Some Thoughts On Turning Your Beekeeping Hobby Into Your Profession | From Hobby To Daily
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ต.ค. 2024
- In this video I chat about the lessons I learned while transforming my operation from my 6 hive backyard hobby to the 150 hive honey operation we run today.
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Hey Brian, fellow beekeeper in southeast Michigan! Been a beekeeper for 25 years , I can't tell you how many people I have bought out over the years only way to go. Not sure I have bought a new box ever! Your so right on about the opportunities that come our way...I have never said no to anyone who wants honey, nucs, queens, pollination, and my business has grown tremendously and keeps growing every year. This year I have made the move put more of my time into bees and squeeze out the old job....love your channel
Used equipment is a godsend when you're trying to grow.
Thanks for the support, Paul.
I'm watching every video on this topic that I can find. Thanks for sharing your experience and advice. We are making the leap.
Thanks for the support. Good luck.
As a person thinking about growing my apiary this is excellent advice. Thx. Enjoy your content .
Thanks for the video. I Started in 19' with 2 nucs, last season got up to 8 colonies and came out of winter 2021 with 7. Now have 16 after swarm splits and confirming what queens came back successfully. I inspect the colonies ever 7 days which used to take a couple hours, now it take 4-5hrs depending on what I find and get into during the inspections. Its a huge time and financial commitment now but I really enjoy it. I don't want many more colonies as the bees would suffer because I would just not be able to handle the work load and do it properly. Thanks again.
Yeah, the workload goes up with the hive numbers, but at some point you figure out a more systematic way of doing things. I don't inspect my colonies the way I did when I had 10, to some extent that makes me a crappier beekeeper, but it also allows me to work 200 colonies. Give and take.
@@BKBees ya I am finding that also. I dont look at them just to look at them. Always have a plan now going in.
Your content is outstanding! I’m a hobby keeper for the past 6 years next to you in Mecosta County. I’ve had issues getting bees to overwinter, evidently my mite regiment ineffective. What is your best advice on how/when to treat? Can you give an example of what measures you take by month the you feel works best? You being so close makes your advice very applicable to my situation.
Thanks for the Videos... any and all info is appreciated...
CLEAR , concise , direct and straight forward . Sound advise and love the videos , keep EM flyin !!!
Thanks, Eric!
My hats off to you sir. I'm wanting to make the leap myself with my wife. I'm a 2nd year bee keeper. 🐝 I want to be doing it within the next 3 years. There is not any Bee supply stores anywhere near us. Thanks for your videos 📹
Cory, Mann Lake sells pretty cheap budget boxes, those took us quite a long ways. Good luck, feel free to come back here and comment any questions or concerns you might have during your growth process.
Thanks again. My wife an I are new to this but its so much fun an its therapy for me . I hope within the next two years I'm full-time. Thanks again
Great advice! I have a goal of having beekeeping as a bit of my overall income
That's the best goal, in my opinion. I love bees and hate what relying on them for 100% of my income would do to my anxiety level about them. Right now I'm at like 30% bees, 70% computer work.
Thanks. This is a really fun topic.
Great video as always Thanks for the knowledge!!!! I only have one question??....How did you get the wife to do the weed wacking??? Mine is a banker and they don't make one that fits her hands😉🤔🤣🤣🤣🏴☠️
lol, she just grabbed it at the end, I wasn't done with my hives and she just started at the weeds.
That is something she does for me pretty regularly though, she'll bring the weed whacker around on a Saturday and touch up the yards while I'm working some bees.
Awesome
If I gave my self advise at start of year. The stacks of boxes I made, I should of done double the amount.
Good piece of advice.
It is amazing how fast the bees will run you out of equipment.
As a newbee myself and without a job or safety net I was greatfull for the government stimulus checks as I used them to invest into my beekeeping journey as well as last years honey profits got re-invested to help my operation grow.
Good use of the stimmy, for sure. Thankfully we're not really at the point anymore where we're investing a ton, but if we were we'da done the same thing.
That's the same thing I did, but I got all the stim at once since I did not file taxes since 2016, well I did I just was not jumping through loops they wanted me to for my refund. But I put most of all of it into equipment since I really did not need the money.
Beginning beekeeping appears to be about keeping them alive (and getting some honey) advanced beekeeping appears to be about creating good queens and selling equipment and resources to beekeepers...🐝
I really like that its like that for the advanced beekeepers though; because any other profession or trade there'd be ZERO incentive to help people out. The way it becomes beneficial for both new and old to help each other in beekeeping is remarkable and quite beautiful.
Other businesses there'd be no way they'd help each other. At all.
