It is a tough thing to control. If you are successful as a bee-person, your hives will be healthy and productive. Healthy and productive hives expand and multiply, near exponentially. It is very very difficult to -keep up- with the bees if you are actually any good at keeping them healthy. Good beekeepers have a tough time keeping bees, because they end up with more bees than can be kept!
Step #1 Goal - Target. This is the reality check and inward reflection. The annual plan must set a FIRM target of number of colonies to be managed for the season. Be brutaly honest and realistic in of that number. Set it based on the number of yards / hives that you can get to within a week. A 7 to 10 day round. How hard do you want to go at it. It is fun and leisurely or is this core work for you. Estimate your round capability on being busy and working hard but not over-working. Once you have that number, that is your target apiary size.
Step #2 Estimate: requirements are dictated based on that apiary target size. Equipment needed to hold all the bees, equipment for handling and processing, labour (help) as the season progresses, number of splits and queens you need to make, real estate space to operate and storage, marketing and distribution of the products that come out of it: honey, wax, pollen, bees, queens, whatever. Ultimately these lead to setting a budget for each phase. Budget is not just money. In the bee business, the crucial budget is TIME. The queen and her bees wait for no man. Set the time budget first, then the dollars follow. When the dollars estimate reveals constraints then go back and reduce the target apiary size to be within it.
Step #3 Schedule. Make up your schedule of bee work for the year. The season from one geographic area to another will be different. However each season within an area is NOT unique. There are things that are going on inside the beehive and out around the beehive during each period (each month) of the year. Weather extremes and other factors may vary which will shift progress ahead or back on the calendar but generally things will happen as and when they should in sequence. What I mean by this is know the bee season, the beehive annual cycle, and when each phase appears on the calendar. Set your schedule so the right work is done at the right time, ahead of time, so as to be well aware and prepared for each phase. Via your weekly round through the apiary, the bees will queue you as to what phase you are in or are about to enter. Be done your work ahead of the bees needs.
Step #4 Contingencies. In other words, over coming challenges and barriers. What sorts of things can get in the way of achieving the target? Limited budget (TIME and $), winter losses, disease epidemic, equipment supply shortage, labour shortage, wildlife damage such as bears hornets wasps skunks etc. Play out some scenarios on paper and have contingency plans for each of them so if and when they happen you are able to act promptly on the fly without delay. Expect the unexpected.
Step #5 Results - Adjustments. By this step you have a set target apiary size and everything lined up above to achieve it, including the how and when it will be done. If the bees exceed target, then sell off nucs queens even complete hives. Unload the colonies and equipment before they become excess strain on your budget (TIME). Remember, if you are actually any good as a bee-person you will not be able to keep up with the bees. Stay within target. If the bees under perform, downsize the plan and the equipment for the season. The schedule does NOT change. Put stuff in storage or sell off bits to recoup. Use the new found extra time to reflect on what you are doing, are not doing, or have been doing wrong which have caused the target to be missed.
Go back to Step #1 and begin creating the next years plan.
Hope that helps!
