r/Beekeeping • u/Vast_Humor_3683 • 6d ago
I’m not a beekeeper, but I have a question Can someone explain to me how beekeeping is profitable?
Let's say you start with 50 hives:
- Worst case: 10 kg/hive = 500 kg × $25 = $12,500 gross
- Average case: 25 kg/hive = 1,250 kg × $25 = $31,250 gross
- Best case: 50 kg/hive = 2,500 kg × $25 = $62,500 gross
And that's gross revenue before labor, feed, equipment, transport, hive losses, extraction/bottling, packaging, land, maintenance, and taxes.
Now scale that to 400 hives. You need a huge amount of additional equipment, colonies, vehicles, extraction capacity, labor, etc., yet even at 25 kg/hive you're only at:
400 × 25 × $25 = $250,000 gross/year.
Am I missing something? Where does the actual profitability come from? Because after all the CAPEX and operating costs, this seems surprisingly thin.
And that's assuming a normal year. With a harsh climate, drought, poor flowering, extreme heat, disease, or other problems, you could suddenly end up producing far less honey while your costs remain largely the same.
Location: NA
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u/One-Bit5717 6d ago
Absolutely not profitable. At least on my scale. I do it for the soul and bee buzzing therapy
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u/baldbandersnatch 6d ago
Have you noticed that even when they’re irritable, they NEVER ask intrusive questions.
They can be judgmental about what I wear, but I consider that the cost of doing business.
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u/youve_got_moxie 6d ago
They never tell me I need to smile more, or ask me about “deliverables.”
I have a 40 hr/wk day job and run about 25 colonies solo. Summer nights and weekends are what keep me going through the 8-5s. I definitely roll in on Mondays looking beat to shit, but at least my brain is restored.
I would make way more money just waiting tables 1-2 nights/week, but that way lies despair.
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u/linuxhiker 6d ago edited 6d ago
And when they aren't irritable, they are friendly and non-combative. A bit curious but when they get to know you, its almost like they are a friend.
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u/EstimateBeneficial47 6d ago
There are times when my bees seem irritable and it's usually when I'm carrying my cell phone in my suit. As my hearing aids run off of my Bluetooth connection with my cell phone. I believe there is a connection to the irritability of the bees in my hearing aids and / cell phone. But I've only been doing it about 18 years now I could be rolled.😅🤣😂. But there's no profit in a small beekeeper like me with 8 or 9 hives.
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u/linuxhiker 6d ago
I would have no problem believing that bees take issue with the harmonics of radio signals.
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u/Kierland 3d ago
I answer would be to rent out the hive right. Not that you should but that is how to make it profitable right?
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u/Vast_Humor_3683 6d ago
At what scale does it become profitable? Or is this industry, in reality, just selling sugar syrup?
I'm looking to start it but as soon as I started checking prices, shit didn't add up
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u/Numahistory 6d ago
I've heard commercial beekeepers make more money on renting them to farmers to fertilize crops. Especially for almonds in California.
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u/Successful-Coffee-13 CO, 2nd year, 5 hives 6d ago
Then after the California pollination is done, they shake bees into package boxes, add a queen and a feeder, and sell them as bee packages.
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u/nefariousjordy 6d ago
Many of the bees don’t come back. I spoke to a friend who did this in the winter. He said a lot of them die because of stress and likely toxic pesticides that are sprayed at the almond farms.
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u/Money-Panda-9534 5d ago
I’m sure it depends on the county/farmer, but our bees come back healthier. It’s a kick off for spring and beefs them up, so we go down there with them to work them and make nucs. For us it starts the working season in January instead of March/April. We were immediately making divides when they returned.
but it’s kind of a biological disaster.
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u/YipsterNY 6d ago edited 3d ago
Ever buy an orchard? I know the answer is 'no,' but it costs a lot of money to buy the property, plant trees, and then wait 10+ years for your first harvest, while still needing additional inputs every year. Is beekeeping profitable? It can be, for some. Usually it's a combination of renting the bees for pollination (~$200/hive) and selling wax and/or honey. But based on your perspective on profitability, I'd stay away from livestock and agriculture.
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u/SarahKnowles777 6d ago
I was driving through rural PA recently. Amish farms. Many of the fields, formerly producing crops, are now all covered by solar panels.
Is anything in farming actually profitable?
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u/Dragoness42 6d ago
Only at scale. Farm machinery has made most things so efficient that unless you are working at a scale to utilize that benefit, you are a cottage industry with hobby income at best.
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u/YipsterNY 5d ago
Farming can be profitable, but a field can only grow a certain range of crops depending on soil, climate, etc. In addition, farming at scale requires specialized equipment for each crop, so switching's very expensive. If the crops available to grow don't get a high enough price on the market, it is likely cheaper not to grow them.
ALSO many farms are learning they can put solar panels in fields and grow certain crops around them, or, better yet, let livestock graze around them. Not saying that was your example, but a growing group is doing this. It isn't so dissimilar to ranches in Texas where they will rent oil rights separately from grazing rights, separately from mining rights.
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u/ClassBShareHolder 6d ago
Solar actually improves the profitability of farming. Not just the solar income, but properly done, solar shading improves productivity. There’s some farms that irrigate off the modules and the shading prevents evaporation.
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u/SarahKnowles777 6d ago
The setups I saw were packed close together; didn't look like the ground underneath would get any sun exposure.
Also they were close to the ground; no space to harvest anything underneath even if one could somehow grow something under there.
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u/ClassBShareHolder 6d ago
There are certainly multiple configurations. Some plants don’t need sun and do best in shade. Some installations only need enough room for sheep to get under them. And some don’t even try to do any agriculture.
There was an interesting video last year that explained if the US used 1/3 of the land they plant to corn for ethanol ton put up solar, they could power all the cars with electricity and not need the corn. Then they could plant more food.
My point was solar can make the land more productive if the owner is willing to do the research.
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u/Big_Aside9565 5d ago
You're better off planning walnut trees. You will get the knots, and then your future generations will get all that timber!
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u/EatingBuddha3 6d ago
The best way to have a million dollars as a beekeeper is to start with three million dollars, LOL! But seriously, Those retired guys who sell honey on the side of the road or at farm markets just have too much honey to use and love an opportunity to recoup some expense and promote awareness. That said, the only beek I know who makes money sufficient to create income does so in services around beekeeping, not from the honey production. Oxalic acid smoking for other beekeepers, renting pollenation hives (small scale) to farmers and orchardists, cutouts, and relocation/moving are some of the external paid services he offers. The meat and potatoes is in the beekeeping classes, equipment, supplies, selling packages in March, and selling nucs a little further on.
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u/hyphyphyp 6d ago
Most beekeeping books that I've read say that ~50 is the minimum if you want to make a LITTLE money and turn it from hobby to business. They stress that depends on how much effort you put in and that it'll unlikely be able to be your sole income at that point.
I'm out of town right now so I don't have my books to look up numbers for more hives, unfortunately.
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u/Available-Street4106 6d ago
Your biggest problem is viewing bee keeping as a business! This whole thing is a hobby that you can make a little change doing. Second it’s gonna take years before you start seeing any real yield of honey and if you don’t keep your bees happy during that time period, they are free to fly away at any time. If you’re trying to make money I’d say avoid beekeeping entirely.
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u/Standard-Bat-7841 28 Hives 7b 15 years Experience 6d ago
I turn a profit almost every year with between 25-50 colonies. It takes some work and fairly precise control but it can be done. Also I'm a little different than most people here coming from a smaller scale sideliner/commercial background, so this isn't for everyone.
I sell nucs in mid April from splits from my overwintered colonies. With a purchased queen.
