The document provides a comprehensive guide for starting a beekeeping business, including equipment needed, customer outreach strategies, and the development of a business plan. It emphasizes the importance of setting specific goals, budgeting for start-up costs, and finding competitive advantages in the market. Additionally, it offers resources for further information and support from local agricultural organizations.

1. How to Get
Started in
Beekeeping
Compiled by
Annette Dunlap, MBA
Extension Associate
Value-Added and Alternative Agriculture
NC State University
This information packet contains:
A list of equipment and supplies
A guideline to developing goals for your business
A recommended Action Plan to start your business
A budget outline
Part I: Equipment and Supplies
What you will need:
(a) Equipment and Supplies
(a) One or more beehives
(b) One or more colonies of honey bees
(c) Hive tool
(d) Smoker

2. How to Get Started in Beekeeping
(e) Veil
(f) Vehicle to transport hive
If you intend to harvest the honey, you may also want to consider:
(a) Bee suit
(b) Gloves and bee brush
(c) Entrance reducers
(d) Queen excluders
(e) Feeders
(f) Supers for honey
(g) Extractor, uncapping knife, and settling tank
(h) Jars, lids, sterilizer
Details about ach of these pieces of equipment can be found in the publication, “How to
Become A Beekeeper in North Carolina,” available with this business plan.
(b) Customer Prospect List
 Names, addresses & phone numbers of possible customers
 Note: The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
maintains an on-line listing of producers interested in renting hives for crop
pollination. The same web site also allows you to advertise your hive(s) for
rent. The URL is: http://www.ncagr.com/beelinked
(c) Business Cards
 Business cards to leave with your customers and prospects (can be printed on
the computer)
(d) List of Suppliers
 Identify suppliers who can provide you with hive equipment. Information on
suppliers can be found at the end of the publication, “How to Become a
Beekeeper in North Carolina.”
 Suppliers licensed to sell bees in NC can be found at:
http://www.ncagr.com/plantind/plant/apiary/bslist.htm
 Additional information is available from the North Carolina State Beekeepers
Association, at: http://www.ncbeekeepers.org
(f) Start-up Capital:
Apply for an entrepreneurship grant from FSA (maximum available: $5,000)

3. How to Get Started in Beekeeping
(g) Business Plan:
Your business plan should include: (examples are attached)
 A budget
 An action plan
 A list of goals

4. How to Get Started in Beekeeping
Part II: Recommended Action Plan
(1) Beekeeping is an interesting hobby and provides you with a way to earn an income.
There are two ways to earn an income from keeping bees: through hive rental and
through harvesting the honey. This plan gives you the details regarding hive rental.
Talk to your Extension Agent about the additional needs for harvesting honey for
sale.
As you begin to develop your business plan, work with your Cooperative Extension
agent and/or your 4-H agent to learn more about bees and beekeeping. Talk to
several beekeepers in the area to find out about the benefits and challenges of keeping
bees.
Some questions to get answers to are:
(a) What is the best way to get a hive of bees?
(b) How many hives should I start with?
(c) What are some of the problems that bees can develop?
(d) Do I need to register my hive with NCDA&CS?
(e) How do I find customers for my hives or hive products?
(f) What do I need to think about before I decide to collect and sell honey?
(2) Create a budget that shows what it will cost you to start up your business; the travel
cost for hive delivery and pickup, and the cost of supplies that you may need. Check
with other local producers and with your Extension Agent to see what other people
are charging to rent their hives. Determine whether or not a similar fee will allow
you to run your business profitably. A sample budget is attached.
The balance of this Action Plan assumes that you can run your business and earn a
profit.
(3) Look carefully at the yard or open grounds around your house. Make certain that you
have an area where you can locate your hives that is away from the activities of your
household, but still close enough that you can be supervised or get help quickly if you
need it.
(4) Look at your school and activity schedule – block out those times and clearly identify
the days and times you are able to work on marketing your hive rental business, hive
delivery and hive pick up.
(5) Place an ad on the NCDA&CS Bee Link web site. You may also wish to place an ad
in the Ag Review, the monthly publication that is printed and available on-line from
the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. You can place this ad free
of charge. Make sure that you have complied with all of the state’s regulations
regarding hive rental. The web site to access the Ag Review is: www.ncagr.com.

