My thoughts on moving from hobby beekeeping to sideliner:
I'm headed in the direction of a sideliner, though at present I'm only at 60-some hives. 200 hives seems a long way off. One thing I miss is the leisurely time spent actually observing colonies frame by frame. I also wrestle with the time required to let go fo the phone, get up from the computer, get out and visit the yards. I find I need to "make" the time instead of trying to "take" the time. The weather is always something to work around as my time seems to be fairly unencumbered on rainy, windy days.
Location: I've got bee yards set up within 30 minutes of my home. I had some 1 hour away, but that was too much of an obstacle to overcome, mostly a mental obstacle of getting in the car rather than a physical obstacle of actually driving the car. I have my yards "linked" to major highways that allow me to take an afternoon and visit all the "north" hives (four locations), and on another day visit the "south" hives (one location), and the "west" (two locations).
Box sizes: As I've purchased a bunch of used equipment, I have several different sizes of hive bodies and frames. I've made it a point to limit cetain yards to only medium supers and keep my home yards in shallow supers. I would do best to make all my yards uniform, but I have the equipment and it's still in great shape.
Equipment: I keep everything I need (smoker, fuel, lighter, veil, hive tool, etc.) together in a "traveling" box. Too often a piece of equipment was left behind at the last yard, or completely forgotten back at the home yard or garage. Most of my yards do not have any storage so everything I need must be brought with me, and since I often visit yards at a moment's notice (as my schedule allows), I need to be ready to go and have everything ready. I have one central storage shed at my home yard.
Number of hives per yard: In the expansion process, I find I need enough hives at each location to justify the visit. Still, I don't have 30 hives to establish a new yard, so some of my yards have only six hives, but my goal will be twenty hives per yard as I expand. I'm always looking for new yards, but access to some of these yards is an issue (farm gates, low water bridges).
Rate of expansion: In a previous lifetime, I was a debt-slave. Sure, you can borrow and pay the interest, but having been down that road, I'm now a pay-as-you-go type beekeeper. I've made a bunch of equipment on my table saw from used shelving lumber. I trap swarms rather than buy packages. I'm learning to raise my own queens. I buy used equipment when it turns up at reasonable prices.
Hired Help: I have yet to hire any help. With a flexible schedule, I'm often going out to bee yards with little notice. Scheduling help to fit my chaotic schedule, which often changes at a moment's notice and greatly subject to change, is too much for me to embrace. I'm a one man operation.
Marketing: I've moved from selling out of my driveway to two farmer's markets, to wholesale sales in retail stores. I pack my own honey, and demand is such that I buy bulk honey to repack from other producers to consistently supply the retail stores. Intermitent supplies do not engender a store manager's confidence. I hope to grow into selling only my own honey, but for me, I need to insure the market is ready to absorb my production. I've been at the place with a bunch of honey and no sales income to service the debt.
I also find that when I'm with my bees, I'm in the proverbial "land that time forgot." I never seem to have enough time when I'm in my yards, and either family responsibilities call or sundown tells me my time is up.
Good luck with your talk,
Grant
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