Nowadays people like investing in many businesses that can bring both, pleasure and profit. One of those businesses can be beekeeping, but is that profitable? Many would say that those calming buzzing sounds of bees in haves while producing honey are quite satisfying. But before going from beekeeping as a hobby to beekeeping as a business, here are some tips to follow.
Investing in beekeeping is means investing into hives, which is a low-cost investment. You don’t need a big space to place hives, an average garden is enough, and if you are having a garden which is bee friendly, with a lot of flowers, even better. But if you don’t it’s not a problem as bees can fly for 3 miles to collect food. The hive itself doesn’t cost much either. If you include hive frames, beekeeping tools, brood boxes, protective gear, bees, food and medication it can cost you from $600 to $900, for two hives, which can last up to 30 years.
But before starting the beekeeping business, you have to ensure that is legal to keep bees in your garden. This law varies from city to city. These laws can refer to anything, from the number of hives you can have in a given area to requiring beekeeping license. If you don-t know the information, you should ask the local beekeeping club for insight. That would save you lots of money in future because if your hives are not placed in enough range away from neighboring houses, you could be forced to remove hives.
Another thing to pay attention to is keeping your beehives healthy. To ensure that your beekeeping brings you profit, you have to check your hives regularly, because they are at risk from many bacteria and parasites like American foulbrood, nosema, Varroa mites, Tracheal mites and hive beetles. For example, American foulbrood is caused by spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, and they can be quickly spread if bees come in contact with contaminated honey. That means that your hives are at risk wherever you place them unless you check and protect them.
Some cities have the inspection coming to check on the health of bees and those regulations help to keep the diseases from spreading.
When it comes to earnings, how much will you profit from harvesting depends on many factors? It mostly depends on hive’s health but also on climate, the year’s weather, the winter. Knowing that bees use honey as food, you first have to ensure that bees have enough food and then you take for yourself all that is left. Sometimes, if winter is harsh, bees will keep all honey for themselves and leave you empty-handed, but that is the risk you have to take.
Regulations on selling honey vary from state to state. For example, Florida falls under cottage-food regulations. That means you can sell you honey and honey products right from your house road stand, but the only thing is that it can’t exceed $15,000 a year.
On the other hand, selling honey and honey products in Oklahoma goes under a separate law, which states that ”producers cannot sell more than 500 pounds of honey and must sell direct to consumers”.
There is no guarantee that beekeeping is profitable, but if you are doing it as a hobby and sell it on a small scale, it can bring you some profit as a side business. It is good to start first from your inner circle, to sell honey to friends and family, so they can spread a word of how tasty and delicious it is, and it may bring you, other customers.
