Juanse wrote:
The problem is how to separate the things we do that need to be done and
that are not directly related to opening hives. My guesstimation is that
most of the time is not spent actually inhives but out hives (transporting,
preparing materials, paperwork, etc, etc, etc).

I worked in commercial beekeeping for twenty years (when I was young) and I guess the hands-off approach was why I never really liked it. My own operation was limited to 450-500 hives and I did no trucking. I concentrated on collecting bee pollen (very lucrative), raising queen cells (very seasonal) and the honey I got was always wholesale grade (amber, eucalyptus). 

My favorite part was the queen rearing. I was IN the hives about 10 hours a day during spring. Later, when extracting the honey I was in the hot little honey house 10 hours a day -- not my favorite part. 

Later in life, I worked as a researcher in charge of 200 hives, a much better number. I had time for the refinements: equipment in top condition, every hive requeened at least once a year, yards mowed more often than I mow my own lawn! Nothing rankles me more than to see a bee yard engulfed in weeds. (Illegal out west, where fire danger is constant).

I admire and respect commercial beekeepers, but it is not anything I would ever want to do again. Any more than I would want to herd cattle, or even work in an elementary school. Some things are a lot more appealing in small doses.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Peter Loring Borst
128 Lieb Road
Spencer, NY  14883
607 280 4253

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