A honey bee colony can have bad luck just like the rest of us. I know the would travel miles and so, but let's say you live in a big city and I have this large acre garden, I could buy more land but I need to know how many acres does a beehive needs. Bees produce much honey in these hives rather than their own nests. A honeybee is just like a vehicle it carries things from point A to B, and in so doing will incur wear and tear. Bees per acre; How many hives. A beekeeping salary, like any job, is very dependent on your experience and what region of the US you live in. And if you want to start selling beeswax, dont start selling just yet, check out this article I wrote all about how much money you can make from selling your beeswax! Though you must be more watchful for honey bee robbing as your hive numbers grow.Practice good beekeeping management by avoiding spilling sugar water in the bee yard. Had so much trouble keeping ANY bees alive in the drought it didn't occur to me that I could get too many. The bottom line? It is much better to spend a year learning and enjoying your honey bee colonies. The key is to diversify your income because it is very difficult to make a living just from honey production. Don't let anyone see you so if they ask about the increase in flowering bee forage you can heap the praise on the bees for doing such a good job at pollinating. The number of colonies one person can operate effectively is going to depend on if your focusing on honey production, raising bees or other profitable methods. In general, a good rule of thumb is that you'll need four to eight bees per plant in the warmest part of the day during bloom to achieve good pollination. They huddle together to stay warm and survive the harsh season. I should correct my location, I'm southwest of Fort Worth. around here barly or buckweat. They will also clean out old bottles of honey, which can contain spores of diseases. Areas like this tend to be damp, dark, and dangerous a tree branch could fall and hit your hive. In fact, one of the most popular and profitable methods is by selling bees, queens, and nucleus colonies. I only bought 2 nucs, didn't expect to end up with 5. You can profit and increase the number of hives you have with no cost for the bees. They focus on marketing their honey as non-heated, raw honey, organically raised, from local foraging etc. Distribute hives throughout the orchard bearing in mind that bees prefer to work within mile of their hive. Number of Hives. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. Come join the discussion about breeding, honey production, health, behavior, hives, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more! One person could manage 400 to 600 hives for honey production, but you will require seasonal works to help with the honey harvest and extraction. Joined Dec 4, 2008 Messages 14,063 Reaction score 371 Location Scottish Borders Hive Type National Number of Hives 12 and . Yes, some municipalities have laws to govern bee hives. Beekeepertips.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. There is no real rule as to how many bees per acre although suggestions are 1-3 hives for pollination. This means that they produce more seeds. Its better to have a few hives that are well-taken care of than many hives that are neglected! The honey bees will gravitate to the pool to drink the water. It is mostly calculated using your allotment of time and money to care for the bees. My first trick is always to do a Google maps survey of the site. By the way guys, thanks for replying though, through my search (took me a long time more than a week lol). Gypsi are you on metered water and people would rather have brown lawns and few gardens than having to pay the water bill? They evaluated nine local honey producers with fewer than 500 colonies. Metered and rationed water. Apiary Maintenance you can maintain other peoples beehives for them and charge a reasonable fee. How long it takes you to inspect 2 hives versus 1 hive depends in part on your technique. Hive strength is usually measured by the number of brood combs covered with bees. But probably for We all love beekeeping! You need to be careful with selling this product due to local pesticide and herbicide use. But, these figures are difficult to apply in actual work. This comes out to around one hive per acre, but that's pollinating African farms. The general recommendation is to use two colonies of honey bees [roughly 40,000-100,000] for each acre of almonds. G3 asked me the other night when we were skyping how many hives I was wanting to have and my answer as many as I can put on 200 acres. In this time, there are many decisions to make and things can feel a bit overwhelming. They form extra large colonies in forests on trees. You should really budget for $2000 just in case you need to purchase other equipment or bees. I've always loved beekeeping and wanted to learn more about this charming activity. This makes it very difficult for beekeepers to turn a profit solely relying on honey production. This was done to assist future and current beekeepers in becoming successful business operators. There are some compelling reasons to start out with at least 2 beehives for the new beekeeper. This will give you an opportunity to see how much you enjoy beekeeping before making a large investment. Alfalfa is one of those plants that appear to survive drought easily but the plant will stop providing nector if the gets