Beekeeping is one of those fun and rewarding practices that many people enjoy. Some will keep bees just for fun or to get the super-healthy bee products. However, others look forward to making some profit or even making it their full-time job. 

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Is beekeeping profitable?

Beekeeping is a profitable venture for both sideliners and full-timers. However, the amount of profit you make will depend on diverse factors. These include your level of experience, number of beehives, climatic conditions, location, the products you choose to sell, and marketing skills. 

We often think that the only way to make money in beekeeping is by selling honey. Surprisingly, there are diverse ways to generate profit and earn big in the venture. The best way is to start slowly with a few hives and learn about beekeeping before scaling up.

Is beekeeping expensive?

Unlike many other businesses, beekeeping has a relatively low overhead cost. Better still, it becomes more and more profitable as you grow your colonies. The initial cost will depend on the number of colonies, choice of the equipment, hive configuration, type of bee package, and location. Most of the expenses are upfront; the tools, hives, and protective gear you buy while starting the business will last for years. Here is a rough estimate of the initial cost of beekeeping:

Hive

A complete Langstroth hive with its parts costs up to $270. 

Bees

The cost of a nucleus colony ranges from $180-$250. A bee package is cheaper; the price goes from $125-$200.

Beekeeping Tools

The essential beekeeping tools ( a smoker, hive tool, and brush) will cost approximately $40. With time you will require honey extractors. You can expect to spend $200-$300 for an electric extractor or $150 for a manual one.

Protective Gear

The protective clothing per person will range from $20-$160, depending on your choices.

Bee Education

Before you venture into beekeeping, you will need to learn about the practice. A beginner’s beekeeping course costs $45-$75, while a beekeeping book can cost you about $20. 

Land Expenses

To raise a healthy bee colony, you need to live in an area with abundant flowers and plants that bees can feed on. Raising bees in urban settings is more tricky than in rural areas. If you don’t own land to keep bees, you will need to buy or rent. The costs can be incredibly high and vary in different regions. 

Miscellaneous costs

Miscellaneous costs such as supplement foods, mite treatment, and painting the hive will cost about $100. 

Depending on your region, you may also require a business permit. With time, there will be additional costs for packaging, marketing, and nutritional labels. The maintenance costs in beekeeping are usually not very high and fluctuate year after year, depending on weather conditions, availability of nectar supply, and the age of the hives. 

What are the ways that one can earn from beekeeping?

Selling Bee Products

Bees produce several products besides honey that you can harvest and sell.

Honey

Honey is the most popular bee product that is always in demand. It is good to keep in mind that you may not have any harvest in your first year in beekeeping since the colony needs time to get established. The amount of honey that you get from a hive depends on nectar availability, weather, and the colony’s health. 

Beeswax

You can sell raw beeswax or make value-added products such as soaps, hand creams, candles, lip balms, etc. 

Pollen

Pollen is the sole protein source for the colony. Honey bees collect it from flowers and bring it back to the nest, where it is mixed with nectar to make bee bread. It is also a valued health supplement for humans and has a higher market value than honey. You will need to install pollen traps at the hive entrance to harvest pollen. You should harvest for short periods, a few days a week, to ensure the colony has enough pollen for the brood. 

Propolis

Propolis is a sticky resin-like substance that bees collect to seal cracks and disinfect the hive. Humans also use it for its medicinal properties. You can use a propolis trap to harvest the product from the hive. A healthy colony can provide a steady supply of propolis. 

Royal Jelly

Royal jelly is a protein-rich excretion secreted by young worker bees to feed the young larvae and the queen. The queen provides royal jelly her entire life, while drones and worker larvae only feed with the product for three days. It is valuable since very little is made, and harvesting is also challenging. 

Selling Bees

Selling bees is another excellent way to earn good money in beekeeping. You can produce starter hives and replacement bees for your fellow beekeepers using your existing hives. This may take a while since you need ample knowledge and bee numbers. Here are some of the ways you can sell your bees:

Complete hives

These are established beehives. They sell between $250 and $350. 

Nucleus Colonies

A nucleus hive is a mini-colony consisting of several frames of honey and brood together with bees and a productive queen. The existing honeycomb gives your colony a jump start when installed in a new hive. A nucleus hive consisting of 5 frames and a queen sells at $180 to $250. 

