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Date: | Fri, 26 Feb 2021 16:37:41 -0500 |
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>Profitability/economics of beekeeping:
>Is there a sustainable form of non-migratory beekeeping without almond
(or other) pollination for U.S. beekeepers?
First, we need to define sustainable.
I have always heard that the best money in beekeeping is the guy who has 150-200 hives, sells all his honey at a farmers market for cash, extracts in his garage, and uses his daily driver pickup truck. There is a lot of truth in this.
In 2010, I helped a non-migratory honey producing commercial beekeeper for the summer. The last week of March, we shook 600 2 pound packages into singles. By mid-May, we were splitting the strongest hives, and ended up with 820 honey producing hives. By the end of the season, he had extracted 161,000 pounds of honey - 196 pounds per hive. All honey was removed from the hives. He does not overwinter bees. (A package of replacement bees in the spring costs less than the value of honey left for overwintering.) He does not sell honey to commercial packers. His honey is mainly sold in 5 gallon buckets to smaller beekeepers who retail it.
The weak point is package availability in spring.
From what I understand, this used to be the model for producing honey on the Canadian prairies. Get cheap packages from the States in the spring. Take all the honey and blow the bees out in the fall. Rinse and repeat every year. This worked very well until the border closure, and cheap packages were no longer available.
>Will the predicted crash from widespread resistance to amitraz happen?
It doesn't matter with the above method. Package producers can use whatever works, and treat as often as necessary since they are not producing honey. The above mentioned beekeeper doesn't worry about varroa, and uses no miticides in his hives.
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