Hello Mark & All,
I learned commercial beekeeping from one of the sharpest commercial
beekeepers to ever play the beekeeping game.

Most beekeepers repeat the same moves each season (similar to the farmer
which has to take a 40 hour job in town to support his farming habit.)

If you look back to my posts last spring you will see I predicted the low
honey price for bulk. All the markers were in place. Honey from China was
flooding the market. Packers were fixing store prices by keeping prices high
even though they were buying at record low prices. Stocking up after record
high honey prices with money made by buying low and selling high!

Record high prices in beekeeping history are ALWAYS followed by record low
prices!

I chose to only produce the amount of honey needed for my markets and a
backup amount.

I cut the number of trips to the honey production hives.  I over supered to
save trips (which cost money in labor & gas). I averaged one to two hives
per yard deadouts which were completely infested with wax moths but a money
saving trade off. A few swarmed but swarm control cost money.

I keep precise and accurate records. Last year I chased the fall honey by
moving bees into the Blackwater River bottoms. Moving hives onto sunflowers.
This year I will not. The reason high gas prices and low price of honey.

I hope to finnish the wildflower honey by the middle of October but really
not concerned as I do not need the honey and even with my cost savings
procedures  the honey would only bring close to my cost of production at .51
cents a pound this year. If honey was bringing top dollar I would most
likely have around .65 to .75 cents a pound invested as I would be working
those hives trying to get every pound of honey I could get.

I have advised many a beekeeper on ways to become profitable. Think outside
the box.

I live in a farming area. Most those guys plant soybeans one year, corn the
next and rotate . The smart farmer waits to see what the other guys plant
and then plant the opposite! Watch the futures if a row cropper. Or find a
niche market like bird seed sunflowers or rare seed crops.

Chemical companies have made a fortune selling chemicals for Soybean Rust
this year and Soybean Rust has not been found in Missouri yet!

Think IPM! Not support chemical companies!

Instead of honey production I made splits for California instead.
Got next years foundation drawn.

I have been extracting honey since early July. I have got some yards which
have not had a super pulled. I am thinking of next year . The bees are
feeding on those supers but I am feeding, treating  & medicating my non
varroa tolerant hives. I am far more concerned with the condition of my
hives  for next years pllination than getting extra barrels of honey.

It is really great on the varroa tolerant hives to be able to leave those
supers on and not worry about pulling supers and  treating. Varroa tolerant
bees are the only way to handle mites in my opinion!

At our Midwestern meeting today the speaker (commercial beekeeper) showed a
slide of a drone pupa with seven mature varroa on it and signs of PMS on
*Aug. 2nd.* of this year in one of his hives. He had been using OA & formic
acid for varroa control.

He talked about the poor honey crop he got this year but blamed the weather.

Are the weather & poor queens from the south the cause of all our beekeeping
woes?

Bob

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