The price for package bees from the major suppliers in CA is $92.00 for a 3 pound package.  The cage charge is $8.00 so my cost is $100.00 before losses.  From NM I have to travel 2,400 miles round trip across extremely rough highways.  I must set up my trailer to protect the bees including fans and a 300 gallon container of water with pumps.  We deal with multiple stops and people all the way back to our bee yard.  We begin in October of each year organizing and taking orders and spending countless hours in educating the new beekeeper.  We have to deal with all the issues that come upon the new beekeeper when their bees abscond or they loose their queen or just have questions.  This lasts well into the summer.  We plan on a 10% loss in the packages due to various issues including heat and cold stress.  We charge $160.00 for a packages and may give a discount when a customer orders more than 10.  So we are working on a $60.00 gross profit per packages.  By the time you factor all of the above into the equation if you net $10,000 on 350 packages for 6 months of work what have you made?

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