Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Running your own beekeeping business
You can approach running your own beekeeping business from two angles. First,
you could gradually build up the number of hives you have as a hobbyist, gathering
experience all the time, until you have sufficient hives to earn some side-money from.
This is usually where most beekeepers stop, but some go on and suddenly find that not
only are they earning money but also they now have the experience and contacts to earn
more, if only they had the time. This is when you must decide whether to chuck in the
safety of your main job at the office or take up the undoubtedly lucrative but riskier
job of working for yourself in an activity that is dependent on the weather, like most
farming activities. As I mentioned earlier, in Spain, we suffered several years of drought
that, allied to a forest fire, so reduced our circumstances we had to flee.
This slow but sure method of building up a business is, nevertheless, sound, for two
reasons. First, you gain a great deal of experience and many contacts so that little comes
as a surprise and, second, by the time you make the decision or not to go full time, you
at least know whether you like it or not!
If you go down this route there will be another decision you must make. At around the
400-500 hive mark you will need help, but you won't necessarily have enough money to
pay someone to work for you. Unless you do, however, you won't be able to increase the
number of your hives or be able to make the best of what you have. It is not, however,
until you reach the 800-1,000 hive mark that you will be able to afford to employ
someone, and so in the meantime you could run out of cash. This type of decision
needs sound financial advice and input from your bank, but it has been done and there
are many medium to large beekeeping companies that have been through this phase of
development successfully.
The second way of starting your own business is to gain experience at home and
abroad with commercial beekeeping companies and, after several years, form your own
company with plenty of hives without going through the slow build-up process. You
will already have experience and you will have the advantage of having seen different
ideas and systems in action with various companies. This is a great way to start in
beekeeping and has many advantages over the slow build-up method, not least the fact
that you are already aware of all the costs involved and the experience levels required to
run large numbers of commercial hives.
