Beekeeping As a Profitable Money Maker

Whilst it is true that most beekeepers around the world are amateurs, and keep bees as a hobby rather than a business. It is also true that beekeeping can be very profitable using modern methods. In a normal season it is quite possible to achieve a profit over costs of 100% or even more.

Also in beekeeping's favour is the fact that you do not need acres of land, or any great physical strength to do it. Making it a great hobby for almost anyone with an interest in the subject, and a love of the outdoors.

Four square feet of land is quite enough for a hive, and a small plot of twenty-five square feet could hold from 25 to 50 hives. No heavy labour is required. In fact for five or six months of the year there is very little to do at all. And for the rest of the year probably a quarter of an hour a week would be all you'd need to spend on one stock (hive). So even if you had twelve hives that's only three hours "work" a week.

It's only light work as well, out in the fresh air. There are even schoolchildren keeping bees and contributing to the family income. There are many so called "sideline" beekeepers making a profit of $20,000 from around 90 hives. O.K. I know what you're thinking. "That sounds like a lot of hives and work doesn't it".

Hey, most things require work of some sort, and if you are enjoying what you do it's not really like work anyway. 90 hives would require you to spend less than 24 hours a week on them at the busiest time. Now just think how many hours a week you watch TV. Probably being thoroughly bored most of the time!

So just imagine how much money you could make if you wanted to be a full-time beekeeper, beekeeping for a living. Of course you'd need to build up slowly and steadily over a period of time, but even a few hives could make you a useful addition to your finances.

Let's work from the figures above as an example. 90 hives bringing in around $20,000. Let's say you have just 12 hives. So we can say that should make you around $3,000. Of course you are only actually "working" with your hives for about three hours a week, and that's only for six months in the year. Making a total of 72 hours actual beekeeping ("work"). Now by my reckoning that works out at over $40 per hour.

Now I don't know about you, but I think that makes beekeeping well worth considering.

Chris Haycock is a successful information publisher with many more hobbies and interests. One such interest is the fascinating world of beekeeping. If you would like to find out more you should go to http://secretsofbeekeeping.com

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Beekeeping - Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know

Bees can actually get to "know" their owner, and recognise him/her. Especially if kept in proximity to people and not kept in isolation miles away from civilization.

The Queen of a colony will mate only once in her lifetime of maybe several years, and lay around 3000 eggs a day every season until she dies. The drone which fertilised the Queen, himself fatherless, the product of an unimpregnated egg, becomes the father of thousands upon thousands of worker bees, and many fully developed Queens. After his one mating he dies.

The Queen can choose to impregnate an egg or not at will. An impregnated egg can be hatched by the workers, also at will, as either an undeveloped female like themselves, or a fully developed Queen to carry on the species.

Bees can in effect "speak" to each other, by means of their antennae, or feelers. The antennae, by their motions, form a language, in which wants, needs, and desires can be communicated.

Although it is commonly believed that a bee will die once it has stung, due to the barbs on it. In fact, if left undisturbed, the bee can work it's sting out without causing itself injury. Of course, the pain caused by the sting usually results in the bee being attacked by it's victim, not giving it enough time to withdraw undamaged.

A prolific Queen will, during her lifetime, lay one and a half million eggs. If these were to be laid end to end, the resulting line would stretch for one and three quarter miles. A good Queen is able to lay on average two eggs a minute for weeks on end. The lowest estimate would mean she lays twice her own weight daily.

Propolis is a sticky, resinous substance gathered by bees from pine, horse-chestnut, and other trees, as they carry pollen on their hind legs. Propolis is used by the bees for filling up cracks, excluding draughts, and making the hive watertight.

Whilst bees are not normally aggressive, if they consider themselves and the colony to be in danger they can, and will, attack with fury. They have even been used as weapons, and there are cases on record of whole regiments being put to flight by having hives hurled at them. Riots have also been subdued by the use of bees in this manner.

The egg from which a Queen is to be reared, like the egg which is to produce a worker, hatches in three days. For six days more it continues in it's larval state. It then spins it's cocoon, is transformed into a nymph, and on the sixteenth day from the laying of the egg, it emerges as a perfect virgin Queen. The vacant cell is never used again, and is usually cut down within a few hours.

Sometimes a colony will find it's Queen to be defective. Maybe she is infertile from not mating soon enough, or from a number of reasons only the bees themselves know. If that is the case the colony will "ball" the Queen. That is, they will entirely surround her, interlacing their bodies, forming nothing less than a living prison. The queen is imobilised and unable to move. She will be kept imprisoned like this for up to twenty-four hours if necessary. Until she dies of suffocation or hunger.

Chris Haycock has been fascinated by bees and the world of beekeeping since falling into a ditch as a young boy and getting badly stung. If you would like to know more about bees and beekeeping it would probably be worthwhile to go to: http://www.secretsofbeekeeping.com

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Your Bumble Bee Browser

There are recently many new enthusiasts who have been interested in bee keeping. More people each are are making a decision toward this great hobby and have become interested in learning how to become apart of the world of bee keeping. If you don't know anything about bee keeping or would like to learn more Click Here!. 

Types of Bees

According to Buzzle.com there are nearly 20,000 different types of bees. These bees are recognized by the type of hive and their social characteristics. Bee's are members of the suborder Apocrita from the insect order Hymenopterra.

The Bumble Bee

These types of bees are probably the most well known type of bee. Bumblebees are for the most part large and hairy. These bees are black and yellow in color, live in hives and display the social behavior of living in colonies. The worker bees will die in cool climates however the queen bee survives winter months by hibernating. As the temperature warms the queen bee begins to lays eggs to begin a new colony.

Enjoy.