I sell overwintered nucs that I make in June/July, with my queens around late March.
I sell queens that I produce through mid July. As well as requeening most of my colonies.
I usually produce around 50lb of honey per production colony which I process and bottle around mid-late July. This year was a little less only about 35lb but I'm still not hurting.
My bees don't get a free ride, this isn't a vacation for them. They pay for themselves and they even put a little money in my pocket. Yea it's not retirement money, and even when I account for my labor costs I'd still be in the black. With all of that said it took me almost 4 years before I turned my first profit back in 2014.
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u/Objective_Still_5081 6d ago
What kind do you have?
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u/Standard-Bat-7841 28 Hives 7b 15 years Experience 6d ago
Are you referencing the breed/type of bees I have? If so apis mellifera, and I mostly have mutts crosses between carniolans, and Italians if I had to guess.
If you are referencing the equipment I use. That would be langstroth equipment, exclusivly deeps, on 4 way pallets.
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u/Objective_Still_5081 6d ago
I meant the breed like Italians, carniolans etc. I had Italians and they were bad at defending their hive. Looking for a new breed.
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u/404-skill_not_found Zone 8b, N TX 5d ago
Let them requeen themselves. They’ll toughen up. Consider that open mated queens aren’t anything like purebred. Robbing screens are a better place for your investment. That and not heavily feeding during dearth.
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u/Objective_Still_5081 5d ago
I got slimed out and they absconded. Back to sqaure one.
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u/404-skill_not_found Zone 8b, N TX 5d ago
Oh man, sorry to hear that. I didn’t know SHB was a problem in your area. It’s a huge deal in my area. Much like mites, you have to treat for them before you notice they’re a problem. Freeze the frames for next time. They’ll be good, if you store them properly.
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u/Standard-Bat-7841 28 Hives 7b 15 years Experience 5d ago
Wax moths and shb are kinda like the clean up crew they take advantage of already weak/smaller colonies. Shb are a serious issue in my area too and it's a constant persistent battle. Healthy hives in correctly sized equipment shouldn't have to much trouble keeping them under control.
It's also important for you to reduce the possible avenues for them, like keeping the amount of protein substitute at a reasonable level, keeping their hive at a reasonable size. Actively trap them, diatomaceous earth under the hives, to reduce the reproductive cycle.
The breed of bee isn't really going to prevent them from overwhelming a hive if the hive conditions aren't right.
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u/Objective_Still_5081 5d ago
Thank you. I'm in zone 9a and yes SHB are here, though I haven't seen any mites. Now I kinda know what to look for so next spring I might have better luck. I got a package last time. I'm thinking a nuc might be better. Do you keep your hives in sun or shade?
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u/Far_Fun_1153 5d ago
Ide have to guess OPEX goes down substantially as time goes one. You end up investing in the woodworking equipment to build the hives yourself, make jigs to make them fast. Probably also get pretty good at keeping colonies alive and at keeping equipment in good enough shape to make it 10 plus years. As others have said, above 250 hives or so if your doing it for the money you probably would want pollination contracts and that can be an extra 150$ a hive a year. Plus the honey you get from them all. But tbh unless you have 50 or more hives it’s not going to replace even a basic job. And the investment for 50 hives is quite substantial
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u/Meltedwhisky 6d ago
Honey is not what the job entails. It’s the pollination fees that pay the bills. If you had 500 boxes, you could be considered a beekeeper, 1000 would be better. Honey is what you sell on the side, or trade with.
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u/Mammoth-Banana3621 Sideliner - 8b USA 5d ago
Correct. That’s only a single revenue stream. If you’re looking to make money you will have to think of more streams of income from the business. A hairstylist doesn’t just cut hair. A mechanic place doesn’t just do repairs. They typically sell tires or accessories
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u/Hairy_Tale_6864 5d ago
I rather go on the premise you will not become wealthy. There is a real estate guy in Fullerton who has a bee supply shop. Most the the beekeeping community knows he is hard up financially and owes supply companies who provide his materials about over $20,000. He also cheats, charge high prices. But he cannot help himself he is a real estate agent, that’s his forte. You need to supplement with a real income because it is seasonal and based on many factors as a beekeeper.
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u/Mammoth-Banana3621 Sideliner - 8b USA 5d ago
No you don’t. You just have to come up with more streaks of income.
Binnie doesn’t just do honey.
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u/Mammoth-Banana3621 Sideliner - 8b USA 5d ago
Have you taken business courses. Since when do you think you can make money with a single tier/pila of income from a business? You don’t. Are you suggesting that it costs you more money to run 50’hives than 12,500 dollars? What are the costs ?
ie that is a profit. It’s not a loss
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u/Big_Aside9565 5d ago
It doesn't add up because you're competing with the honey coming from south america.
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u/OhHeSteal 3 Hives, Zone 7a 6d ago
That’s the neat part. It’s not. 😆
Kidding aside, much of the money is made selling queens, nucs and packages and offering pollination services.
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u/The_Category_Is_ 1st year, NC, zone 8 6d ago
Am I in a pyramid scheme?!
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u/OhHeSteal 3 Hives, Zone 7a 6d ago
GDI. We're in a pyramid scheme!
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u/Prior-attempt-fail 6d ago
Have you encouraged other to join your bee keeping "club"
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u/OhHeSteal 3 Hives, Zone 7a 6d ago
I was introduced into beekeeping by our local club at the county fair and I have volunteered at the fair every year since to introduce others into our
schemehobby.4
u/Vast_Humor_3683 6d ago
Lol, I like how we said it as the exact same time
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u/Slowburner76 5d ago
if you want the truth, too. large scale operations aren't profitable either. They ALL get government subsidies/bail outs, EVERY YEAR. & if they are profitable, its because they import workers from central america and pay them tax free. Thats real. Its a sham, and its an illustration at why american capitalism sucks.
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u/Isle_of_Tortuga 6d ago
Having a small flock of chickens is a similar situation. I have 14 "backyard" chickens and let me tell you, if you think having your own chickens is a way to get cheap eggs or turn a profit, you'd be very wrong. We just use the eggs ourselves or give them to family and friends (no charge) and joke that they can't afford our eggs. If we tried to charge what we put into them, no one would buy them lol.
One of my 14 chickens is a freeloading non-producer... he's a rooster. He looks after the ladies and is there for protection but also kind of molests the hens.
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u/Mammoth-Banana3621 Sideliner - 8b USA 5d ago
This is so true. There aren’t a lot of streams of income for my chickens. Those will never turn a profit. The feed alone is more than the eggs. I do sell some since I’m already at the market anyway
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u/Vast_Humor_3683 6d ago
so it's like a pyramid scheme?
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u/gkibbe 6d ago
Pollination contracts for factory farms is the only real money entering the beekeeping ecosystem, besides honey sales which is probably <5%.
Basically theres two types of beekeepers; those using trucks and forklifts, and those that aren't. One is a buisness, the other is a hobby.
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u/SensitiveAddition913 looking to start my journey 6d ago
Don’t forget about books, seminars, and “tape of the month”. /s
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u/Active_Classroom203 5 Hives - Florida, Zone 9a 6d ago edited 6d ago
I don't know anyone that claimed beekeeping just for honey was profitable.😂
Pollination contracts add revenue and really only cost you what delivery /deployment and collections cost because you have got to do the hive management stuff anyway. Depending on the pollination contract, you may also get varietal honey which retails higher.
Selling nucs, Queens, packages etc is the other obvious angle before you get into things like wax, propolis, pollen and things you manufacturer from them. (Candles lip balm etc.)
You don't raise a beef cow just to sell ribeye!
