have tried 50 hives stationary for 7 months of the season, it is a lower work load of running bees.
As I am 69, my idea of retirement is 100 hives run stationary.
On the $ side we built our boxes from scratch, week nites after work and grew our hive numbers by splitting in spring. The increase is slow but as Jim said, start small and learn as you grow.
You will learn to modify you beekeeping as hive numbers grow.

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #30 on: June 14, 2021, 07:20:48 pm »
OLdBeavo, do you and your partner market propolis?
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #31 on: June 14, 2021, 07:23:40 pm »
It must be nice having a partner equally yoked, working together for a living as you and Karen! Congratulations to you both!
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Beeboy01

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #32 on: June 14, 2021, 07:37:23 pm »
Try to identify the bottlenecks found with keeping bees first before making a decision. Something as basic as a larger than initially needed motorized extractor will make your life easier. Simplify your equipment so everything is interchangeable by using all deeps. Location of your yard is important, a long commute to and from the yard will burn up time that could be spent working the hives. Lots of variables needed to be considered, I found that five hives with a full time job and being on call was about all I wanted to deal with. Any more than that and it stop being a hobby and became more like work.   

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #33 on: June 14, 2021, 07:50:25 pm »
Try to identify the bottlenecks found with keeping bees first before making a decision. Something as basic as a larger than initially needed motorized extractor will make your life easier. Simplify your equipment so everything is interchangeable by using all deeps. Location of your yard is important, a long commute to and from the yard will burn up time that could be spent working the hives. Lots of variables needed to be considered, I found that five hives with a full time job and being on call was about all I wanted to deal with. Any more than that and it stop being a hobby and became more like work.   

Some good points made here Beeboy01. Here in America we are very fortunate that in many states we are blessed with lush greenery, including mine. Some states not so much. I suppose in the, not so much greenery States, some times travel is a necessity. Certainly something to be considered for a new beekeeper. It certainly is nice for me and you not to have our hives so far away. In OldBeavo and Karens' situation, they are pollinators if I am not mistaken.
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Oldbeavo

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #34 on: June 15, 2021, 05:45:40 am »
HI Ben
We don't market propolis, high input in labor for a small market in Oz. Same as pollen, we don't harvest it and it accumulates but by the end of winter there is none left, i don't think the bees through it out, so the bees must have used it.
Yes we do pollinate, both almonds and cherries, they run consecutively, 8/1 almonds for 4 weeks then 9/1 for cherries for 4-6 weeks depending on varieties. $145 almonds, $110 cherries and with a bit of luck about 80 deeps of canola honey from near by crops.
Gives the bank account a top up after winter.

Both of us work bees and extract honey but we do split jobs as Karen packages and deals withe wax cleaning. I do the box hardware work but Karen is the gun frame maker and plastic foundation waxer.
We both attend farmer markets to sell our honey and wax products. Karen also makes a range of natural olive and goats milk soaps to supplement our market income. There is a honey and oat soap.
We do anything to make a buck, except propolis.

Offline FatherMichael

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #35 on: June 15, 2021, 06:18:07 pm »
What a great discussion!  Such good responses!  Yes, so many variables!
41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

43 And he took it, and did eat before them.

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #36 on: June 18, 2021, 07:22:40 pm »
I was almost 20 years younger when I was doing 200 hives plus mating nucs by myself.  I work at trying to keep up with about 70 hives now and I have someone helping me now...
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

Offline tycrnp

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #37 on: June 19, 2021, 11:59:38 pm »
I say let the bees direct it. We started five or six years ago with just one hive. It was a top bar Hive and was excellent for learning. The next year we got a couple of Langstroth hives. As people know you are a beekeeper they'll call you to come and catch swarms. That gave us more hives. With a very light winter in the spring the hives were busting at the seams so we did several splits. That gave us more hives. Now we have over 30, and still work FT.  I think the key for us has been learning along the way, and not taking on too much too fast.

Offline Bill Murray

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #38 on: July 09, 2021, 08:56:32 pm »
I think it has to do with "growing with your bees." My personal opinion was when I had 5 hives it was not enough. Went to   20,  had to move some from the house to an out yard. Now again I didn't have enough hives. I dont work a full time job now but when I did I called 50 good. that allowed me to deal with my job and bee issues, If I lost a queen I was good. If I had dead outs I was good. And the honey I sold paid for my bees. Now those 50 hives, except for the few I watched when I came home at night only got looked at once a month.
With all that being said I now do NUCs at the house with 3 to 4 full hives here. My couple out yards get looked at still once every 4 weeks. I would like to be at 225 in Dec. Thats nucs,singles and doubles But As someone else said my issue is always drawn comb and wooden-ware. If I just bought it all (Im cheap/frugal) thanks to my wife. I could probably triple my count this fall and aside from that the slowdown is good because it lets me grow with my bees. The minute I cant tend to that amount will let me know when I have enough.

Online Ben Framed

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Re: Full time job + beekeeping/ how many hives?
« Reply #39 on: July 09, 2021, 09:32:34 pm »
Quote
But As someone else said my issue is always drawn comb and wooden-ware.

Plenty extra wood-ware is a priority. A most important thing to keep on hand. Drawn comb as well. Finally I will have a fair amount of drawn comb going in reserve.
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.