I remember in college I made the mistake of one time telling this math professor that I really liked math and would love to work in that field....the result was that at the end of the semester, he failed over half of the class because he felt threatened. There's no way he should have been able to do that. But people do things like that.
Your mic works great.
T h a n k s for the great advice.
I'm quitting my job anyway. 😀 🐝🐝 ❤ 🐝🐝
lol, thanks!
Yeah, for having a weed whacker right next to me, I think the mic did amazingly well.
I keep coming back to your videos for info I cant seem to find with others, However, the video I need is how to start nuc's. I want to sell some next year and am still a little confused as when to start splitting them off, when to start grafting queens, do i let the queens mate in the nuc. I hope you can clear this up for me. Thanks.
Split off nucs from early spring to mid summer depending on where you live. The general rule is to start splits as soon as you see reasonable ammounts of either drones or drone cells, drones are the key, no drones no mated queens. you will save up to 30 days by adding queens to splits rather than waiting for them to make their own, but then you need a cell builder and some basic grafting equipment, watch a heap of youtube posts and look at some older clips in peeps libraries, you can reach these by clicking the ID pic at the bottom right of the screen, click on B&K Bees and see. Other sites include Canadian beekeeper and barnyard bees Bob binnie is also good for information.
@@sentimentalbloke7586 Thanks for the reply, Ive been grafting some this spring with some success. im in north central Arkansas warm and humid weather. you answered my biggest question as when to start, thanks for your help.
@@cloverridgehoney3885 That was the best answer that I could give because things change from state to state area to area, but generally as soon as you see drones you can do splits, start grafting whatever. I am in Australia and the same rule applies.
These days it is a lot cheaper to buy equipment lol. The guy I go to I think for a double deep 8 frame with out frames was 60.28 that was for two deep boxes, bottom board telescoping lid and inner cover. His frames are 2.55 with waxed foundation way more wax on them than mannlake. I think for 10 double deep worth of equipment was a little over 1100.00 but I did buy 40 more frames than I actually needed just to keep my nucs going as I put them into 8 frame equipment I can keep two brood frames in the nucs to let them make a queen and have a new colony. But currently I am at 15 colonies and I do believe that's where I am staying until next year.
Good idea to stop for now. Grow 15 to 30 next year.
That equipment guy sounds great. I have a similar person I rely on for large purchases, or at least I did when I lived in the lower peninsula.
I'm new this year, started with 2 nucs and now have 5 colonies. I done 2 splits and caught a huge swarm. They have both requeened themselves.. 1 is laying already,, gotta check the second to see if the queen has been mated.. I'm learning every step of the way. Now Heres my question....how late is too late to do a split? This swarm is gonna need it soon. I think
Beginning of July was my cutoff in the lower peninsula. You have time. Split now and feed feed feed.
Hey Brett,
Have not heard from you in over a year. You doing okay?
New bee keeper. Installed bees April 8. Starting my first hive. End of May, first inspection noticed nectar, frame's single side had brood, and another frame had few speckling of drone cells. June 20 inspection, no brood, had small amount of capped honey and population appeared smaller. Did not notice queen however noticed a capped swarm cell. I believe it was a swarm cell. The capped cell was located near bottom of the frame and not on the bottom. Also noticed an uncapped cell middle of another frame. From when the bees arrived to now I have been continuously watching the hives activity. Late evenings noticed bees hanging outside on the landing board. They were bringing in pollen. I thought things were looking strong. Now worried. No brood. I am new and have difficult time locating the queen, so I may have missed her. Anything that can help with this situation?
I'd suggest getting into the bees more often, firstly. I think they swarmed on you, and you'da seen the preparations if you were in the hive every week or two.
Now that they've swarmed, I'd reduce them to a proper size, where they're filling out 60 or 70% of the overall hive cavity, and wait for them to get a mated queen from one of those cells. If the hive is still highly populated, enough to warrant another swarm, remove all but one cell. If it isn't, and I don't think it is, based on your description, just reduce them down to a proper size and give it two weeks for the virgin to get mated. Get back in there and inspect every 10 days, adding space when necessary. Feed 'em like crazy in the fall to get them heavy enough.
This is a VERY common beginner mistake, don't get down on yourself.
@@BKBees Thank you, today I inspected the hive. Found a very large queen. She was gorgeous. A lot of nectar and capped honey, but no brood. Four frames of capped honey. The queen cell in the middle of a frame, which earlier I described uncapped. I may not have been incorrect. It may have been capped, because today I watched a queen emerge from the cell. As you mentioned, earlier I thought they swarmed. Now I'm thinking that the queen has something wrong. The gorgeous queen, I think she stopped laying for some reason and that is why I noticed the emergence of a new queen. Population looks good and appears larger, but since there isn't any brood, I don't know why the numbers would increase. The bees look strong. How many days should I wait to inspect the new queen return and has successfully started laying?