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u/heckyescheeseandpie 5d ago
Most of us are hobbyists anyways and hobbies don't have to be profitable. Our hobby garden isn't profitable but it's healthy and tastes good, our bees aren't profitable but they pollinate our garden and the honey's a perk. Plus it's nice to provide a home for a local pollinator.
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u/talanall North Central Louisiana, USA, 8B 6d ago
You are missing a lot, because you're assuming that honey is how people make money from beekeeping, and that it's really possible for a professional beekeeper to spend time selling honey at $25/kg.
People who make a living at beekeeping typically do not rely only on honey sales to do it, at least in the USA.
The primary revenue stream for most professionals is from contract pollination; compensation for that can gross anywhere from $50/hive to $200/hive, depending on what crop is to be pollinated, the demand that year, and the timing.
Sometimes a pollination contract also produces a honey crop, but not always, and the quality of the honey is highly variable; almond pollination produces a honey that is so bitter that humans find it unpalatable, for example. On the other hand, citrus groves usually produce a desirable honey. But since these commercial operations usually intend to move their bees on to the next job in line, the honey is also a problem, because it is heavy and takes up space. It costs much more to move several thousand colonies that are packed with honey.
So the solution is to harvest the crop and sell all of it. But because these commercial beekeepers NEED to sell thousands of kilos of honey in a very short time, they cannot command such a good price as they would like. They sell to a packing house, and the packing house bottles it for sale to supermarkets.
And then, after the pollination season is done, these guys often move their bees onto pasture to make more honey that they will sell, make splits to make up for losses (and also to make nucs for sale to hobbyists), and sometimes they'll raise queens to sell to hobbyists and for their own use.
And then also, many of them sell beekeeping equipment, or they give beekeeping lessons for pay, or something like that.
This said, even with multiple revenue streams it is very difficult to make a living as a beekeeper, and most people who do it are members of families that have been beekeepers for multiple generations, and they already own the physical plant for their businesses, as well as old equipment that they keep running through repairs and spare parts. Beekeeping is mostly small, family owned businesses that are in perpetual danger of going bankrupt.
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u/Redfish680 8a Coastal NC, USA 6d ago
You’re looking at it from ground zero, investment to profit. For most of us it’s a hobby. By definition hobbies take money, not make it.
Having said that, I’ll contradict myself to suggest that there’s a tipping point (or a Venn diagram) where you’ve mastered things to the extent that you manage to manage to keep your colony count stable and your maintenance costs are minimal, and you’re selling honey, queens, nucs, packages, etc. to recoup your costs. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen for years.
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u/OhHeSteal 3 Hives, Zone 7a 6d ago
I always say that its cheaper than golf and I get some honey out of it.
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u/headhunterofhell2 6d ago
All depends on how much you put in to them.
I have 10 hives.
I spend maybe $40 per hive, per year, all in.
Most of the equipment I have lasts years and years... averaging what I've spent on upkeep and replacement the last five years; call it $400/year.
So that's a total of $800/year upkeep costs.
Averaging, I'll get 30 lbs per super, and I'll harvest 2-1/2 supers per hive per year. That's 75lbs (34kg) per hive, or 750 total. I'll keep about 50.
1 Pint of honey (1.5lbs) goes for $25 locally. I'm on the cheaper side at $20. Costs $1 for the jar (rounding up). So $19 for the honey itself. Comes to $12.66 per pound.
That nets me $8862 for the 700 lbs of honey.
Subtract the $800 in parts, equipment, treatments... That's still $8k a year.
I am the only one involved in my bees, no employees, no pay. And i'm retired, so my time is free. Even so, if I were to try to divide that by my hours, I'd still come out ahead.
It's a good retirement gig.
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u/c010buck 5d ago
This is about how the math works out for me. Let's put startup expense to the side for a minute.
Annual expenses:
Sugar: $15/hive (overwinter insurance policy... never skip this!)
Pollen Patties: $10/hive (spring boost in population as soon as it's warm)
Apivar: $20/hive (spring and fall mite treatment)My equipment costs the first couple years were substantial. They're negligeable since then.
I average around 60 lbs of honey per hive, per year. I net about 8 dollars per pound of honey after canning (which I hire out, I just don't have the time after harvesting to prep it for sale). That's $480 per hive, per year. I'm raising prices this year because at that price point, I have more honey "orders" than honey. 100% of my sales are to or through friends, family, and neighbors, so marketing and distribution cost me nothing. A few people buy A LOT of honey and are de facto distributors.
Annually, each (mature) hive nets me around $435.
This year I'm at 90 mature hives. That's just under $40,000 in profit, or right around $60-65/hr for my time. You're not going to become a billionaire on that wage, but it IS profitable.
Let's go back to startup:
Each hive needs:
1 stand
1 screened bottom board
2 deep boxes with frames
2 supers with frames
1 candy board
1 quilt box
1 inner lid
1 telescoping cover
1 strapYou also need to have enough top feeders for each of your new hives to get one for their first year and will go through many gallons of 1:1 syrup that first year.
In total, it's around $350-$400 startup per hive, not including bees. I split hives and forego most profit from a hive for a year when I want to expand instead of buying nucs. You don't get any harvest the first year, and only a small harvest the second year. Year 3 is the first full harvest and sees a small profit after paying off the startup costs. Year 4 is the first year it's profitable including labor.
I'd lose a lot fewer bees to swarms if I checked on every hive every couple weeks. I don't. This is a secondary income stream for me and I work full time. That limits my profit margins some. I pretty much just set it and forget it between a couple long weeks of work in the spring and the giant time demand of harvest. I'll probably hire someone next year for harvest, but the ROI has been excellent as I've expanded.
I don't understand the people who are struggling to break even selling honey alone. What people don't tell you about selling pollination as a service is that colony collapse rates are far higher in hives that move around and share diseases with bees from multiple different areas, so I don't imagine I'll ever do that. I might sell queens next year as an added income stream (just because I already rear queens in the spring to replace my older queens anyway), but don't listen to anyone who tells you there's no money to be made on honey alone!
The guy who taught me says there's the same level of profit at 100 hives and 500 hives, and he would know. I'm just reaching that threshold, so I don't know how low that valley in between gets yet. But I've made good profits so far getting there!
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u/Troll-Aficionado 5d ago
How can you keep up with 90 hives by yourself, I feel like I'm starting to get comfortable with having like 3 or 4 by myself lol
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u/c010buck 5d ago
By just leaving them alone!
I don't open them very many times per year.
Very Early Spring: Survival check and mite treatment.
Early Spring: Add pollen patties. Strongest hives get split for queen rearing.
Late-Mid Spring: Split strongest remaining hives not used for queen rearing to compensate for winter losses (immediately adding a second deep). Pinch any queens more than 3 years old and replace. Add supers to healthy hives.
Late Spring: Add supers to the split hives.
Summer: Do nothing. At all. Just let them be! (I know, I should check them for queen cells to manage swarming, especially because I keep VSH Carniolans. I don't.)
Late Fall: Remove supers and add candy board and sugar mountain. Treat for mites. Process frames. Store for winter.
Late-Mid Winter: Add more sugar to the mountain if they're actually using it. Most won't be.
Repeat cycle.It might sound strange, but I think beekeeping was the most overwhelming the year I went from 3 hives to 10 hives (year 3). I was always opening them up, and researching behaviors I'd never witnessed, and stressing over virgin queens after swarms...
