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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
charles Linder <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 30 Jun 2014 10:07:25 -0500
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The superior attitude to Obama's initiative by some on this list may
therefore miss an opportunity both to encourage government expenditure on
bees that could have benefits beyond the expected and also opportunities to
participate and so reduce the waste by pushing the focus into the most
likely profitable areas of experiment.  

Interesting comment.  Not sure where you live, but here in the US those of
us living under Obama's initives has seen unemployment rise, GDP drop,  fuel
cost double and health care become unaffordable.

Please read on....

Last week a comment was made about "unsustainable farming"  I refrained from
comment because I was a bit upset by that comment.  After digesting it a bit
I have convinced myself it was just a bit of ignorance.  So lets set the
records straight and answer both points.

First off it is beekeeping that is totally unsustainable. Like it or not we
are a fringe hobby.  With the exception of Ammonds,  all crops can do
without us.  And don't think for one second that's not in jeopardy.  I
PROMISE they are spending millions every year in the search for self
pollinating almonds.  We sell honey and beeswax as surplus.  But the truth
is both products are easily replaced by other things.  We serve a niche
fringe, and the majority of us are literally nothing to the community around
us. Knowing your place is the first step to a successful business.  Should I
quite selling honey next week,  my market will quickly and seamlessly adapt.

As for expense, a key indicator.  We are not even close lets do a little
math.  Assuming in my area about 4 hives per square mile,  that's 160 acres
per hive.  doing some math on bigger yards allover the country, its not a
lot different in most area,  although southern GA north FL is closer to 80.
But just for arguments sake,  lets say it takes just 40 acres to sustain a
hive.....and the typical hive makes 100lb of honey and 2 splits to sell off
as nucs. (darn few are that successful)  at 6.00 a pound retail and 150 for
the nucs, that's 900.00 before expenses.  Lets say 750 profit.  In most
areas taxes on that land would be 3-400 at least.  Leaving you say 400  for
profit on your 40 acres.  Not sure of land cost averages, but here in the
Midwest we are at 3200 an acre MIN, and lots going around 5k right now.

So you invested 128,000 to make 400.  not going to fly.  Anywhere.  Just for
fun I pondered it a bit on the scale of the 2 biggest beeks I know,  one
east coast and one west.  Both do packages, and honey and queens.  One is
stationary, the other migratory.  One does about 8 million a year,  the
other with pollination is closer to 25 million gross.  Lets just run that
quick.  On gross sales(not even close to real profits)  they could buy 1200
and 2500 acres each respectively.  Which means enough forage area for 30
hives on the east coast and 62 on the west coast.   

The one guy runs 12,000 hives  the other runs close to 35,000.  So we can
safely say they cannot even come close to paying for the land they use. Not
on any scale,  by any measurement.  I own a lot of acres, and I plant some
just for bees myself. And I am DANG sure there is no way the math ever
works,  even on the acres I devote to sunflowers and buckwheat.

Now to farming.  We comment on unsustainbility. At the same time we drive
past century farms, and tax farms to death when we try to pass them on to
our kids.  Lets deal with reality.  Except for the dust bowl issues in the
30,s farming is and has been sustainable for 200 years or better just here
in the US. Allowing the typical Clay county farmer to feed 1,180 people a
year. And this has been going on my entire life.  Yields continue to grow,
at rates that are astounding. I think the number when I was a kid was around
300.  The farmers here in the US feed literally the world.  Yup the Brits
can feed butterflies if the like,  while importing a lot of food.  We here
in the US want to beat down the prices,  tax them to the hilt,  make them
teach the world the tricks to farming,  and now on top of that we need to
force them to feed our silly bugs....???  really not a well though out plan,
ruled by selfish interest.  

Every day I deal with men who have literally millions of dollars in land and
equipment,  yup I am ticked when they mow the road ditches. But I also
recognize that the deer that live there like to rush out and cause wrecks,
and mowing increases visibility.   
I hate it when they spray fungicides, and roundup.  No doubt.  But I would
be ashamed to try to force them to feed my bees. Drop your yields so I can
make some honey?? 
Farming is sustainable,  the men and women who spend there lives doing it,
put more effort into sustainability every day than most of us do in our
lives. I am reminded by this when I drive a mile in the country,  and see
terraces which cost a lot of money,  crop rotations done constantly,  edges
of fields which require being trimmed back regurly, trees left in the fields
and plowed around,  creek bottoms that are 100's of feet wide.....

Yup there are a few bad actors out there.  DANG few.  You don't invest a
million dollars into 320 acres and the equipment to farm it,  and then ruin
it in 10 years..... its not done.

As beekeepers we invest little to nothing and every one of us is living off
others.  Either public lands or private.  And yet most of us sit here and
prognosticate how the others are screwing it up, how terrible they are,  and
how we need to use the government to make rules to help us.....
Makes me feel like I am part of a welfare class waiting for a food stamp
card. Dirty and ashamed.....

TO be successful we need to figure out what Stump sitters, and Pheasants
forever and Ducks unlimited have accomplished.  They figured out very
quickly they are users and parasites also,  and do their best to create win/
win situations.  
We should take a page from that book, not the Alinskys book on social
terrorism.

Charles

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