How to Become a Beekeeper & Start Your Own Business

Business Overview:

If you’re looking for an unusual business that will produce a sweet and profitable product, you should consider learning how to become a beekeeper. If you’ve never worked with bees before, beekeeping is a relatively simple skill to learn. You do need some supplies and you may want to ask your local apiary clubs how to be a beekeeper and turn it into a business. Bees can live happily in a hive in your backyard, garden or rooftop (if you live in an apartment building or townhome). Some supplies you’ll need include a hive, a hive tool for opening the hive, protective clothing and a smoke box. Smoke calms bees and is helpful when opening the hive to shoot a little puff in so they don’t swarm. Once you have read some beekeeping books and have talked to your local beekeeping clubs, you are ready to acquire your bees. This can be done one of three ways. You can get a colony of bees in an existing hive, a nucleus or a swarm. A nucleus of bees is the easiest way to get them but it is the most expensive. You can get a nucleus from bee suppliers and other beekeepers. A nucleus is a queen and several hundred worker bees from a different colony. The least expensive—but most dangerous way—to get your bees is from a swarm. This is when a colony of bees huddles together in a ball hanging from a tree waiting for the scout to “tell” them about a good home they’ve found. You have to either shake the tree limb or cut it off, let the ball fall into a box and transport it to your new hive. Once you have your bees and they are happily making honey, your job will be to keep an eye on them to make sure no bees look ill and that the queen is consistently laying eggs. Soon you will have a crop of honey that you can jar and sell in a local farmers market, gourmet food store or online. Other products you can sell are beeswax, pollen, royal jelly and propolis, a sticky sealant used in the hive. As you can see, beekeeping is one of the more unusual business ideas available if you’re willing to do the research and make sure you care for the bees correctly. If properly cared for, bees can be quite happy making honey—and a sizeable profit—for you.

A Day in the Life of a Beekeeper Business Owner:

Your day will begin by putting on your protective clothing and taking a look inside the hive to make sure everything is going well. If it’s time to harvest the honey (and other products), you will collect the honey and put it in jars. You will deliver your honey to stores with whom you have made reseller arrangements. You will also market your products by taking them around town showing them to store owners and letting them sample your wares. You could also consider selling your honey online, in which case you’d want to monitor your sales and ship out orders on a regular basis.

About Your Customers:

Your customers will be stores that will sell your products or individuals at farmers markets who you will sell to directly. Your customers may also be online shoppers if you choose to sell your honey through a website.

What You Need to Start:

• Garden or other place for your hive
• Knowledge of bees and how to keep them
• Bees
• Hive
• Hive tool
• Smoke box
• Protective clothing
• Jars for honey
• Marketing plan
• Computer with finance software

The Good:

• Startup costs are low.
• You can charge top dollar for great tasting and attractively packaged honey.
• Local beekeeping clubs are available to help you if you need advice.
• You can operate this business part-time from your home.
• As long as your bees are happy, you can work as much or as little as you like.

The Bad:

• Learning how to properly care for bees can take some time.
• If not done correctly, working with bees can be dangerous.

Resources:

• American Beekeeping Federation
• British Beekeepers’ Association
• The Back Yard Beekeepers Association
• Wikipedia on Beekeeping

About The Author

---

Templateify

Praesent nec tortor quam. Quisque ac malesuada augue. Sed dignissim gravida odio ut bibendum. Cras fermentum euismod turpis. Nunc nec diam ante, et faucibus ipsum. Etiam imperdiet mattis elit et molestie. Nulla feugiat mollis leo vel egestas. Pellentesque convallis

- Twitter - Facebook - Google+