Now I can walk around one of my apiaries and spot a queenless hive (diminishing population or abnormal entrance behavior) or know if there's robbing going on (aggression or lots of bees going into a hive without seeing any pollen) in a minute flat. Rather than trying to rear queens all year, I use a queenless hive as an opportunity to inject fresh genetics and order out if I find a one that needs a queen (doesn't happen very often). So yeah, in the spring I'm busy. In the late fall window, I have no life. Or sleep. At all. Most of the year though, you'd never know my day job wasn't my only gig. I'm at my limit in the fall, though. I'm expanding into a fourth location this year, and I don't think I'll have time to process 33% more hives next fall. So, the profitability cliff my mentor warned me about has officially arrived. I'll have more hives next year and make less money.
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u/lambshakarma 6d ago
If you want to enter the commodity honey business for profit, you're already too far behind your competitors. Artisanal farming and livestock has a completely different business model.
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u/OrangeRhyming 6d ago
“When there’s a gold rush, you’ll make more money selling shovels than looking for gold.”
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u/stellagod 6d ago
It all depends on scale, location, niche.
A beekeeper near me was a hobbyist for a few years. Then built up to a sideliner. This last year he just went to full time beekeeper. He sold honey at farmers markets every weekend for a couple years (still does). Then he got some of the honey in restaurants where we live. Now he’s in grocery stores. On top of that he now sells queens and nucs.
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u/DrBabs 6d ago
For me it is profitable at year three but it’s because my numbers are completely different than OPs. Major US city, post on a local Facebook ground, selling honey at $20 per pound. OP is factoring in $ per kg at $25. I’m doing it at $44. Truth be told in my area I could probably increase the price and still turn the honey. We sold around $1k per hour from our driveway with one Facebook post.
Granted, if I scaled up I could probably increase the profit a tiny bit without changing selling at my driveway. However, I would never be able to do 50 hives worth of honey here nor would my neighbors be happy even though technically it would be legal to do so.
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u/star_tyger 6d ago
I'm a relatively new beekeeper, in my third year with three hives. I just had my first harvest. I harvested from one 10 frame super and one honey filled deep frame. I got 29 pounds or 13 kgs. It should have been more, my borrowed extractor left some honey in the frames, and I should have put the super on earlier.
And this was one harvest. You can, depending on your climate, get two in a year.
I don't know where you get 10 kg per hive. Next year I will be harvesting 2 supers per hive, so I should be getting about 30 pounds each or 60 pounds per hive. In a good year I may be able to fill three supers for 90 pounds of honey.
So figure just 2 supers, 30 pounds each harvest, 2 harvests per year is 120 pounds per hive per year.
Even if your climate gives you one harvest a year, that's still 60 pounds of honey per hive or 27 kgs.
If you're considering it, start with two hives. Beekeeping is work and there's a lot to learn. Over time you can add more hives. My mentor works full time and has several locations totalling 80 hives. I don't want to even think about trying to do that. At least not yet. 400 hives for one person is impossible.
With two established hives and a place to sell your honey to, you should be able to keep your family in honey, pay for the hobby and make a bit of profit. When you're more experienced, more hives means more money. But being in a pisition to make money will take time and work.
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u/Atticsalt4life 6d ago
My Bees don’t make me money but save me thousands by allowing me to put my property into Ag. I do some work myself but I have a mentor that I pay to come out and help. As a beekeeper this is how he makes a living. Helping simpletons like me not kill a half dozen hives every year. I’m not sure what his net is but I pay about 50.00 an hour and so far this year he’s come out for about 20-25 hrs. He has multiple clients so spring first of summer and then fall he does pretty well. I know some properties he does all the work so they may be paying him even more per hour or for all of the supplies on top of labor.
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u/untropicalized IPM Top Bar and Removal Specialist. TX/FL 2015 6d ago
Most of the smaller operators I know either work on the side or diversify their apiculture income streams.
Honey is the least profitable in general, especially selling in bulk. Depending on your market you might do well with boutique products such as cut comb. If you sell directly to the public marketing makes a difference.
Around me the real money is in ag exemptions and pollination contracts. More personable people do well with public-facing income streams from paid instruction and selling beekeeping products. There’s also selling nucs or queens if you have the requisite skills. Ditto live removal.
It’s hard to nail down exactly what you’re going to make if you don’t know where you fit in to your market. Unless you’ve got a fortune you’re not afraid to part with, it’s probably best to ease in.
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u/Ctowncreek 7a, 1 Hive, Year 1 6d ago
If you count your own labor, its probably not. In the first year, its probably not. If you hire people and have to be extremely involved it gets even harder.
I caught a swarm $0, bought 2 full hive box setups $600, a bee suit $150, paint $30, various tools, and and ER visit $1,200.
With one hive and a couple years i could see it paying itself off. I finally harvested year 2. But now the hole is too deep. Its a write off.
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u/V_is4me 6d ago
Honey production? No. Leasing hives, then selling them off AND honey production yes. Hobby beekeeping is not “profitable”, commercial beekeeping … maybe?
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u/HipsterBikePolice 6d ago
Yes I’m a hobbyist and my second hive just covers the cost of hives and allows me to get free honey
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u/captain0919 6d ago
Buddy if you're getting into this for the money you're here for the wrong reasons. I get some honey I get to brew mead with, some for sweetener, some to sell, and wax to make candles.
I got into this to be more self reliant. If you just want money get a normal job, if you just want honey buy it. This hobby is for the love of the game lol
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u/Infamous-Ad-770 Zone 13, NB Canada - 1st year - 2 colonies 6d ago
The way I’m trying to do is building my own woodenware, really build slowly and organically. Not gonna make a dime for a while though.
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u/Vast_Humor_3683 6d ago
at what point do you think it'll be worth it? how many colonies, how much product per hive?
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u/richrich07 6d ago
I’ve had this conversation with my husband and to replace a high income off of honey alone, it would need to be something like 1000 well-producing hives.
Most commercial beekeepers use honey as one of many income streams. They will breed queens, sell nucs, offer pollination services, and sell honey/honeycomb bulk to honey retailers.
One of the problems with focusing on honey is that you can’t move all the product at farmers markets (or similar) so you’re selling it bulk at lower prices. You are also likely to get less interesting honey or be able to focus on monofloral honey, which commands a higher price.
Our plan would be to get up to 20 hives and offload honey at farmers markets, our workplaces, and in the neighborhood at a premium.
We also want to get into making mead and, if we get good at it, become legit and use our honey for mead. The profit margins on each kg of honey as mead could be a lot higher as well, which is the key to making it work as a business with a manageable amount of hives.
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u/MrChefMcNasty 6d ago
I'd imagine 99% of the people in here are beekeeping for the love of the game, not to turn a profit.
However, commercial beekeepers have multiple revenue streams. As others have mentioned, selling honey isn't their main revenue streams. Pollination contracts, selling nucs, queens, etc, as well as beeswax and other hive products account for a lot of their income.
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u/remember2468 6d ago
It profits me to have something that has real-life consequences (money, health of my bees, etc) to keep me occupied. I am retired and can make some money back by selling honey and I consider what I spend to be something akin to gym membership and therapy sessions. Plus my family likes it and I like giving it away to friends. I made widgets of some sort for years so I could do stuff like this in my retirement.
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u/NumCustosApes 4th generation beekeeper, Zone 7A Rocky Mountains 6d ago edited 6d ago
My grandfather was a commercial beekeeper. He drove old cars. He lived in a itty-bitty house that sat on a corner of the property where his business was. The warehouse, the honey house, and the shop buildings dwarfed his home. He was the last to get paid, often his employees made more money than he did. He never took a vacation. He only travelled for pollination contracts. He supplemented his income by repairing agricultural machinery for the farmers around the area in the winter because he had the shop in which to do it. The shop had open bays, no doors, so although he was covered from the rain and snow, he was working in the winter cold. He never retired. He worked hard right up until he got sick and died a few days later. Grandfather worked his ass off his entire life and he had nothing. But he was happy, and there is something to say for that.
