At 03:29 PM 1/17/98 -0400, you wrote:
 
>Anyway, can anyone offer any other points in favor of a trailer, vs. a
>pickup or other bed-truck?  Besides the slight complications in driving, I
>wonder if anyone has found this to be a better arrangement, at least on a
>sideliner-scale.
 
Hi Bee Keeping Friends,
 
Any configuration of beekeeping rolling stock depends on so many variable
factors it is impossible to say this is best for all. Some of the
arrangements I have used over the years start with a 1929 Model A Ford that
came with a flat bed, was called the Ranch Wagon. I got mine 2nd hand for
$35. cash from the old Pacific Telephone Company and it came with a full
tank of gas, I added a new battery and drove it for several years.
 
As my appetite for bees and the number of my hives grew to that then magic
number of 100 that was surely enough for any one person to keep and make a
living I got a bigger truck, a DODGE 3/4 ton and added a low flat bed and
could carry about 50 hives if they were not too heavy.
 
Sooner then later I found that 100 hives just was not enough of a challenge
and went for the big time 1,000 hives and upgraded to a Ford two ton truck
with boom bee hive loader that could carry 96 hives. After that I added a
new truck each year along with more and more hives and one or more of my
red two ton International Harvestor tilt cabs are still around as I guess
since
they were made by Mexican's in Canada they just keep on going for ever.
 
Note, in those days any moderate size beekeeper could afford to buy a new
truck
every year, and I did, I guess those Canadian's and Mexican's worked a lot
cheaper then.
I never did finance a truck until I got my last new one and the sticker
shock aged me
three years as that's how long it took to pay for it except for the taxes
which go on, and on,
and UP.
 
Then I got older and wiser and switched gears and reduced the number of
hives to what I could almost take care of myself and tried a fork lift. I
have pictures of that first one sticking with its forks buried in the
ground up
off it drivers, but I soon learned about fork lifts and how to drive them.
Originally used one that I pulled behind a two ton truck on a small tip
trailer and then switched to what I think is my last and maybe best setup.
 
I use a Super Duty one ton Ford truck with a flat bed. I load the Swinger
fork lift on the truck and pull a twenty foot trailer that holds 112 hives
two high, 4x4. Best of all I use the fork lift not only to move the bee
hives but also it is my hired man when I take off honey which I put on
pallets and load on the truck with the fork lift. You can have many fork
lifts or keep your bees arranged so that when you take off honey you pick
the fork lift up at the last yard and use it at the next yard and (if you
are in a protected area) leave it over night ready to pick up the next day
for the next yard. You could carry it with you from yard to honey barn and
I do when necessary.
 
In any case here locally all but one of the beekeepers has switched to
Swinger fork lifts. Most use a heavy two truck and load them up to three
4x4 bee pallets high. All use the fork lifts to take off honey.
One beekeepers uses a fleet of heavy one ton pick me up and pulls little
 
trailers each with a boom type bee hive loader and it also works out good
for him. What ever you do check on your local laws as to driver
classification, insurance, and tax rates. One thing that is nice about the
lighter trucks and trailers is the annual costs of taxes, insurance, and
driver licences are less. If you have to go commercial because the size of
your truck here you would have to keep a log book, pay $50. every time some
cop had a bad hair day, and when you get to be an old beekeeper with any of
the many health problems that comes with time in service you could be
refused a licence to operate your own equipment by the government you
support with a lifetime of paying taxes.
 
ttul, Andy-
 
... As doth the meadow-bee,
 
 
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