Thanks for advice, just got my first hive couple months ago and just saved massive hive from tree struck by lightning. I am trying to grow to the point I have 800 or more hives so wish me luck on that. My question is this, do you think it is better to get new or slightly used equipment from other beekeepers for little extra money, or try to build the box's yourself for less money but take up more time? I have full time job atm
Get cheap used equipment wherever you can. Building it yourself or buying new will be too much of an investment in either time or money.
800 hives is a LOT. I originally wanted to grow to get to 500. We got to 150 and I said maybe this is good?
@@BKBees I know its alot, but with what I'm wanting to do it will be well worth the time and money. Thanks for the advice
he Brett great info. A small split I made earlier seemed to be doing well. I recently moved them into a single deep box from a 5 frame nuke. checked on them today after four or so days and I am seeing lotsa drone brood in a shotgun pattern on several frames. not seeing the sheets of capped brood as I normally see. the queen is young and of this season. I did see her in there. Any ideas? I did switch out a frame of described brood for one from another hive that had both sides sheets of sealed brood and the bees that were on it. third year bee keeper in alaska and have never really seen drone brood scattered all over the frames before. not much normal brood as I recall. Have had some pretty hot weather over past few days
Sounds like a drone layer. Crappy mating flights can result in this. You did the right thing giving them brood. Hopefully they'll make a queen with an egg on one of those cells. If not, I'd start to think about trying to purchase a queen or combining it with another colony.
@@BKBees thank you very much for the feedback. will work on it.
I have a swarm that I caught last may. They swarmed in March and I put them in another hive. After 2 months they swarmed again in May. I put them in a 5 frame Nuc. The hive they came from became Mean after I found a new queen, but the original is still gentle. I have seen videos of Re-queening to make them gentle again, but I don't want to lose a queen. My question is: Can I remove the Queen from the hive and one from a Nuc and leave them both Queen-less for a couple days and then swap the queens. do you think the queen will make the other Nuc mean? Thanks for your videos.
I'd requeen 'em, rather than moving her. Yes, I think the nuc you move her to will eventually become mean. Pinch her, let 'em requeen, you'll be happy you did.
@@BKBees Thanks for the advice.
I like the advice of Bob Binnie that at the max grow 2-3 times per year until you get to the size you want. Your skills have to grow as fast as your bee operation. And never borrow money to buy bees. Assets can be resold but dead bees are worth nothing. It seems most guys that grow into being full time count on their wife's income to put groceries on the table for many years. There are always those up and down years - drought, disease, pesticides, cold snaps, floods, and screw ups. Slow steady growth is more secure than fast growth. My opinions.
Yeah, growing 3x per year seems pretty fast, so I agree. We never did anything like that, except for maybe at the very beginning.
My bees have plenty of room 1 deep and 2 mediums 8 frame hive for brood and the queen is laying like crazy but they keep making super seizure cells on the middle of the frames. what should I do about it? I’m in the lower around two thirds down. Any help would be appreciated.
I have two mediums on top and they are in the process of capping the lower one and haven’t started moving up into the top one yet. All together five high.
If you're certain they're supersedure cells, I'd just leave them. Otherwise, think about taking a small split.
@@BKBees thank you so much i’m fairly sure that they are supersedure ( spell check got me last time) i’ve got a swarm box out just in case.
I’d love to be able to take a mini vacation and come up there and give you a hand for a day and soak up some of your knowledge.
@@darreldodds8824 I don't normally bring people along, although we have entertained the idea of doing that a few times per year. Where are you located?
@@BKBees I live by Linden Mi it’s about 20 miles south of Flint. I can’t grow a decent beard but I’ll bring my own smoker and hive tool.
put your hat on right, most people who wear their hat backwards don't know if they're coming or going..
lol, firstly, I rock the hat backwards pretty often. Secondly, if I were to have kept that hat on straight, I'da had a bunch of comments saying "we can't see your face".
@@BKBees they should be here for your knowledge, not your face lol.
@@olddave4833 you're here to tell me you didn't come to this channel to see my face?!
lol I know, I get it, but I swear if my face is in shadow the whole video I get tons of dissatisfied comments about it.
Hi fellow Michigan beekeeper here, how’s it going? I hope you are doing well in the UP
How many nucs do you sale every year and how many lbs of honey?
Thanks
Lee Big Honey
The nuc/queen thing took a huge hit this year, with the big move. We had been selling around 30 to 50 nucs, a few hundred queens, and producing around 5-7,000 lbs of honey per year. This year we sold practically no queens or nucs, but I expect us to put up 8 or 10 thousand pounds of honey.