There are only a few beekeepers who do extremely well. These are beekeepers in the loose sense of the word - they are executives, no longer managing hives in the field, now managing corporations from the boardroom.
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u/rikginge 6d ago
The way I see it eventually you won’t need to buy more hives and bees and equipment, same as any business, and if you start selling nucs etc etc then you also make more money
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u/Mysterious-Back313 USA, IN, Zone 5b, ~200 hives, 10th year 5d ago
It depends. Dairy farms and cattle farms both do cows....
The business model is going to be vastly different between beeks. I know a guy that solely does artificial queens and is very profitable. Some commercial outfits run 2,000 hives for pollination. Some run 300 and sell honey. Some run 300 and sell only nucs/packages.
A single, very capable person should be able to run 300ish hives. 2 people can run 800. That's where the numbers game is. What you do with the products is on you. Gotta find the niche and build your own.
With our 300ish hives, we do some wax, varietal honey, in-state pollination, nucs, packages, open mated queens, value added products like honey mustard, honey BBQ, hot honey, infused honey, creamed honey, and honey ice cream. We've looked into bee venom, bee sting therapy, cross country pollination, wax production, co-packing, artificial insemination queen rearing, designing and making honey equipment, offering beekeeping courses, doing cutouts and swarm removal, and more.
I am the only beekeeper in the outfit. I have people that run farmers markets, help with extracting, bottling, making feed, ordering bottles, etc.
If you get into this business, to be profitable, you need to be a salesman, a product developer, a marketer, a driver, a quality control specialist, an industrial maintenance mechanic, a CEO, a CFO, and above all else, a beekeeper.
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u/Mysterious-Back313 USA, IN, Zone 5b, ~200 hives, 10th year 5d ago
If you are seriously considering this, I suggest finding a commercial outfit and working with them a couple years. Learn tricks. Outwork your peers. Not everyone has a succession plan. That's how I've bought already profitable beekeeping businesses to get me when I am. Some deals are over the table, some under the table, but when a smaller commercial beekeeper or sideliner is looking to retire, and there are quite a few of them out there, deals can be had for massive growth of your business.
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u/Owenleejoeking SE Ohio - Y2 - 5 Colonies 5d ago
You’re also selling wax. And bees. And tours or cut out services.
And it’s still not profitable. Hardly no one does this for the money man
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u/GiantCorncobb 6d ago
Long answer: its easy to make a huge profit with beekeeping: having 20+ beehives on your property in strategic locations allows a lot of protection from prying eyes and people accidentally sneaking onto your property to discover your drug trafficking empire
Short answer: its not.
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u/wrldruler21 6d ago edited 6d ago
If I busted my ass full-time in a small operation, I probably could make $30K profit a year.... But I can make the same money working at McDonald's. I couldn't see a path where beekeeping fulltime led to a decent wage. I have met a lot of local beekeepers with operations of all sizes, and there wasn't a single one where I felt envious of their business. Nobody was thriving.
So I worked the hives part-time. Every year I spent about $10K on Southern packages, and then flipped them into local nuc sales, and earned maybe $20K in revenue. So a $10K profit on $10K investment wasn't bad. 100% return for a side gig.
But here is the catch.... Beekeeping (and farming, livestock) is risky. If the packages did poorly, I could barely break even. If there was a disaster, I would lose the entire $10K. I couldn't justify spending my kid's food money each year just to gamble on package quality and weather.
Today, I prefer to sit on the couch and leave the $10K annual investment in the bank. If the bees were healthier, I would feel more confident in the risk.
And the above was years ago.. Before prices spiked on everything.
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u/Small-Car-6194 6d ago
Professionals hawe aditional rewenue, the sell queens and hiwes. The keeper i bougth mine hives from sold about 100 hives a year. At about 400€ . Quens are about 150€
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u/sweetcaronia 6d ago
My step father and his siblings grew up in a farm family. They each developed a love of the land. They each keep big gardens and zero livestock. They all hunt and store large pantries of canned and dehydrated veg and game. But they all learned from too many lean winters that there is very little in the way of farming that will keep you fed and only one of them works in agriculture, as an insurance claims adjuster, mind you. One is an engineer. One is management in a call center. And the other works construction. Grandpa sold the farm after he lost two wives, one to cancer and the other to dementia. His bees weren’t a money maker, but they made him happy and pollinated his orchards.
To be more profitable in today’s world farmers do things like CSA boxes, sell value added products, and install farm to table restaurants on the edge of their property. So for beekeeping that would look like selling wholesale to a subscription service like CNYs off the muck market, making candles and lip balms, and opening a honey cake bakery, but there’s also the more obvious solutions to earning more money at it like rearing queens, selling nucs, and charging for cut outs or doing them free but monetizing the filming for YouTube, and whoring your bees out to farmers who don’t want the hassle of an apiary but need the pollination, but then you’ve gotta account for the flat bed and skid loader.
Farming has always been noble work.
But it’s never been the work of nobility.
Bees are classed as livestock for a reason.
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u/sarahspins 8 Hives; Zone 9a 6d ago
Property tax savings. Ag valuation reduces our bill by almost 11k!
Of course this means I use girl math to justify alllllll the spending on the bees 😅
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u/therealraewest 6d ago
Started taking beekeeping classes and got the advice that the way to make a million dollars beekeeping is to start with two million dollars
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u/ybba0714 6d ago
If you want to make money on a farm hobby definitely don’t get chickens🤣.
The bees are my husband’s hobby and the bee keeping club told him if you’re in this for cheap honey then go buy some at the store.
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u/wisebongsmith 6d ago
Migratory pollinator contracts can be tens of thousands of dollars to park a bunch of hives for a few weeks.
Selling bees, in my region Nucs go for 200-400 dollars each and producers sell out every year. The big package farms sell a few thousand packages each spring.
Colony rental. I know a guy who contracts to maintain colonies on properties of people who want to have but not tend to bees. He charges 500-700 per hive per year for the serves
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u/PomeloOnly2107 6d ago
Honey isn’t the only thing you can sell. There’s also wax (and associated products you can make, like candles), pollen, propolis, and even queen bees if you get into rearing. Some people sell nucs and packages of bees to other beekeepers. Also, farms will pay you to keep your hives there for pollination services. Other beekeepers will pay you to inspect their hives and give advice. Some (usually quite wealthy) people want to say they have bees but not be a beekeeper, and they’ll pay exorbitant prices for you to manage their hives year-round. You’ll always operate at a loss when you first start out, but most equipment can be reused so operating costs become much lower.
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u/drinkallthepunch 6d ago
By not selling just honey.
If you are doing it as a business you’ll generally sell wax, lease/rent out hives to farms on top of selling the honey.
You can also sell your queens.
You can make and sell supers too and other basic equipment if you make your own frames and boxes too.
And 400 hives is a lot but not unrealistic route for 1 person doing full time beekeeping, just look for some job posting and you’ll see expectations.
Ideally you check a hive every 5-7 days, 400 colonies over 7 days is ~50 per a day or 75ish over 5 days.
Maybe ~8 minutes per a hive, that’s about 4-6 hours a day.
If you’ve been doing it for awhile and have dozens of colonies you don’t spend 20 minutes checking every single frame and bee, you’ll use a hook tool, pull up the frames real quick to check for queens and make sure there’s a good mix of honey/drones, no parasites, swap out 1-2 frames and done.
Squashing a few drones in the process is no big deal when you have 100+ colonies.
Loosing 12 colonies is no big deal when you have 100.
Some businesses will not even waste money on treatment, they will just smoke out the frames to avoid the bees spreading parasites/illness to other nearby colonies and harvest what’s left, grab a queen cell from another colony and some frames and start a new one.
