Cool only about a two hour ride for me. I would be interested in two nucs if you would have this coming spring.

I have 16 hives this year. It varies from year to year….depends on winter losses, swarms caught and if I do any cut outs. Got my first hive in 1974. That was the Golden Age of beekeeping. No bears, no mites.

got around 30 some hives

I have 9 hive and one late swarm in a trap now. It's my 3rd year all bees have been caught swarms except when I ordered 3 queens.

My first year I had 2 hives 100% winter survival. 2nd yard 4 hives going into winter 100% survival. Who knows this year? My problem are in the late spring I loose queens when the farmers start spraying. I also need to work on swarm controle.

It's one of the most exciting and frustrating thing I have done yet.

You guys getting rich off bee’s? If so, I’ll probably give it a shot. How much money do you make off 10 hives?

kinda dum question, but not.. how often do you get stung? Do you swell up? sting treatment? I got stung plenty of times by hornets, i always get swelled up and it itches like crazy til the venom leaves..why i dont exactly jump on the bandwagon. Is it the same? I dont want honeybees if its the same as dealing with hornets. no way.

You dont have to get stung if your careful. I inspect five hives once a week and have not been stung once this summer. I wear a veil, stings to the face tend to swell a lot. Honeybees are not as bad as hornets. The sting will get a bump, turn red and itch a bit.

Use your smoker properly and they calm right down.

Give them a puff of smoke in the door when you start to open them up for inspection. Another puff under the inner cover or lid before lifting it, and across the top of the frames before you start pulling them up. keep it smoking by your feet the rest of the time. If they start jumping up in your face, give them a gentle puff of smoke again calms them down..

If done properly you should be able to sit next to the hive after your inspection without getting stung at all.

Some guys make good money in the spring selling Nucleus hives, and thats just a coupe frames off brood and a queen for $200 or more.

A good production colony can put up 200 lbs or more of honey if you have a good nectar source like canola fields or clover, blackberries.

Here the fireweed honey sells for $20 a lb.

No one I know is getting "rich" off of bees but I know quite a few who do quite well supplementing their regular job income through nuc and honey sales. And a few who derive their sole income from bees.

Ten hives managed well could net a few thousand a year.

No money for me. Just another hobby

If you're getting stung much you're doing something wrong. Slow and steady wins the race. But stings are the price of admission so I won't lie and say they don't happen.

As for pain and swelling that's an individual thing and your bodies reaction. They are something a body can can acclimated to. For me a sting is no more than an owwie with no real swelling and only momentary pain with maybe an itch the next day then forgotten. But that can vary by location and time. Any soft tissue sting such as the face will swell more and the first sting of the season after a winter without will have more impact.

However for some it can go the other way with each sting getting a progressively worse result or even an anaphylaxis reaction.

New beekeepers should always file a flight plan we a responsible person until they know there tolerance for bee venom just for safety. Not a bad idea for us older keepers as well.

I have had bees now for 7 years took off 8 honey supers yesterday to extract this morning hopefully still have twice that to go. I sell at a local farmer market my goal is to have a ton of honey hopefully in one year to sell hasn't happen yet. The best year was last year 1350 pounds.

I have had bees for 5 years , started with 2 hives. Have as many as 7 , presently have 4. It varies with winter survival. My daughter and I do it more as a hobby. We have enough honey for all family members and enough sales to cover expenses.. We have long winters and have to give extra sugar, to help them make it through. As far as stings , The actual sting , is not really painful. I swell some , mostly itchy. I have had a couple this year, usually my own fault, if you hurt them or squeeze them they will defend. Go slow , they are interesting , bugs. old243

Mites ain't nothin'.

Black bears can be a problem.

How much money one can make from the sale of honey really depends on your local market. I’ve seen folks say they wouldn’t sell honey for anything less than $10 a pound. That equates to $30 a quart. Honey can be bought everywhere in my county for $20 a quart, some as cheap as $15.

If someone doesn’t have much honey to sell, they can sit on it for a higher price. But if you have 150 gallon to move, you need to price it competitively.

Lol maybe some day I will make a profit .. I keep building and spending more money but equipment will last for years or decades when taken care of.
Here is an example. My first two years were building and learning so no honey was harvested. This year I did harvest a whopping 18lb from one hive. I had swarming and queen loss issues so that set back my populations during the honey flow. I only had one I felt comfortable pulling honey from.

Honey sells for $14 a lb so 18 lb= 252. But I spent 350 on a small honey spinner, and other processing equipment to get it. That's not counting probably another $800 or more on more women wate, and frames, also not counting 25 lb of suggestions every 3 to 4 days feeding during the Darth and trying to get them built up for winter. Next year may be the year for a profit. Figure if you get 80lb of honey off each hive at $14 per lb that = $ 1,120 per hive if everything goes well. I have yet to have everything go well in 3 years.

But you 12 year Olds honey did get grand champion at the county fair this year.


. Sting are just a part of it. Swelling varies by individual and sting location, amount and frequency of stings. In the spring I work bees sometimes in a t shirt and shorts no gloves or vail. During the Darth I will ware a vail and long sleeve top. 80% of my stings are becuse I accidentally smash a bee. Some hives are more aggressive than others. Time of year what's blooming or not bloom and weather play a big part in how the bees react.

Working bees in the rain or when it is going to rain is not a good idea.

Stings to the face are the worst for me as far as selling. Tj the hands and arms are just a touch of swelling and slight soreness that goes away the next day. I don't mind a few stings helps with my arthritis and stiff hands.

Marketing and where you sell can also play into it. I know folks who get $10 for a dozen eggs but they hand deliver to the high end neighborhoods.

Upscale farmers markets with fancy packaging gets more for honey. If you got the hustle it'll pay.

I put in mite strips in 28 hives this morning with a smoker and wearing nothing but pants and a short sleeve shirt. never got stung once until I started to the truck and one of them little sob's stung me right on the end of the nose. As far as stinging it depends on the time of year and the bees that you have, but they all sting.

Got stung in the forearm today while pulling honey only because I pinched her in. I swell up from the stings pretty good. I take lots of benadryl

Got a question?

Do you have any things to watch out for or look for when locating a hive or is it pretty much one place is as good as another?