What is Beekeeping?
Beekeeping is the process of keeping honey bees for the sake of getting honey from them. A beekeeper is the one who keeps honey bees and is also known as a honey farmer. They are referred to as people who keep honey bees in beehives, boxes, and other receptacles. The beekeepers don’t usually control the creature instead take care of them by either keeping them in hives or boxes. The bees are allowed to forage or leave as they wish. Even if they go out of their hives, they usually return as the hives are quite clean, dark, and sheltered homes in which they feel really comfortable living. If you’re interested in starting an apiary, our top beekeeping courses for 2024 are the perfect place to begin your journey into beekeeping.
Why is it Important?
Beekeeping is important as it allows the human race to consume honey. With that, bees play a vital part in pollinating plants and crops which in turn gives us food. Sadly, the number of bees all over the world is declining and that is why it is very important to help bees increase their population. And beekeepers in this regard make sure it happens.
What Does a Beekeeper Do?
A beekeeper has to manage many things, such as;
- Maintaining the colonies of honey bees that produce honey and provide pollination services to plants and crops.
- They have to keep the hives healthy and favorable for the bees so that they can yield honey and related byproducts like beeswax.
- Similarly, they have to harvest honey and make sure the bees are healthy and have no health problems.
- They have to make sure whether the queen is laying enough eggs.
- They have to do record keeping and maintain everything including the expenses.
- Lastly, beekeepers have to gather information about this particular industry continuously and make sure they know everything about this process. Also check out the online botany courses at takethiscourse that you might also be interested in.
How to Become a Beekeeper?
Either way, the below steps can guide you to become a beekeeper:
- You can start by gathering information about beekeeping and understanding its basics.
- Then you need to find a suitable beehive location.
- Next, you need to figure out your budget; this is the most important step as it will help you figure out how many hives you can afford and how many bees you can take care of smoothly. So, don’t start blindly and calculate your budget first.
- When you’re done figuring out your budget, the next step is to order your honey bees.
- Then you need to choose the hive types.
- The next step involves buying all the basic beekeeping tools like wooden frames, outer cover for hives, shallow honey supers, hive stand, and bottom board.
How Much Does it Cost to Start Beekeeping?
It depends on how much you want to invest. But generally, the initial cost can be intimidating as you’ll need to invest in supplies, proper protective clothing and hive tools, etc. You should know the total cost of a single new hive is around $150.
- Your clothing may cost about $160.
- A package of new honey bees would cost around $125 to $150.
- Then you’d need a place to keep the beehives, this would also cost you a few dollars.
Thus, it depends on how big or small a setup you want.
Is Beekeeping Ethical?
Extracting honey out of bees is a natural process so we can’t say it is unethical. But we humans have started to extract far more honey from bees than they would otherwise create naturally. And this has resulted in bees suffering a lot which we believe is not appropriate. We should try to show some compassion towards these creatures and make sure they don’t suffer.
What is a Beekeeper called?
Beekeepers as we just mentioned earlier are known as honey farmers. But they also go by other names like;
- Apiarists
- Apiculturists
Is Beekeeping Profitable?
If you really want to make profits out of this business then it would take around 500+ beehives to reach a certain profitable point. And real profits just don’t rely on honey production instead a diversified approach is required. So you better stay patient and gain experience slowly and then implement strong bee management techniques.
On the other hand; the productivity of box hives gives out more profit than traditional hives. A study showed the box hives’ productivity to be around 72% higher than traditional hives. This shows you can make more profits through box hives.
How Much Does a Beekeeper Make?
According to Glassdoor.com, the average salary of a beekeeper working in the US is around $48,521 a year.
Do You Need a License For Beekeeping?
Even though different countries have different requirements but in the end, all demand that a beekeeper must be registered or have a certificate to keep the bees and sell their honey. On each sale or movement of honey bees, a certificate is required unless the hives are branded with the beekeeper’s registration number.
Conclusion:
To conclude, we’d say beekeeping is a huge industry and many people are in this business and making money if the right techniques are implemented at the right time. Therefore, if you have an interest in this amazing business then any time to start would be okay. You just have to be determined and hardworking enough to do it properly.
