Beekeeping With Twenty-five Hives by Grant Gillard, formerly of Jackson, MO, now living in Holden, MO. This talk was given at Monroeville, PA, for the Western PA Beekeepers Association on February 16, 2019. He can be reached at grantfcgillard@gmail.com

1. Expansion Opportunities in
Beekeeping
Grant F. C. Gillard
grantfcgillard@gmail.com
www.slideshare.net
“Beekeeping With
Twenty-five Hives”

2. Evolution of a Fortunate Beekeeper
 First year – scared, intimidated, micromanage
 Second year – this is an expensive hobby
 Third year – this is a lot of work
 Fourth year – this is easy, I’m a pro
 Fifth year – I think I can make some money
 Sixth year – I finally broke even (this year)
 Seventh year – I need more equipment

3. When you really enjoy beekeeping…
“Passion breeds
optimism.”
Vision Commitment
Perseverance Resilience
Tenacity Determination

4. “Can I make a little money at this
hobby that I love?”
Can I (at least) recoup my expenses?
Can I buy a little something
special for my family?
Underlying questions:

5. What Makes Expansion Work?
 Efficiency – working smarter, not just harder
-- making the best use of resources (time)
 Economics – return on investment
 Energy – always more work to be done
 Expediency – getting things done
when they need to be done.

6. Growth rate – rate of expansion
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Series1

7. Is there a downside?
 Less TLC and personal attention
 More “herd mentality”
 Certain seasons demand your full attention
(swarm prevention, queen rearing)
 You have to contend with all kinds of weather
 Balancing beekeeping with other demands

8. Conflicts and Challenges
– only 24 hours each day
1
2
3
4
5
Weather and mud
Work Commitments Family Obligations
Day light runs out
Personal
Energy*
*heat, humidity, Facebook

10.  Recreational hobby?
 Income-producing hobby?
 Part-time side-hustle?
 Formal side-line business?
The difference is how we treat our
income and expenses.
So what do we have?

11. “I’m afraid to put a pencil to
all the things I’ve bought
to find out what my
honey really costs.”
Overheard at a bee meeting

12. “My beekeeping is a
non-profit, faith-based
venture.”

13. Expansion Issues
 Purpose and Focus
 Product to market
 Legal Structure
 Accounting Practices
 Labor Requirements – hiring
 Insurance
 Acquisition of equipment
 Acquisition of bees/queens
 Locations of outyards
 Production records
 Harvesting and health codes
 Marketing, sales revenue

14. Expansion Issues
 Purpose and Focus – Why?
 Product to market - What?
1. Extracted Honey
Bulk (wholesale) buckets or barrels
Bottled (retail)
Direct to consumer (farmers market)
Third party (retail, third-party store)
2. Nucs and Queens
3. Pollination Services – usually migratory

15. ☻
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16. ☻
‫ס‬‫ס‬

18. ☻
☻

19. Purpose: Getting Bigger…why?
Product: What …and How to $?

20. Expansion Issues
 Purpose and Focus
 Product to market
 Legal Structure
 Accounting Practices
 Labor Requirements – hiring
 Insurance

21. Legal Structure
 LLC (still liable)
 Partnership – LLP
 Sole Proprietorship
 Local business license/permit (city clerk)
 Zoning of residence as a business (HOA)
 Do you keep your day job?
Health insurance, pension

22. Accounting Practices
 Separate Business Checking Account
File an EIN (Federal IRS)
File a “Fictitious Name” (Secretary of State)
 File income/expenses on Schedule C
 Quicken “Quick Books”

23. Labor Requirements - Hired Help?
 Seasonal, hire some teenagers, family?
 Cash under the table, or legally reported
 Insurance, workman’s comp, taxes, etc.
 Honey house needs rest rooms
 Rest rooms need septic or sewer
 Barter with other beekeepers and trade
for nucs or used equipment