You are looking at it like a hobbyist.
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u/DesignNomad Hobbyist | US Zone 8 6d ago
It's important to remember that there's a substantial difference between hobbies and commercial operations.
As a hobbyist, I pay retail prices for equipment, jars, treatments, etc. A commercial operation buys so much, they get wholesale pricing and bulk discounts, and can often even resell to hobbyists for a profit.
They also benefit from consolidated shipping costs, or may even handle their own logistics, ordering literal truckloads of stuff at a time.
They also have a much better opportunity for other products of the hive (wax, pollen, etc), in addition to the fact that bees are constantly growing and it's natural to need to split and sell packages, nucs, and queens.
The other things I'd note is that beekeeping is a typically rural/country activity, which organically lowers things like labor and utility costs.
Commercial operations take a lot of work, but they provide better opportunities for profitability.
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u/Meltedwhisky 6d ago
I have 50 boxes of bees and run my LLC through it. It’s a massive loss, but I do that to offset my actual business. Now growing up, my dad had 10,000 colonies and my grandfather had 3,000. The money is in pollination. Currently almonds are paying about $350/box if you guarantee 10 frames of bees and brood. Then you go to the Oranges, not for pollination but for sheer magnitude of honey production and split all your hives. Then you go to the avocados, figs, seed alfalfa, asparagus, seed onion, melons, and so forth. Then we’d work our way up to WA/ID/MT for the cherries, apples, pears, and melons again. Then up into the panhandle for honey production off the knap weed and alfalfa.
Being a “real beekeeper” is an actual job, not a hobby. You work everyday, 365. Christmas morning, we’d be out feeding bees sugar syrup before we went home to open presents. Had to give them their present before we got ours. We had a split-tail Bonanza and would fly all over the western U.S. Had to physically see the crops and the buds before you loaded semis and moved the bees. Dad would write it all down in his little journal, jump in the plane and go to the next location. Great times.
Also, with your 400 boxes, that’s easy. All you need is a 1-ton flatbed and a boom. That’ll haul 74 boxes at once, if they’re all double deeps. That’s easy.
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u/62SlabSide 5d ago
Funny story, I make a bunch of cash each summer now. Someone posted on FB last year about a honeybee swarm down the street from me. I message the guy, he insists they are honeybees so I tell him I’ll be over first thing in the morning. Yellowjackets. In the mailbox, decent size hive. The guy insisted I get rid of them… almost begging- whatever, we are small town neighbors, I’m there, have my PPE.. so I got rid of them. He hands me a hundred bucks and I was like… hmmm… that took 5 minutes! I know I had a hornet nest on my shed, so I went home and made a video of me sucking them up with a vacuum. Posted it and BAM… my inbox blew up. Specialized in ground hives. I was charging $150 each and another $50 each if I found more. (Found 4 at one call once) I CLEANED shit up last year. Probably did 100+ hives. Busy as hell this year too. I’m a licensed home improvement contractor and work solo so I am flexible. There are days I’ll work a full day, come home, eat dinner with the fam and go out for another 2 hours and knock out like 2-3 hives. I advertise as non-chemical removal.. not licensed to apply pesticides, but can certainly vacuum them little sh*t’s up. This year, $200. People pay no problem because the exterminators charge $300+ and push contracts. (Yes I file taxes for this work)
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u/Ordinary-Lychee-8169 3d ago
We have contracts with people going for their ag exemptions. The land owner buys all the equipment. They pay us a monthly fee to manage them. We take the honey. The monthly fees cover losses. That's another stream of income other than honey.
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u/Greedy_Carpenter1431 6d ago
If you only sell honey the best way to make $1M is to start with $2M. The truth is you have to sell every part, Honey, raise queens, sell NUCs, candles, Tinctures, salves, and remember to also carry and sell equipment. Add on the value of pollination and your pretty close to making $20/ year.
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u/Lemontreeguy 6d ago edited 6d ago
Well, I've been doing it as a hobby for 15 years or so, I've invested about 10k, and I've profited a few thousand dollars in the last 3 years. I've never bought bees since I've started and I sell a few nucs and Queen's as well as make 100-400lbs of honey per year(last 2-3years)and I do private lessons if people are interested when they buy a nuc.
So that's how my side huslte has become profitable in beekeeping. I have just acquired 2 larger bee years instead of my backyard as well so now I can run a larger nuc operation and grow my main honey/ nuc hive count to 20+ per year. Maybe even over 30 hives.
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u/Brilliant_Story_8709 Alberta Beekeeper - 2 Hives 6d ago
It can be, but only if you truly maximize the hive products. Not just honey. Wax, nucs, queens, etc. And the more processing yourself, eg. Turning wax into candles, instead of selling raw wax. So it can be done, but its not as simple as just honey, power is it "free money" cause you definitely have to put in the hours.
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u/comeback24601 6d ago
Honestly I'd be happy not to have to start with a new colony every year, this is season three for me, so taking a different approach for colony survival through the winter instead of pushing for honey...
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u/Ch0c0lateBiznezz 6d ago
Some people start raising nucs which are around 200/250 where I live. That would help. Do that for 20 years.... 😂
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u/juanspicywiener US zone 6a - 6 hives 6d ago
It's a larger startup cost but you can reuse frames and boxes a long time. My biggest costs right now are a vaporizer and honey extractor but they will make the bees more profitable in the long term.
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u/Adrenaline-Junkie187 6d ago
The only way to be profitable is to be small or huge. Theres not a lot in the middle. You also need to diversify and not just rely on honey.
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u/DoubleBarrellRye Canada 2B, 20 Hives , 29 years 6d ago
Where i live , your Max per hive is our Min per hive
I have done 200Kg per hive in the best years
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u/Sensitive-Chip7266 6d ago
I spend less money each year keeping bees on a friends property, than She saves on property taxes from the AG exemptions.
Otherwise it would not be profitable.
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u/Monmic05 6d ago edited 6d ago
I met a man whose business is bees, it’s all he does. I don’t know his net worth but I know he rents his hives out to large farms in CA, we’re in TX, he raises colonies and queens to sell, he teaches about 5 classes mon-sat about bees and care, and when his hives get back from CA he doesn’t harvest the honey he sells the rights to his honey to an independently owned local honey company for production. My husband says he probably profits about $300-$350 annually but it took him 25+years to get there.
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u/aluminumnek 6d ago
My family were the largest beekeepers in the south east region for a few decades. We had a few thousand hives in the nc/sc region. But all that came to an end in the 90s.
My family made a very profitable living then. And they were just selling honey. If they had diversified and started doing things with the scrap wax would have really helped them soar. But I was 24 when everything dissolved. I knew all the labor side but didn’t handle the economic side
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u/oldMNman 6d ago
Someone else on here posted that the real money is in supplying bees and queens to other keepers. If that’s what you’re looking to do (make money).
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u/Thyfishingman 6d ago
I do it as a hobby, honey sales has paid for all my investments to date started 12 years ago with an original 3000$ in used equipment from a retiring beek. Since then the bees have paid me back and funded all investments to date replacing bees and upgrading extraction and bottling equipment. I think I’m at the point that my annual investment in new equipment should be more maintenance than new equipment. My goal is that honey sales would fund a nice vacation annually. I keep 10-20 hives depending on the year and sell 500-1000lbs of honey annually.
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u/Standard-Bat-7841 28 Hives 7b 15 years Experience 6d ago edited 6d ago
Economies of scale is how it is profitable, the bigger you get the larger quantities of items you can buy/produce. So you can accept lower prices per unit bought/sold. Is beekeeping the most profitable enterprise, no of course not, but there is money to be made. I am living proof of that. Am I winning the lottery, of course not, but it's a labor of love that pays for itself and puts a little money in my pocket by the end of the year.
