Well the poly one has started this thread about making a profit from bees.
Now I have done a couple of stickies about making added value to wax which is one of my biggest earners. Honey is next on the list but lets start with some simple basic business acumen first.
Profit is basically the end pile of cash left over after we have totalled up the years in coming and out goings. Now before we start to go in double entry book keeping and the like, let’s just keep it all simple.
As a hairy builders site manager we have to work out the value of any given product and or job, sad that this sounds it means I also do it at home!! The bees and the allotments are all justified as good costings; I know it is very sad.
So since we are all different and our set ups are also different lets just take apart my lot for this year so far.
I had this great plan this year to stop buggering about and to turn a good and healthy profit from my bees; mainly due to lack of funds from full and proper employment the extra cash would make a big difference. No I am not talking about giving up work and making millions and putting my honey on supermarket shop shelves.
So over the winter I have redesigned the labels but as yet have not had them printed. Decided on a change of jar, the ones i really wanted I can not get cheap enough in the UK but did not like the risks of buying from china so I have chosen another type instead.
Bee wise I was going to expand up to 20 hives and 5 breeding hives with 10 nucs on the go at anyone time, that’s a lot of commitment and quite a large set up for a hairy builder who has also to spare time for the family and other things.
Before we can start to count the pennies rolling in I will need to work out what’s rolling out. So here is the shortened version of my allotment diary and some ideas of costs.
January 2011
8 trips to the farm 228 miles total at 45p a mile = £100.80 (28.5 miles round trip)
New frames £45
Petty cash items £12.78
TIME SPENT 24 HOURS (this also includes trips to and from the bee shed as well as time spent at home building frames cleaning gear etc)
February 2011
3 trips to farm 85.5 miles =£38.47
Sugar £73
TIME SPENT 16hours
March
5 trips to farm 142.5 miles = £64.12
Equipment brought £72.99 (more frames and nails, screws and glue. And paint)
TIME SPENT 39 HOURS ( again this also includes time spent at home and at work making equipment up and trips to feed the bees and working at the bee shed)
April
Trips to farm 6, 171 miles = £76.95
Material costs £145 (spring show!!, frames tools and a new suit)
Sugar £45 (includes fondant and thymol and its mixing ingrediants)
TIME SPENT 16 hours
May
Trips to farm 7, 199.5miles = £89.77
Material costs £25 (nails, screws, new gate key cutting, chain for gate way)
Time spent 40 hours (this was the month of the frank Spencer day!)
So from that little lot let’s see where I am so far this year.
Basically I have spent on petrol and travel £370.09
Other costs were £418.77
And finally time spent was 409.5 hours. Now I won’t put a silly figure here for wages as what I earn at work is different to many others so I will price for the minimum wage area of say £6.50 that means labour wise I have spent £2,661.75
So, so far this year I am out of pocket by £3,451.51 and I am only half way through the year!!!!!!!!!!!
Now let’s also put some perspective on these costs before the flood of messages slagging me off. THIS YEAR IS FOR ME A VERY VERY BAD YEAR. I have a lot of new equipment to buy and the bees are neither breeding right nor producing enough goods to make it worth while. So in fact, the other costs should be a lot lower, nearer £150 not £400 and that’s for the whole year. Also I would be making fewer trips to the farm but with a much higher return of produce from them.
So now we have some idea of what’s going out let’s reap our rewards.
From the 8 hives I have at the out apiary and shed I have so far managed to crop 153kg of naff OSR honey and 18 kilos of wax from the re framing exercise I am doing.
That works, nett profit wise about £2.50 per jar and £10 per kilo for the wax, giving me a total so far this year of £841.50 for honey and £180 for the wax.
But lets also minus from that the time extracting and travelling to deliver the jars etc, etc, etc. Which was £199 total
So what we are looking at now is the simple fact that i have earnt
Costs £3,650.51
Income £1,021.50
Nett profits Income -£2,629.01, bugger!!!!!!
So what’s next?
Well from the data above we need to save some out goings big style. A closer out apiary would be my biggest saving and it is one I am working on, there’s a video coming soon and you will see where I am going with that one, that alone would save a couple of grand in petrol and I would probably break even at that point.