dry. Poly Hive Queen Bee. But, you do need a starting space. They will buy honey from local beekeepers and sell it as a profit in the retail market direct to customers. Beekeeping is not an inexpensive hobby. Lets look closer at these factors. Want to learn more about bees? Pollen and Propolis you can sell bee pollen and/or propolis. They published a financial analysis of the businesss with results and management implications to create a Business Benchmark for beekeepers. Her mission is spreading awareness of the importance of honey bees. Bees will collect leftover cooldrink and soda from landfill sites. A region with season long rich nectar sources could provide food for hundreds of hives. Professional Beekeepers keep 20 or 30 Beehives per acre. Still, the more hives you have the more lifting you may need to do. If you have no choice, a good option is to simply put your frames in a deep freeze. It is dryer here. (Roy & H.G.). BEEKEEPERSTIPS.COM Read the full articles Read more articles The primary goal of every beekeeper is to ensure that they have selected the ideal type of honey bees for the hives. This will allow the colony to go out of the hive but contained on those hot days in August. If you are unable to tend to your bees in a reasonable manner, most hives will die within a year or two. But both income requirements will require a lot of beehives, workload, equipment, land, and bee management. Having multiple hives in the bee yard is not likely to cause a lot of problems among the colonies. Its also important to consider the time and resources that you have available to invest in your bees. This will increase your odds of eventually turning a profit per hive in your apiary. Nucs are about $150. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. Please read my disclosure. mann lake pollen substitute. Here are some of the problems that can arise when there are too many beehives in one location: Overcrowding: When there are too many beehives in one location, the bees will have to compete for resources such as nectar and pollen. The number of bees divided by the number of flowers is essentially your carrying capacity. Reference. This is a more common practice with hobbyists. But it requires some effort to keep the hives healthy and productive. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. If you go to Google Maps, find your potential apiary site, and then use the ruler function to measure off a circle 3 miles around the site. However, I feel that not all weak hives are bad colonies. I have a bit of blackland prairie with wildflowers but the surrounding acres are mainly bermuda grass, and rain has been scarce this winter. Interconnected factors, including sublethal pesticide accumulations, diseases, parasites, transportation stresses and flower availability, have been observed to increase winterkill and rental costs in the United States. Reduce your hive numbers. The number two is a popular amount thrown out by classes and experienced beekeepers. Hi, I'm Joe. The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. There are many reasons to have more than one hive. You want to be able to comfortably harvest honey when the time comes. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. If your hive numbers get out of hand you may experience a myriad of problems. Winter is a great time to move a beehive. It has been shown that bees with a polyfloral pollen diet are more resistant to Nosema ceranae for example. This is especially the case for pollen the more types of pollen they can collect, the happier and healthier the hive will be. As long as there is vegetation around, suburban neighborhoods can be wonderful spots for bees. To accomplish this they have evolved a communication dance to tell other bees where good sources are located. All of this is very exciting and wonderful until you look out there and think hmmm do I have too many hives in my backyard? More managed bees are required to make up the difference. Bees will be bees. Want to learn more about bees? You also need to learn the beekeeping craft which takes a conservable amount of time. I don't think it'll make a differance in more honey. Take it easy in that first year or two until you have a better understanding of colony needs. When planning a bee yard, space is a major concern. There is no sensible answer because it depends on a lot of things including:- The location. Bees, much like us, thrive on a varied diet. One of his proudest achievements is the fact that the wind farm he started at one of his old apiary sites has essentially made his hometown carbon neutral. Dont throw down chunks of burr comb or other hive debris.If you feed a colony, feed everyone. Though some folks are happy with only a single colony. Even a good hive can have problems. It is perfectly safe to have a beehive near your house; your bees will not swarm out to attack you, even when you harvest honey from their hive. How often you harvest depends on your local climate and plant life. Clustered bees wont fly around or leave the hive, so they can be moved quite easily. Required fields are marked *. Always remember to talk with your neighbors because they can be an advocate or a real pain in your side. You have no other hives in the bee yard for comparison. The next significant step in beekeeping is when a person begins to manage 200 or more colonies. Is the hive growing as it should? Most new beekeepers should not begin with more than 4 hives. I decided to finally take the plunge and learn everything I possibly could and share that information with you.From writing about how to setup hives, caring for your honeybees and extracting honey, I strive to share my experiences and answer any questions you may have. On a 5 acre lot I have about 75 hives. The strength of these colonies, however, can vary anywhere from 3,000 to 40,000 individuals. Beekeeping is not a daily chore but there will be time when your bees need you. Managing honey bee colonies is quite different from other types of livestock. The average US salary of a beekeeper is between $28,000 to $44,000 which is around $14 to $22 per hour. