<i>"Fascinating article I didn't know there was such a large business in a renta-bee-pollinations."</i>
Beekeeping is one of those myriad little niche industries no one ever thinks about. The big commercial beekeepers have 2,000 to 10,000 hive colonies. Each hive has 20,000 to 60,000 bees in a colony. Moving 400 of those at a time involves forklifts, flatbed trucks and working at night.
Last week sometime, one of those trucks overturned on a freeway in California. Made national news. Some of the big commericals run five - ten trucks of 400 hives per at a time.
Those bee farms ship hives up and down the coast, early spring thru late summer pollinating at $100 to $200 per box each stop. Drop them off, pick them up two - four weeks later, on to the next stop. Blueberries and cranberries in the north, strawberries and melons in the south, fruit orchards all over, pecans in particular for California.
Honey produced is sold in bulk to packagers by 55 gallon drums. Bee pollen, wax and propolis (bee glue) are by-products. Selling starter packages of bees for $75 - $100 and queens for $20 to $100 are also sideline income.
Big beekeepers could easily clear high six to mid-seven figures per year with a handful of family workers and some seasonal employees. Big produce farms and orchards depend on those guys for pollination, or their production = income suffers.
The beekeepers who come up with strains of bees that can withstand current pestilence & stress are poised to reap big rewards. Bees multiply quickly, the problem today is keeping them alive more than one year. Accomplish that, raise 2000 ~ 5000 hives of hardy strain and a small operation can reasonably expect to earn $250k to $1mil or so at today's prices for pollination, package bee sales and honey / wax byproducts.
Trust me... there are motivated people out there searching for solutions from all angles. Chances for a total honeybee collapse exist and are real, but it's not like everyone is standing around idle at the scene. Expect there to be solutions that will save bees... just at a much higher cost of production, passed along to the consumer at every stop as usual.
That's enough bee facts in a trading forum. Let's get ready for a productive week in our respective charts
Beekeeping is one of those myriad little niche industries no one ever thinks about. The big commercial beekeepers have 2,000 to 10,000 hive colonies. Each hive has 20,000 to 60,000 bees in a colony. Moving 400 of those at a time involves forklifts, flatbed trucks and working at night.
Last week sometime, one of those trucks overturned on a freeway in California. Made national news. Some of the big commericals run five - ten trucks of 400 hives per at a time.
Those bee farms ship hives up and down the coast, early spring thru late summer pollinating at $100 to $200 per box each stop. Drop them off, pick them up two - four weeks later, on to the next stop. Blueberries and cranberries in the north, strawberries and melons in the south, fruit orchards all over, pecans in particular for California.
Honey produced is sold in bulk to packagers by 55 gallon drums. Bee pollen, wax and propolis (bee glue) are by-products. Selling starter packages of bees for $75 - $100 and queens for $20 to $100 are also sideline income.
Big beekeepers could easily clear high six to mid-seven figures per year with a handful of family workers and some seasonal employees. Big produce farms and orchards depend on those guys for pollination, or their production = income suffers.
The beekeepers who come up with strains of bees that can withstand current pestilence & stress are poised to reap big rewards. Bees multiply quickly, the problem today is keeping them alive more than one year. Accomplish that, raise 2000 ~ 5000 hives of hardy strain and a small operation can reasonably expect to earn $250k to $1mil or so at today's prices for pollination, package bee sales and honey / wax byproducts.
Trust me... there are motivated people out there searching for solutions from all angles. Chances for a total honeybee collapse exist and are real, but it's not like everyone is standing around idle at the scene. Expect there to be solutions that will save bees... just at a much higher cost of production, passed along to the consumer at every stop as usual.
That's enough bee facts in a trading forum. Let's get ready for a productive week in our respective charts
