This topic interests me as it touches directly on the topic of apicultural economics, and related to this the beekeeping labour process.

Here’s a study published in Alberta (Canada) in 2017 looking at the costs of beekeeping. There is some information on beekeeping labour in there but not much.

https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/all/econ16542/$FILE/Beekeeping2016.pdf

Do you know of any research/publications that specially look at the apicultural labour process and the labour time involved in beekeeping operations?  Surely commercial operators who hire farm labour would know what their labour costs are in relation to specific management tasks.

A hobby beekeeper friend tells me he devotes approximate 30-60 minutes per colony per inspection during the swarm season, which means that he spends an entire day each week at his beekeeping craft (for 12-19 colonies), including logistics and travel to distant apiaries.

Obviously, the beek with 500+ colonies is not spending this amount of time per colony on warm season management!  So how do these commercials manage their time? What "sacrifices" do they make in order to cut per unit time to the minimum (e.g., don't remove queen cups, tolerate more swarms?).

A commercial friend tells me he has eliminated mini-mating nucs and any other equipment that is not compatible with his Langstroth deeps and 5 frame nuc boxes.  Standarized equipment is the priority given his need to rationalize his labour process (save time).

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