Next saving will to stop mucking about and shorten the time spent with the bees as that would bring the hours down also saving thousands.
The next one is the one I am desperately trying to do, which is to increase the stocks of bees to increase the income from the bees. In theory we should be able to increase stocks with a small amount of time increase so.
We will have a large produce income to balance against a slight increase in costs of time. But there will be a one off increase in costs of materials to build new hives for them.
We can also increase profitability by increasing the costs of the honey people pay and increase the profits from the produce. Which is the great plan for a complete redesign of the jar and labels and shop outlets and selling points? Rather than dumping boxes of plain jars with bad labels at health food shops and on friends. I will be looking at farmers markets and deli shops. You know the sort of deli shops I mean. The ones charging ***** brummies with big wallets and small brains silly prices. But I will also be keeping the health food shops supplied as the higher end market is also extremely risky and very fickle. Eggs and one basket spring to mind.
We could if we were to have a good breeding stock which I don’t have at the moment! A chance to sell nucs, now this is where really big money could be made.
So the final part is the future.
We have seen and calculated all the reality costs so far this year and it’s naff so let’s look at the rosy future. 2012 has got to better than 2011. But i said that in 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006,
Forecasts for next year,
20 full hives, average crop of 30 kilos of honey and 4 kilos of wax (honey profit £3, wax £7) = £118 each = £2,360
Sale of ten nucs, £100 each shop value, profit £67, = £670
Sales of propolis 1 kilo, at £5 for 20 grams profit £4 = £200
Estimated income is £3,230
Its still not much at these levels but if we were to tweak the prices to say £125 a nuc and (£100profit)and do 30 nucs, maybe a better than average honey crop of say 45 kilos per hive and we increase our charges for a jar (£4 profit)and just happen to lower the propolis quantities in a jar to say 5 grams which is still very high we are now looking at a income of £7,600 which sound brilliant but we would still have extra costs to take away from that such as the extra selling of honey costs extra.
So to finally come to some conclusions.
1, most beeks don’t do a time and motion study and as such don’t realise there true costs, does yours match mine? How much time do you spend on your bees each week, month? In truth don’t lie!!
2, yes you can make money from bees but you have to be very clever to do so, which I am not.
3, most beeks I would say break even or can say they have made profit, but I bet it’s not much.
4, you can make your hobbies pay their way and that is a very rare thing with hobbies to do,
5, never ever believe anyone who says they can make massive profits unless you see his accounts, or just ask what they allow for an hourly wage rate?
6, can the holy grail of turning bee keeping into big profits and me being able to retire before 50 and still earn money from a ply wood box with some bees in it happen?, NOT THIS YEAR ANYWAY
7, personal I can only lift my apiary sizes to about 30 before it conflicts with family issues but there is still the chance of me earning several thousand from them , I don’t think £10,000 is unobtainable really with hard work and effort a lot of luck and flippin good harvest
8, I really do need to completely change my whole set up to do number 7. New queens of a good producing back ground and to stop messing about with AMM cross breeds extra. Better hive inspections and most importantly QUICKER INSPECTIONS and so less time spent. Get rid of the nationals go into poly hives and even then they would need to be Langs or commercials with short lugs and top bee spaces. I have nationals at the moment
9, maybe I should charge a mentoring fee? (Don’t worry just kidding)
10, charge for the videos (again not to panic)
You will all notice there are some massively glaring omissions with this lot, so I will list a few. Propolis manufacture and selling, where and who to sell honey and wax. Added value to produce, wax honey and such like. Costs of making equipment and or buying it and replacement running costs are extras.
There is just not enough time to completely break down every cost and income as I don’t have the time and it would get extremely complex and very very messy with people saying or adding there costs and prices so. It would also end up being a full sized book. HUMMMM NOW THERES A INCOME I NEVER SAW?????
But basically, yes bee keeping does earn money but don’t expect to retire just yet.
Enjoy the hobby for what it is worth to you and let the people who can turn a pretty profit carry on. I take more out of bee keeping than golden coins and I think that makes me the richer man?
Pete
