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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:37:11 -0500
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Hello Grant & All,

> And if the hometown beekeeper cannot get family or the next generation to
jump into a enterprise that entails "hard work," where do the big outfits
expect to get their labor?

other countries brought in for the season. Hispanic labor also.

What will they have to pay?

A set wage for the season. usually housing and transportation is beekeeper
provided.

>10% will absorb the hobbyist's equipment and become what Larry Connor has
>dubbed, the "serious sideliners."

I see plenty of serious sideliners. I would call most serious resellers of
the large commercial beekeepers honey.

I guess you might as well here it from me:

>BTW: What, or who is the market for used beekeeping equipment, other than
>another beekeeper or someone wanting to jump into the business?

Most large outfits prefer new equipment. You would be shocked at the prices
when bought at truck load pricing. Hobby beeks usually want to sell their
equipment at a close to retail price (which they paid at the local bee
supply house for select grade wood).

> I feel sorry for those who have made an incredible investment on a retail
> level only to sell out at a fire-sale free-for-all.

Commercial equipment in good condition (especially with good healthy bees)
sells fairly easy. Very easy to retire from commercial beekeeping with good
bees and equipment on pallets. A phone call right before the summer honey
flow in the Dakotas or almonds in California and the commercial beekeeper
sends a truck in to pickup. You load and the bees are gone.

The commercial beekeeper getting the bees can almost pay for the bees within
months. When honey prices and pollination fees are high and bees are in
demand selling the bees for top money is easy. When to opposite is true the
hives sell for around the price of the equipment and the hives are usually
depopulated and the equipment put in storage.

unless the outfit is sold as a working outfit.

bees sell first.
Then supers.
Then support equipment.
Last trucks & loaders

> The local market is hungering for local honey, not cheap foreign imports.
> The locals want a neighborly producer they can trust.

A lot of the honey sideliners sell as local is not local. especially this
year when poor honey crops were had. I think you would recognize the names
of many Missouri sideline beekeepers which have already ran out of their own
*local* honey and are getting honey from out of state to supplement. Several
from your area.

> They market their honey directly to the consumer and sell their honey for
> an average of $3.00 a pound, and not one of them can fill the demand
> alone. And with good consumer education and personal representation, they
> are not selling honey, they are selling themselves.

At the current Nebraska pricing of 1.50 a pound from commercial sources or
1.65-1.75 from Drapers Super Bee they still can make money buying and
reselling when they run out.

> I believe there will always be beekeepers, but the decline in the
> presently-defined, specialized "commercial" beekeeper may be opening an
> opportunity for a resurgence from the middle tier to rise up, adapt and
> prosper.

I agree and these types have always been around. However what will life be
like without all the fruit and berries the U.S. now produces? Will your
locals like eating the fruit from third world countries which have been
sprayed with pesticides banned in the U.S. ( ten  or so banned in the U.S.
pesticides are used on fruits and produce in Mexico and end up on U.S. store
shelves)?

Thanks for the post Grant! Ask around at the State meeting next month and
you will quickly find out many drums and pails of Nebraska and Dakota honey
are flowing into the state to sideline beekeepers. Both my bee farm and Bell
Hill Honey have been places northern beeks have brought in trucks and we
have transferred drums and pails to sideline beekeepers pickup trucks with
our forklifts.

bob

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