Bee packages

A Bee package consisting of 3 pounds of bees and a queen sells at an average cost of $175.

Bee Removal Services

An experienced beekeeper can offer local bee removal services. It is also a great way to increase your bee colonies with swarms at zero cost. Bee removal services range from $150- $1500. It can even cost more if a swarm is inside a structure and is difficult to access. 

Offering Pollination Services

Renting your bees to farmers to pollinate their crops can be very profitable. Some migratory beekeepers earn a full-time income from pollination services alone and manage hundreds of beehives in large farm plantations. Beekeepers with few hives also benefit by offering their services on smaller farms. The prices depend on location and season. 

Beekeeping Education and Advisory Services

As you grow in experience, you can share your knowledge by offering training and advisory services to new beekeepers. Starting a beekeeping business can be overwhelming since there is a lot to learn. Giving a helping hand through training will help novice beekeepers to succeed. You can schedule the classes and demonstrations for weekends if you have other commitments. Another great way is to start beekeeping classes online. If you are not yet experienced enough to offer in-depth courses, you can offer some bee farm tours for anyone who wants to learn about bees. 

Beekeeping Equipment

As a beekeeper, you can partake in DIY projects which involve making some features that don’t come with the hive components. These include entrance reducers, slatted racks, robbing screens, bee feeders, bee escapes, etc. Making quality equipment will help you gain credibility. 

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What is the beekeeping profit per hive?

It is good to note that you are unlikely to harvest honey or other bee products in your first year. A new bee colony will require ample time to establish and produce excess honey. The amount of honey per hive will vary year after year depending on the colony’s health, weather, and the nectar flow in your region. A healthy hive should produce honey and bees with optimum conditions and a conducive climate. Here is a rough estimate of the profit a beekeeper can earn in a season:

Honey

A healthy hive can produce 100 pounds( 45kgs) in a season when all conditions are right. If you harvest 60 pounds of honey and see it at about $10 per pound, you will make a profit of $600.

Beeswax

A colony produces 1 to 2 pounds of beeswax for every 100 pounds of honey. Beeswax pellets or bars can sell at approximately $12-$20 per pound. However, it is more profitable when you make value-added products such as soaps, lip balms, wraps, and candles.

Pollen

A strong colony collects about 125 pounds of pollen in a season. Bee pollen sells at $25 per pound. If you manage to collect 25 pounds and sell at $ 20 per pound, you will make a profit of $500 in a season. 

Propolis

Propolis is found in small quantities in a hive. You can harvest about 100-200g of propolis from a hive, but this can increase to 1 kg while using propolis traps. Propolis can sell for up to $10 per ounce, hence a $160 per pound profit. 

Strategies to Employ When Taking up Beekeeping for Profit

Beehive Management

Hive management is crucial for long-time survival. Bees are susceptible to diseases, parasites, and threatening environmental influences. Most common threats to honey bees include American Foulbrood, varroa mites, tracheal mites, hive beetles, and Nosema. If you want to make beekeeping a profitable venture, you must identify these risks. 

Regulations and Legal Implications

There are regulations and legal implications attached to beekeeping in every state. If you live in a suburban or urban setting, surrounded by neighbors on every side, you need to know the local regulations governing beekeeping.

 Legal issues that you need to know

• Whether you need to register your hives
• Whether you need a business license to keep bees and sell bee products
• Whether you need liability insurance to start beekeeping in your region
• Whether local zoning laws permit beekeeping
• Whether the local laws control the number of hives, you can keep on your property.
• The information you need to include in your products label

Time Commitment

On top of money resources, succeeding in beekeeping will require a time commitment. You will set time to set up your colonies, inspect your hives, maintain the health of the bees, and harvest the products. 

How Many beehives can one beekeeper manage?

The number of colonies that a person can manage will depend on the goals, experience level, time management skills, and equipment quality. Managing hives for honey production requires more time commitment than just raising and selling bees. An experienced beekeeper can manage 100-150 bee colonies successfully while working a full-time job. When taking it as a full-time job, one beekeeper can manage 500 -800 bee colonies but will require seasonal workers to help harvest, honey. Most new beekeepers maintain 5-25 bee colonies. These are easier to manage as they learn and scale-up in the venture. 

