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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
B Farmer <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 20 Nov 2013 11:22:51 -0500
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>So during this bubble of newbie beekeeping, perhaps the 63% commercial, 24%
sideliner, 13% recreational breakdown is more realistic than 99%, 1%.

Equipment sales are not a reliable indicator though.  Comparing commercial and hobbyist purchases of equipment is like having a handful of puzzle pieces from two different puzzles, and then trying to figure out what the picture is supposed to be.

Hobbyists buy new equipment to start new hives.  Typically, few hobbyists buy used equipment.
Commercials buy new equipment to replace worn out equipment AFTER purchases of used equipment.

The latest beekeeper estimates I recall are:
2012
150,000 hobbyists
4500 sideliners
800 commercials

in 2008
110,000 hobbyists
4000 sideliners
1000 commercials

Even though we have lost 20% of commercials in the past 4 years, they have been bought out by other commercials.  Commercials I have known will cull their own junk equipment and cull the worst of the used stuff they bought - only then do they buy new equipment if they do not have enough equipment to run the numbers they want to run.

Life expectancy of boxes and equipment varies in different locations around the country.  For example, a commercial beekeeper that gets 10 years of life out of boxes will buy 1 box every 10 years per hive, whereas a new beekeeper will buy 1 box this year for their new hive.  So in looking at box sales, hobbyists sales may only represent 10% of the hive numbers of equal sales to commercials.  (And if commercials run boxes for 20 years, hobbyists will account for 5% of hives on equal sales.)

And if we look at frame sales...hobbyists buy 10 frames per box for their new hive.  And a commercial buys a couple percent new frames every year because the frame got broke during extraction or whatever.  I've seen 50 or 75 year old frames in commercial operations.  So frame sales are irrelevant.

Treatment sales might be a better metric to look at, except that many hobbyists don't treat, and some commercials use off label treatments.

The simple fact is, no one knows how many hives we have in America, and no one knows what percentages of hives are managed by hobbyists and commercials.  And we have no way of knowing either.  All we can do is make educated guesses, and the educated guesses say that hobbyists like to think they are a bigger piece of the pie than they really are.

However, it should be noted that if we assume the 110,000 to 150,000 increase of hobbyists in 4 years is accurate, and we assume that hobbyists will spend $400-$500 in equipment purchases per new hive, that 40,000 increase in beekeepers is $16 to $20 million dollars in equipment sales over 4 years if they only get ONE hive.  It's not hard to see how Mann Lake could justify a new warehouse in PA.

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