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Another way is to use a hive net and cinch it around the hive. Amazon, the Amazon logo, AmazonSupply, and the AmazonSupply logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Most crops that benefit from honey bees require 2-3. In my online beekeeping class, I encourage my students to begin with 2 that first year. I once had an apiary site that was in a bland grassy field. The Fora platform includes forum software by XenForo. One important challenge for beginner beekeepers is deciding how many beehives you need in your apiary? Yay, we have another hive of bees. Depending on the crop, using one to two hives per acre is adequate for most orchards. Experienced beekeepers will often manage 100-150 bee colonies successfully while maintaining a full-time job. With another hive in place, you are not starting from scratch next season. Here are some more alternative methods to make money as a beekeeper: Beeswax you can sell the beeswax, or you can use it to make and sell lip balm, soaps, candles, hand creams etc. Generally, a minimum of three beehives per acre is required for an agricultural exemption. In my online beekeeping class, I encourage my students to begin with 2 that first year. Hives must be located near the centre of the plot and not next to a boundary, unless the boundary is next to an area in which no nuisance is likely to be caused; ie not a garden, another plot, a. Your beehive will get quite heavy as it fills with honey, and if its set on soggy ground it could start to sink. But what happens when the clover bloom stops or a nectar dearth occurs. I know this isn't the same as the OP question but related enough I think. To learn more about my journey to becoming the first female Master Beekeeper in my state? Required fields are marked *. After successfully over-wintering a colony or two, you will be ready to grow your apiary. but when all the conditions are right It will produce an encreatable flow. Bees don't care who owns the land where the flowers are located. Definitions: Acreage Requirements: 5-20 acres once homestead is subtracted Intensity Value: The number of hives required for the land Productivity Value: The taxable value of the land with bees on the property (varies by county and is often a set price OR based on land category) She is a former Beekeeper of the Year in South Carolina. Literature average. It's wonderful to me that bees have this simple, age-old thing going on. It is unfair and irresponsible to have more beehives than you can manage. Along with how much honey per hive. This way the bees can perform thousands of flights in their short life. This means more bees looking for water, bees pooping on vehicles, swarming issues etc. If you live in a big city there may be more forage than you think. It would take at least 500+ beehives to make a full-time living as a beekeeper. Without enough nectar to go around, your bees wont be able to produce honey for you and might not be able to support their hive. Of course, Im not sure how all honey isnt considered organically raised but in any event it is used for successful marketing. Krewer & others 1986. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. You may buy them ready to use or buy hive plans and build your own. Your investment is better protected if you keep your hive numbers to a manageable number. Having the largest number of hives possible should not be your goal. If you have a large amount of space, you can add lots of hives! Average bee hive densities (hives per acre) recommended for crops grown in the USA range from 1-7. As stated above, a single hive needs about one acre of land to support itself. If you like great deals, your going to love our monthly "Flash Sales"! Adding some bee brood (young bees) to a struggling colony may be the boost that it needs. This is just a bit gross actually. Instead that money may be better invested in having a second hive of bees for your first season? There is no real way to work this out yet today. The answer depends on the regulations of the local government. A major step in beekeeping occurs when a beekeeper grows to 70 to 100 colonies. It is recommended to always start with 2 beehives and build slowly. The ground underneath should be solid, dry, and sturdy. But keep in mind the bees will not only be foraging the space you own, they will be foraging the 8,000 acres (32 square km) around the hives. Perhaps the bee colony swarms and is unable to re-queen itself. The best number of hives for your apiary may be different than that of a friend. But, I'm planning to add 5 or more this spring. Unfortunately, there is no reliable breakdown of salaries specific to beekeeping since most beekeepers have their own bees as hobbyists or commercial operations. You could mix in some lavender as well