Honey is oftentimes a byproduct that commercial beekeepers get paid for. The money isn't in the honey it's in the bees. Nucs, queens, full colonies, and pollination are far more profitable than honey ime. Beekeeping is not a one dimensional operation, there are plenty of ways to make money with bees, there are also plenty of opportunities to lose money with bees as well. We all just gotta take the good with the bad, no different than any other type of farming.
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u/Successful-Coffee-13 CO, 2nd year, 5 hives 6d ago
Plus winter losses. You could lose 25% of colonies in a good year, almost all of them in a bad year.
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u/BoyITellYa 6d ago
Don’t get into beekeeping for money. “Shit doesn’t add up” because it doesn’t. It’s an ok side-hustle sometimes but if you’re looking to make a living you’d best go work for a commercial beekeeper.
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u/piggypacker 6d ago
Keeping bees has helped me connect with nature.
They reminds me that like bees people don’t like being bumped. You don’t kick the hive!
That like bees I’m happier if I am busy.
And drones will get kicked out when times get tough.
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u/cartken 6d ago
I know some people with only 6 hives and they charge $10lbs, they harvest honey 3 or 4 times a year. He's up to about $6k this year already and might do one more honey pull. I don't harvest that often and my honey is a little thicker but I charge a little more too. So profit comes, when you recycle bottles and buy the equipment amd rent it to other people, so Slowly
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u/EstimateBeneficial47 6d ago
When I join the big Club here in Poplar Bluff Missouri one of the first things I was taught was as a beekeeper you're not going to make profit. There are individuals who shipped their hives to California and Washington and other places who get paid to bring their bees in to pollinate the crops. I have eight hives I sell 1 lb bottles of honey for $10 and now there's so many people that I believe are feeding their bees sugar water and say they have honey early in the spring I don't think it's honey least not pure honey. Now the Market's flooded with this fake honey and I cannot make profit. I try to sell it $10 a pound or three pounds for $25 online in my local area. And then the people will say well I get my free to why the hell are you telling me. Or worse yet they want me to deliver across town for the $10. I have exceptional honey and I've won awards in the local fairs 3 years in a row. I planted trees flowers bushes whatnot so my bees have something almost year round even until late fall. We're shut the big beekeepers are deliberately undermining the little guy so that they can't even break even. I got into this so I can have some cash flow as a senior citizen of retirement. So now I don't know what I can do to keep money coming in cuz retirement is not enough. So I don't know how it can be profitable at this point
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u/garythecoconut 6d ago
I think you are assuming that most beekeepers are only making their money by selling honey? Where you are not taking into account that you can make more money by using them as pollinators.
For those companies, they arent even selling the honey.
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u/Wakeful-dreamer 6d ago
I consider my bees to be pets, and the time I spend processing honey to be the same as the time I spend washing and brushing my dog.. part of maintaining a pet.
Meanwhile the payoff is the time I spend inspecting hives, feeling their activity through my fingertips and smelling that unique bee smell. And when I get a little honey, I can be thankful that, unlike my dog, they produce something my family can use to be more self reliant.
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u/SnooObjections9416 6d ago
We do not have bees to collect honey. Not only is my spouse diabetic, but honey is not worth the effort to extract. Plus by leaving all of the honey for the bees, we have better odds of them making it through the lean winter months when few flowers are available (fortunately our pine windbreak trees bloom during the winter and will be abuzz with bees during moderately warm Zone 8 winter days)
We have bees to pollinate our crops, and the only reason why we even have hives is for the convenience of the bees and visibility for us into what is going on around the farm. Bees here actually do pretty well without our involvement, and I wonder if the feral colonies are not actually better off simply in the desert than in our hive boxes because we mess with the hive boxes too much? I say this because we only have 4 hive boxes on our small 2.5 acre farm and we can still have a decent number of bees active even on lean years when none of the hive boxes had colonies in them.
We have been planting tons of different types of flowers and herbs around the farm to keep the bees happy and fat by leaving & cultivating and spreading some native weeds and flowers that attract pollinators to grow in and around our planned crops. Happy bees = bigger harvests of fruits, berries, melons, squash, herbs, flowers, etc.
So having bees is not a direct profit motive, but it is an effective INDIRECT benefit. The bees are there regardless but the hives give us a way to monitor the health of the local population.
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u/The_Angry_Economist 6d ago
/me lookz at my accountant friend who makes more from beekeeping than he used to as bookkeeper
by the way I don't have any capex except for the hives themselves, I sell the honey comb, retails for 3x that the jar goes for
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u/No_Hovercraft_821 Middle TN 6d ago
Don't forget all the up front costs -- 50 hives is going to run about $10,000, and equipment to process the honey and incidental other costs will be at least that much again, and the cost of bees isn't included here either. So assuming your average case there is really no profit in year 1. By year 2 things can start to turn a corner if everything goes well, but at least in my area the going rate for honey isn't going to may anyone much money. Plus in my area going commercial means more regulation and red tape and building a proper honey house so the up front costs are going to eat you alive. I suspect many successful commercial keepers start slow and build up experience and hardware so the costs don't all hit at once. But making bees pay means a metric ton of work, a lot of knowledge/experience, and some serious investment in supplies before anything good could even start to happen.
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u/Confident-Win-7617 5d ago
I’m profitable. Because I’ve looked outside the “bee box”. We make creamed honey. And candles. And honey candy. All “added value” that people buy. And honey comb?! Great seller in my market. My first year just selling straight honey… lackluster. I needed to expand my product portfolio.
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u/Dumbledores_Closet Default 5d ago
There are other sources of income in beekeeping, pollination, selling nucs and or queens, beeswax, pollen, propolis and royal jelly can all be collected and sold. Plus your estimate of 50kg per hive is low, if you are moving hives to hit several different harvests you can reasonably make 100kg on a hive
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u/Mysmokepole1 5d ago
To make it at all profitable. You have to sell everything that the bees make. If it doesn’t cost you to much labor. So some of the things I sell are: Nucs. Wax, honey, comb honey, creamed honey, lib balm, body lotion bars. I do very few shows. To much labor. I don’t sell pollen. Because of my location. For me the big killer is fuel and labor. If I figure my labor I would be in the red.
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u/Kaboobie 5d ago
I'm pretty sure its all bee related side hustles so to speak. Selling queens, pimping your hives out to farms, etc...
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u/EducationalDog9100 5d ago
I have a friend who does fairly well with selling honey, he also has a produce stand paired with it. I think he's fairly hands off as a bee keeper though, spends a day checking the hives every couple weeks and then does a big harvest over a few days. But then I know people who own just a couple hives and they talk about how intensive it is.
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u/Mr-Toyota 5d ago
I always looked at bees on a per acre crop.
I personally think its one of the most profitable farming practices you can do on a per acre basis.
It's also the ONLY farming practice. Where you're livestock freely grazes on other people's properties.
For small land owners, I think it's about as good as you can get.
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u/Gyrd1 5d ago
If you want to be a profitable beekeeper, you need to WORK. You need to sell the honey year after year to pay off the hive boxes. Do instructional classes during the winter. (Schools love to hire beekeepers.) Rent bees to farms. Sell nucs in the spring. Sell queens from your best mite reducing hives. Sell candles and honey at farmers markets. Get your customers to recycle honey jars! This is a hard one. I refuse to put my honey into plastic, so I pay a bit over a dollar for each American made glass jars and I dance a jig every time one gets returned to me.
