Have someone building me a hive and ordered meself a nuc.
Now if this unbelievable frigid cold ever ceases, maybe I can catch some bees… what do I do with 3 gallons of honey, though? It takes long enough to get through 3 pounds!
Make mead. And depending on where you live you may or may not get honey every year, I don’t always. Last year I took off some partially filled and capped frames then had to give them back because we had a dry spell and they ate their stores in the brood chambers.
Given the winter we’re having it might be all for naught, I might lose both of my hives and have to get a couple packages.
Just wondering: why are you starting out with a nuc instead of a package?
Fermenting seems obvious since you’re here, but it’s certainly an option.
You could sell some. Honey can fetch over $5/lb here. Or give it to friends and family. It would make great presents.
A friend of mine started caring for bee hives last year. He gave us a half pint jar of his first harvest. He was joking that based on his start-up costs and size of his harvest that half pint would have to sell for about $250. ;D
It was very tasty and so much lighter in body than the store bought honey.
Good luck with your hives!
Paul
I’d love to pay $5 a pound. I’m looking at $7-8 in my neck of the woods.
Eric, have you looked for local apiaries that sell in bulk? I can’t produce enough honey for meadmaking so we buy 60 pound buckets for $205, so 3 something a pound from I guy we know. Comes with free beekeeping advice too. He sells the Same honey in little jars in Boston and NY for silly high prices.
I only brew 3 or 4 small batches of mead a year. I’m typically looking at 5-8 pounds of honey per batch. So buying in bulk isn’t necessarily the best option for me. I was able to get a 5-lb jar of good, local wildflower honey at my local dairy/bakery for $32 just a couple of years ago, but now it’s up to $40. I’m kind of stuck in that middle ground between buying in bulk and the “honey bear bottle” customer.
Yep, its going up. The bulk 60# has gone from $150 (which it had been for a few years) to $205 in about 1 1/2 years.
Beekeeping is not a pleasant little hobby. It’s a lot of work. Depending on the nectar flows in your area, they can need constant attention. If I knew then what I know now, I may have never taken up the challenge. When my garden is planted and the little buggers are out there pollinating their little hearts out and my harvest is once again better than ever, I will retract the previous statement. I will never again bristle at the high price of good quality local raw honey.
If you have it in your heart to become a keeper of bees you should definitely sell your excess into the local market. Even if you only have a pound or two in excess it shouldn’t be that hard to find a local buyer or two who will take that off your hands. Local honey goes for $6-8/lb. at the cheapest places here.
There is a bee hive somewhere in the vicinity of my house and I get a lot of bees hanging out on my mint and basil plants when they flower. In combination with all the mesquite trees around the neighborhood there must be a hive full of unusual honey somewhere.
This^^^
Been there done that. Had max production at 2 hives with 3 honey supers full on each hive. Still have
some of the mead…its at 10 yrs old now… 