5. How to Get Started in Beekeeping
(6) With the help of the Cooperative Extension staff, identify area producers who need
bees to pollinate their crops. Cucumber and watermelon growers are two strong
customer prospects. Keep a list of prospects, addresses, phone numbers and other
important notes (such as acreages and crops) in a notebook created specifically for
your business. If you have strong computer skills, an Excel spreadsheet is a good
electronic tool for the same purpose.
(7) Create a business card with your name, your address and your contact information
(you can do this attractively and inexpensively with desktop publishing software,
such as Microsoft Publisher). Leave two cards with every new customer: one for the
customer to keep and one to give as a referral.
(8) Talk to your parents about the work that is involved with hive care and a hive rental
business. You will need a pickup truck to transport your hive. If you are over 16, but
still driving on your restricted license, your parents may need to drive you to your
customers’ locations, since bees are typically transported in the late evening after they
have returned to the hive and settled down for the night.
(9) Manage your cash by taking into account the seasonality of your business. Hive
rental requests are strong in the spring and early summer months, after plants have
begun to flower and are continuing to reproduce. Drought conditions may reduce
your available business opportunities. Also, if there are other beekeepers in the area,
you will have to identify a “competitive advantage” that will help you develop your
business. These are some of the uncontrollable factors to consider as you proceed
with your plans.
(10) You may wish to start a honey business. This business can create additional
income opportunities for you. There are several things you must consider, if you
decide that you would like to sell honey:
 What will you need to do to sterilize jars and lids?
 What is necessary to assure honey cleanliness? (See attached document)
 Where do you get labels? (Labels are regulated by the US Food & Drug
Administration. Detailed information on labeling requirements can be
found at
http://www.honey.com/honeyindustry/resources/labeling_article.asp)
 How will you make your honey available for sale? Will you take it to a
small roadside stand and sell it wholesale to another farmer? Do you want
to post a roadside sign and have people come to your door? These are
things you should discuss with your parents.
Part III: Goals
It is a good idea to set goals to help guide the decisions about your business. Goals help
you focus on the most important details of operating your business. Goals help you
distinguish between what is important and unimportant with regard to decisions.

6. How to Get Started in Beekeeping
An acronym to remember when developing your goals is SMART. This stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timebound
Here are some suggested ideas for goals that you can “fine tune” to meet your specific
plans for your business:
 The location(s) of customers you want to serve (ex: your county only; your
county and certain surrounding counties)
 The total number of customers you will be able to serve
 The date you want to start your business
 The amount of money you want to earn in a season
 The plans you have for the money you earn
Notice that, with the exception of the first suggested goal (which looks at your potential
target market), each of these goals can have a date or numeric value assigned to it,
making all of the goals specific and measurable. The proposed start date of your business
makes it “timebound”. You, perhaps with your parents or 4-H Advisor, can determine
what is both achievable and realistic, given your other time demands and your available
capital.
The purpose of goals is not to create pressure or anxiety. Instead, properly established
goals can serve as a good road map to help you move from the starting point of your
business to the first of many steps toward successful entrepreneurship.
Part IV: Finding a Competitive Advantage
One of the challenges of operating a business is to identify a characteristic or quality that
makes you noticeably different from others in the same business (your competition). Do
not depend on potential customers being willing to do business with you because the
want to “give a young person a chance.” While you may find one or two customers who
will do business with you based on this reason, it is not a good competitive advantage.
Think about it this way: A year from now, if someone younger than you gets started in
the business, that person becomes the ‘young person’!
Many businesspeople try to use price as a competitive advantage. This possibility
sometimes works, and sometimes it does not. Your price should be within the range of
other hive rental rates, but it is not necessarily a good idea for you to be the lowest priced
provider. In a service business, many people think that the lowest price also means the
lowest quality.

7. How to Get Started in Beekeeping
Some possibilities for giving yourself a competitive edge are:
 Politeness and courtesy – treat all your customers and prospects with respect;
use “ma’am” and “sir” when you respond to questions
 On time – always be where you say you will be at the time that is set; it is better
for you to wait for your customer to show up than it is for your customer to wait
for you
 Return calls promptly – make a commitment to return all calls you receive about
your business by the end of the day; this demonstrates your commitment to your
business and your reliability
 Create an invoice for your charges – this shows that you consider yourself a
professional and you will be treated as one
Notice that none of these ‘competitive edge’ suggestions cost you any money! It is very
easy to establish yourself as a dependable, serious businessperson simply by acting with
professionalism and courtesy. These simple steps can set you apart from your
competition, and help you build your beekeeping business.
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8. How to Get Started in Beekeeping
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