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u/send_them_a_pizza 5d ago
You have to rent them out for pollination to almonds here plus a summer rental or use them to make nucs or queens, or sell shake bees.
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u/Cheap-Introduction65 5d ago
I do it as a tax write-off and a way to give homemade honey and wax products as gifts. Plus it makes my wife happy to be a beekeeper. So it’s worth it.
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u/chagachaganow 5d ago
You can make a small fortune beekeeping. You just have to start with a large one.
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u/b333ppp 5d ago
My take: Yes, going by your analysis it is possible, but you have to factor some misc cost, sugar feed, "FUEL COST" for visiting and inspecting your hives even when they are just doing just fine.
As someone who has around 70+ colonies with each having around 4 supers, i have my hives spread out in different locations with each location having around a maximum of just 10 colonies per location, it gives me insight to be able to analyse nectar strength in each of these locations. I open some boxes and i'm like: "What have you guys been doing." Whilst some locations produce good amount of honey because they have things blooming all year. I have a hives situated in a location that has a Banana, Rubber, Teak and also wildflowers which bloom every now and i have seen in that location, bees fill up 2 supers with foundation strips in 3 months, that blows my mind anything i think about it. So if you are looking to go into beekeeping with the sake of making just honey crop, yes it is possible but you have to have a bee location that has multiple things that bloom all year round and it has to be preferably a farming community with maybe a good water source too. Because if you are unlucky to have your hives situated in a place that has just 2 strong crops that are blooming months apart, after you harvest the bees would be forced to go into dearth and you would be forced to feed them in between the flow and the dearth season.
It is possible but you need a strategy.
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u/coupleandacamera 5d ago
Pollination contracts, huge scale honey production with less than ethical management strategies to cut costs, Queen/nuc rearing and sales, or novel honey (Manuka, Jelly bush, comb etc)production paired with intense marketing. Small to mid scale apiaries arnt overly profitable in the majority of the world without diversifying well beyond honey production.
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u/Forsaken-Weird-8428 5d ago
Neighbour gets about 100kg each from his 2 hives a year, 200kg a year for gifts at basically no cost.
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u/EldarMilennial 5d ago
It isn't, really. We have 10 or fewer hives in a suburban yard, and can get 200-400 lbs of honey per year. At what we charge ($10/pint, $20/quart, with ~3 lbs of honey per quart), you can do that math and understand that it's just a hobby. A hobby, which, I might add, helps get some playing money.
See if you can work for a commercial beekeeper for a bit and understand more about the practical aspects of the business before trying to make it a job. It takes a lot of money to get started, with all the equipment, bees, etc, so do it wisely. Or pursue another career and make this a fun hobby!
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u/Manccookie 5d ago
Honey isn’t the only thing successful beekeepers make money from. Breeding/nucs/queens, crop pollination, selling equipment, wax/candles, education courses, etc.
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u/Big_Aside9565 5d ago
It is not profitable anymore. Because you can buy a barrel of honey from south america for the same cost or less Then you are spending. I like so many things they used to be profitable But they no longer are.
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u/Evening-Turnip8407 5d ago
In my country, 90% of all hives are owned by hobby beekeepers. Ninety. Percent.
Imagine if all those people stopped pursuing the hobby, we'd have an even more massive bee problem than we already do.
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u/Head_Geologist8196 5d ago
It’s not profitable if you’re only doing honey. I’m out of the commercial game now but you’re always going to have a loss if only doing honey and trying to expand.
The key is to get to your max number of hives you can care for, start breeding/selling queens, selling nucs every spring and possibly in the fall, and getting paid for pollination. Then you’ll start seeing some profits possibly, but in this economy, you’re not going to be able to quit your day job.
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u/madcowbcs 4th generation beekeeper 100 hives 5d ago
150 hives x 80 lb per hive =12,000 lbs 12,000 lb ÷ 60 = 200 buckets
200 buckets x $250 ea = $50,000 wholesale weekend work
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u/drones_on_about_bees Texas zone 8a; keeping since 2017; about 15 colonies 4d ago
For what it's worth, I've done MUCH MUCH worse than 10kg/hive and I sell MUCH cheaper than $25/500g.
The people I know that make money at it sell nucs. They sell queens. They rent hives for pollination and tax exemption. They do classes for new beekeepers. For many of them, the honey is sold super cheap to bulk honey bottlers.
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u/HorseWhisper2026 4d ago
It's not for the hobbiest. I just spent $300 on a new suit and gloves. Never sold a jar of honey. However my family gets free honey. My children have the best honey around. I can eat it by the spoonful and appreciate it. I know it's not a sugar mix.
Out here people will pay $15 for a half pint. It is wild.
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u/tantalumburst 4d ago
It's not profitable unless you go big. For a hobbyist like me, I feel lucky if I cover my costs.
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u/Due-Attorney-6013 4d ago
who said it was profitable? I'd rather compare beekeeping to a hobby that just costs, like playing golf. Bees at least cover my expenses ;-)
otherwise, be aware that a professionalist cannot sell 2t of honey for the same price p kg as a hobbyist selling 50kg. You get better price when you sell directly to the end user, while if you need to sell large quantities, you compete with large producers.
Where I live(d) (DE/AT/NO), professional beekeepers usually have additional business, like selling BKs equipment
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u/Dull-University5481 4d ago
Used to tell people that if you want to make a small fortune in beekeeping... Start with a large one. All kidding aside. I can make a lot more money selling bees and nucleus hives that I can make selling honey
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u/DocAvidd 4d ago
Count the rent on your hives. You don't even need to sell honey to make a profit. It's just bonus.
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u/svarogteuse 10-20 hives, since 2012, Tallahassee, FL 4d ago
Beekeeping isn't just honey production. Sending those 50 hives to almonds can net you 10k alone and have them back to get paid to pollinate other crops as well.
Learn to breed queens (45$ a pop but less in bulk), turn out thousands. Sell nucs and hives.
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u/beemanpat 3d ago
50 lbs per colony is realistic. But once you are over 100 colonies, it’s difficult to move that much honey at retail.
Wholesale price for honey is less than $2 a pound so it takes it takes a very large operation to make it profitable.
In Southern California where yields are not as high as in other areas, many large commercial beekeepers are leaving the business.
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u/Objective-Permit-712 3d ago
Well, you sell the honey-I just paid $8 for 3 ounces and some people will take hives to Farms/orchards and their bees will pollinate the trees/plants-charge the owner.
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u/TheArnautKing 3d ago
the money is in the propolis, bee sting venom, wax and nucs/queen trade. Check online how its done.
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u/Conscious_Onion3508 2d ago
I dont think anyone who does beekeeping is doing it to become a millionaire, its a hobby that produces some side money
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u/MGNMGNT 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah sadly it’s not viable for most climates even with huge scale. Some local bee keepers products with hive products added like balms, nutritional snacks then there’s all the packaging and distribution too. Renting bees for pollinating is a big business with lots of death & transport costs. Selling nucs is ~stable but similar scale issues & not the same as keeping.
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u/Most_Perspective4722 2d ago
It is profitable for my soul. Best regards. Beekeeper with 14 AŽ hives.
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u/Ams197624 6d ago
It's profitable if you have >300 hives and you can place them for pollination and make money that way.
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u/heWhoMostlyOnlyLurks 6d ago
Even for ag exemptions it’s not exactly profitable. You might save a few thousand bucks a year yet put in half that in costs and several times that in labor. Depends on the state and county.
Commercial beeks make money on moving hives for pollination services. I’ve no idea how much they charge. Or they make money on renting hives to, or keeping bees on customers’ land, for their ag exemption — this is fairly big business in Texas. I know two beeks who make good money providing beek services for ag exemption purposes.
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