Pros in Beekeeping

Valuable Byproducts

Honey bees produce useful byproducts that you can sell and generate profit. All the products, honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, beeswax, and propolis, have a high market value.

Low Maintenance

Honey bees are hardworking and don’t require constant monitoring. A well-managed colony with healthy bees and abundant nectar sources will require very little from you. Bee colonies only need help in winter, when there is a food shortage, or when infested with pests or diseases. 

Multiple Income Streams

Beekeeping provides you with diverse opportunities to earn an income on top of selling honey and other products. You can offer beekeeping education, make beekeeping equipment, offer bee removal services, manage apiaries for other beekeepers, and provide pollination services. Diversity helps you experiment in various ways and see what works best for you. 

Improved Crops Yields

Honey bees are instrumental in the pollination of numerous vegetables and fruit crops. Introducing bee colonies on your farm will increase your crops’ pollination rate and yields. 

Cons in Beekeeping

Start-up costs

The start-up costs can be intimidating, especially if you have not set money aside for the business.

Delayed Profits

It is unlikely to get some profit during the first year even after the extensive learning and hard work. Again, not every hive will be profitable; some will drag along while others will die off. 

Stings

Bee stings are painful and can be fatal if you are allergic. But bee stings will be rare if you learn to manage the hives the right way and wear protective gear. 

Regulations

Local regulations can kill your dream of becoming a beekeeper if the law does not allow the venture in your area. You need to do thorough research to avoid potential fines. 

Pests and diseases

Bees are vulnerable to pests and diseases. This business is not for the faint-hearted since even the best colonies lose bee colonies each year. It will take good management consistently to keep them healthy and productive. 

How do you increase profits in bee farming?

You can increase your profit margins by maintaining healthy colonies. The high bee population will take advantage of peak seasons. Another way is by expand your product line is to sell value-added products. Besides selling raw beeswax, you can make and sell beeswax products such as candles, wraps, soaps, body creams, etc. 

You can also render the wax and sell pure beeswax to people who make candles and other products. To increase your honey sales, you can create specialty products that sell at a higher price, such as comb honey, or confections such as cinnamon or vanilla. You can also rear queens or sell nuc colonies to other beekeepers in spring. 

How many beehives do a beekeeper need to make a living?

Becoming a full-time beekeeper will require planning, a lot of experience, resources, and great bee management strategies. 

The number of colonies a beekeeper needs to make the venture a full-time job depends on individuals because people have different income requirements. One person may just require a few hives to earn a living, while another may need more. A skilled beekeeper may only require a few hives but make a decent income through offering training or selling beekeeping equipment. Another one may focus on raising and selling bees. 

If you want to make a living through honey production, you will require at least 200 beehives, ample equipment, and proper bee management. 

FAQs

What is the work of a beekeeper?

A beekeeper is involved in raising bee colonies, harvesting products, and ensuring beehives remain healthy and productive.  

What is the potential profit from one bee colony?

You can make about $600 from honey production on the higher end with one colony. To calculate the profit per hive, you should deduct any maintenance, harvesting, packaging, and marketing expenses. 

Is commercial beekeeping profitable?

Commercial beekeeping entails raising 300 or more bee colonies which can be very profitable. Such beekeepers migrate their colonies to provide pollination services to large-scale farmers while at the same time providing their bees with abundant nectar sources for honey production. 

Where can you sell your bee products?

To make significant money from beekeeping, you will need to sell your products appropriately. You can reach out to local farm markets and stores, open your farm stand, sell to independent buyers, or sell online. Your profitability depends on your marketing skills. You can also sell on online platforms. 

How much does it cost to start beekeeping?

It will cost you $500 and $700 for one beehive and  $200-$300 for every additional hive.

Is it hard to start beekeeping?

Beekeeping is not easy. It requires time, money for start-up, patience, and is physically demanding. There are also many hazards such as parasites, pest infestation, predators, and diseases. 

How much time is required in beekeeping?

The time you spend in beekeeping will depend on the number of colonies you attend and your experience level. You can spend 15-30 minutes a week per hive. 

How many beehives can l start with?

Two colonies are sufficient for a beginner. After you gain experience, you can go for commercial beekeeping.