Excellent!
 
        It is good to hear of more people getting into beekeeping on a
larger scale. Most of the beekeepers I have met have moved onto other
careers or will soon be retiring. I have to agree with Dave Green though,
give this some thought.
 
1. How much spare time do the two of you have to tend the bees?
 
2. How much money can you afford to spend?
 
3. Where will you keep the bees? Property that has enough nectar plants for
8 may not have enough for 58.
 
4. Where will you store empty supers and hive bodies?
 
I ask these things cause they are problems I have had to deal with:
 
1.       I bought my first hive in April 95 and within a year had 130. I am
now around 200.  Working a full time job and tending 200 hives does not
leave time for much else. I have also lost many hives to either swarms or
them dying cause I did not give them the proper attention. Consequently I
have lost a fair amount of comb to wax worms.
 
2.      The money I spent buying 130 hives could have been better spent buying
say 50 hives and splitting. I now have 8 and 10 frame equipment, 3 different
size supers. I will have to turn around and try to sell this odd stuff in
the future.
 
 
3.      As to where to keep the bees, have recently found out August has a
poor nectar flow here. Not a problem when I had a few hives but now with so
many competing for nectar I have had to feed some of my yards, taking time
and money away from other beekeeping tasks.
 
4.      Where to store equipment? I have had to store most of my equipment
outdoors. I have had to stack my deadouts onto other hives to keep the wax
moths at bay, a big problem in sunny Florida.
 
        Call your bee inspector. He can be a good source of who is selling
equipment. I wish we lived closer as I have a lot of 10 frame stuff for sale.
 
Even with all the mistakes I have made I am still very excited about
beekeeping! I encourage you to expand but learn from the mistakes of others.
 
God Bless,
Kelley Rosenlund  [log in to unmask]
Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A., Phone:352-378-7510
200 hives, 1 year in beekeeping.