24. Insurance
 Product and Premises Liability
 Not normally under “Homeowners”
 May need to shop for a policy

25. Expansion Issues
 Purpose and Focus
 Product to market
 Legal Structure
 Accounting Practices
 Labor Requirements – hiring
 Insurance
 Acquisition of equipment
 Acquisition of bees/queens
 Locations of outyards
 Production records
 Harvesting and health codes
 Marketing, sales revenue

26. Expansion Issues
 Acquisition of equipment
 Acquisition of bees/queens
 Locations of outyards
 Production records
 Harvesting and health codes
 Marketing, sales revenue

27. Acquisition of Equipment
 Higher grade of bee suit
Ventilated bee suit
“Ultra-breeze”
 Gloves
Vaseline on hands
1 part bees wax : 3 parts olive oil
Nitrile gloves

29. Acquiring Equipment
1. Make your own
--from scrap and cull wood
--from purchased lumber (Home Depot)
2. Buy used and clean it up, repaint
Caveat: homemade stuff
Caveat: why is this being sold?
3. Buy new and assemble, buy assembled.
Each option is a trade-off of time and labor
against out-of-pocket costs

32. Acquisition of Bees and Queens
1. Buy (and move) existing hives
2. Buy nucs and packages
3. Split everything
Raise your own queens*
Buy mated queens or cells
4. Collect and trap swarms
5. Bee rescues and cut-outs
Each one is a trade-off of time and labor
against out of pocket costs

34. Buy or Build?
 What is your main objective and purpose?
 What is the best use of your time and energy?
Does queen rearing distract and
divert energy from the core business?
Is it cheaper to buy assembled frames?
Others do it, and do it well.
Where are you willing to abdicate control?
Where will you trade money for time?

35. Moving Hive: Tailgate winch

40. The need for more apiaries
 Finding suitable locations
 Distance from home
 How many hives can I bring?
 Diversity of floral sources
 Access: 24/7, by truck, farm gates
 Water, full sun, shelter from winds
 Neighbors and nervous spouses
 Adjacent crops, pesticide application, mono
 Rent, written lease

46. Record Keeping
The biggest lie we tell ourselves is…
“I don’t need to write it down.
I’ll just remember it.”

47. Record Keeping
 Less details with more hives
 Written, accessible notes
 Need to be reviewed before each day
Where do I need to go?
What did I do last time?
What do I need to do today?
What do I need to get it done?

51. Harvesting
 Harvest early and often, vs one big blast
 Use of queen excluders three weeks prior
(upper entrance recommended)
 Use of fume boards
Honey Robber (Bee-go)
Honey Bandit – Mann Lake
Bee Quick
 Fume boards to reduce robbing

52. Evolution of Extracting
 Laundry room (floor drain and sinks)
 Kitchen
 Basement – stray bees in supers, steps
 Garage (but not bee tight)
 Converted greenhouse
 2011 – built honey house
Separate warming room with dehumidifier
Separate extracting room
Separate bottling room
Plenty of clean storage

54. Logistics of materials - flow
Supers come in
Honey is extracted
Supers go out wet
Honey is stored
Honey is bottled
Honey goes out

55. Best advice
“What would you do different?”

63. A Word About Health Inspections
 County Health Department trumps the state
 “Jelly Law” Section 261.241.1 (State Statute)
Only for direct-to-consumer sales
Basically removes the commercial kitchen
 SB500 – 2015, State Legislature
Allows honey to be processed in the domicile
where it is produced, then sold to a third
party. No commercial kitchen.
 If you have a separate honey house, unattached,
SB500 does not apply, must be inspected by
state…but they are easy to work with.

64. Marketing
 Retail – Direct to consumer
Farmer’s Markets
(politics, rules and regulations)
Driveway (honor box)
What sizes? Source of containers?
 Wholesale – to third party
Sell to a “reseller” bottled (Health Food)
Sell to other beekeepers(buckets or barrels)

69. Where to?

70. Grant Gillard
grantfcgillard@gmail.com
www.slideshare.net