as other honey plants. Making notes of your colonys progress is important. . Buying Honey For Resale Some beekeepers are successful with only a few hives because they understand the retail market very well. I would not recommend just relying on honey production as your sole profit center. Larger gardens. Some people are more than happy to pay someone else to look after their bees. Going from a smaller population in later Winter to a raging hive of 50,000 or more during the height of Summer. You may think that they sure do- what about the wild bees. Education is the bane of ignorance. By pulling frames to early, you increase the likelihood of getting bugs in your honey. Investing some money to have enough colonies there at the right time will provide returns in the form of improved yields. The answer is yes. Certain towns limit the number of hives you can have based on how much land you own. If you are a backyard beekeeper, the distance of your beehive from your house is an important thing to consider. I recommend leaving your supers until youre ready to harvest. I don't know. And others just want to learn more about these fascinatingly insects. How many hives do you need to allow sharing of resources? I was able to keep my neighbor across the street happy and she was a big advocate of me raising bees. But, try to befriend some local beekeepers in your area so you will have some resources to draw on if you need help. It does not require much space to set down a hive or even four. These varieties are planted at a rate of 5,000-15,000 plants per acre, and harvesting the fruit stimulates the plant to produce new flowers and . When you have strong natural honey flows such as clover, goldenrod, dandelion, various forests, and the like, you will easily be able to stock your hives at quite high densities. Do you have an extra hour to spend in the bee yard once a week (or every 2 weeks) during the busy season? And if you want some guidance on selling your honey, hold up for just a bit, I wrote an article all about how much money you can make selling your honey that I encourage you to read! To become full-time beekeeper requires a lot of experience, money, planning, and sound bee management strategies. I have had fields in full bloom and the bees aren't touching it. You will be amazed at how welcoming your neighbors will be because their backyard garden will get pollinated. A common question comes our way every month. "About 500,000 hives of the 2.6 million hives now pollinating California's almond orchards live here," he said. Honey bee hives/acre. This is not a big factor for backyard beekeepers. 19 Important Factors To Consider. How many times can you harvest honey in a year. Honest Beekeeper is compensated for referring traffic and business to this company. My goal is to show that anyone can take up beekeeping and it can be a very rewarding hobby. So youve successfully begun your beekeeping journey and youre ready to expand. We must also consider the other end of the spectrum. Reply. This acre needs to have lots of flowering plants that can provide nectar to your bees. This is how bees spread colonies across an area. Bumble bees and Southeastern blueberry bees. Managing beehives solely for honey production is much more time consuming and harder work compared to just raising and selling bees. Dr. Garth A. Cambray is a Canadian/South African entrepreneur and beekeeper with 28 years of experience in apiculture and specializes in adding value to honey. Brian Cardinal Zone 5a, Practicing non-intervention beekeeping Reply Save That number is different for each beekeeper. These could place restrictions on how many hives you can have or where youre able to place those hives. To make a reasonable income as a beekeeper requires a person to have a very good understanding of bees and different management methods. We hope this article has helped you understand how to work out the maximum beehives per acre and see that this is a very flexible number that you can change to your benefit. But, that does not mean that most of us have not been in that position at some time over the years. They are also fracking nearby, so whatever water there was is probably ruined. This is a lot of bees and I highly recommend placing this apiary in the countryside where no homes are within .5 miles. And if you happen to need a queen during the season, they are usually sold for $25 each. Jun 2, 2011 The experts are saying bees forage 8000 acres whether you have one or 50. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. However, hives can prosper when placed very close together as long as the beekeeper is consistent with keeping the yard clean and watching for robbing.A good rule of thumb is 2 feet of clearance space on each side of a hive whenever possible. Choose a sunny spot for your beehive. It is also unfortunate (at least for us Southern beekeepers) that many hive inspections need to occur during the hottest days of the year. Whether your plan is to harvest honey, provide pollination or just promote bee-kind sick stressed bees are not what we want. When the goal of having bees is only for pollination, migratory beekeepers temporarily place many boxes in one area. Strap a ratchet strap around your hive to keep it together. The answer depends on several factors including experience level of the beekeeper and available resources and time. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Hi, this is Charlotte Anderson Master Beekeeper