[conman]

just wondering what the set up and running cost would be to get a hive up and going its somit that i have thought of a few times but only thought of and has that whole collany colapse thing been sorted or it it still a problem?

[Shnoowie]

CCD is an ongoing issue in some places; most research points to links with pesticides on crops.  However, unless there are obvious signs of it in your area I'd be more worried (if that is the right word) with varroa and just keeping the hive clean and healthy.
I have found setting up with bees to be a tad costly.  We got our hives second hand, but with hindsight I would strongly advise you to buy new, just to reduce the risk of disease - we spent hours sanding, disinfecting and scorching ours.

My costs so far:

Beekeeping course (highly recommended)  £60
Suit £60
Tools (smoker, hive tool, bee brush) £40
Hives (My Dadants were £100 for 3 plus extras) usually start around £110
Frames and Foundation £80
Bees £120 per nuc
Sugar (in bulk!) £20

The list is probably much longer...I'd budget £500 to set yourself up with one hive and all of your kit.  If you have a productive hive (ie a National producing 2 x 30lb supers per year, and selling 60lbs of honey at £4 per lb) you can expect to make your money back in a couple of years.  Though financially, once they are set up the aren't costly to run - they run themselves as all you need to buy is sugar in winter and any treatments (varroa etc) that they may need.

[OhLaLa]

Beekeeping course (highly recommended)  £60
Suit £60
Tools (smoker, hive tool, bee brush) £40
Hives (My Dadants were £100 for 3 plus extras) usually start around £110
Frames and Foundation £80
Bees £120 per nuc
Sugar (in bulk!) £20

The outlay doesn't end there - don't forget you would need to extract the honey, so you will need to buy an extractor etc etc.

You will also need to purchase jars, and if you sell the honey, have the labels printed up.

Thornes have a very comprehensive catalogue, so you can price it all up.

I suggest before you do anything, join your local beekeeping association - you will get lots of info, learn a great deal and get some hands on practice.

 

[darkbrowneggs]

Hi there - Why don't you have a mooch round this forum http://www.biobees.com/forum/

When I was starting out (bees sprayed off a couple of years ago  )  I found them a really friendly and helpful bunch, and patient with newbees 

There are lots of ideas for building your own hives at little cost, and with the top bar hives you can use crush and run, or just cut up the comb and put it in plastic storage boxes like I did.

Got loads of honey, and my first swarm self installed.  Probably won't cost you more than £100 for suit and kit if you can make the hives from pallet wood.  I think there are one or two associated "groups" round the country who would probably be happy to let you help for free till you get a bit of confidence

Anyway just a thought.  I haven't visited the board much since I lost the bees, and as I have 50 acres of arable round me I take the view the risk is too high to start again at present.

All the best
Sue

[benkt]

Re: extractor. definitely link up with your local beekeeping group as many of the villages round here have a communal extractor that you can borrow. We built our first topbar hive for essentially nothing and got the swarm for free from a local garden so there are cheap ways to start. Everyone I've ever spoken to recommends the beekeepers association courses so if I were you I'd aim to do one of those over the winter and they'll help with sorting out the rest of it!

[Shnoowie]

We fell on our feet with an extractor, another keeper was upgrading his as we got a motorised tangential one to take Dadant frames for £170.

[waterhouse]

As a humble observer and occasional provider of labour to the OH I think the costs can get substantial.  OH is incapable of letting a passing swarm pass without collecting it, and an inveterate experimenter with any new ideas.  So our double garage now holds one car and my tools are relegated to the ambling shed.

That aside, as soon as you have one hive you need a spare to manage swarming.

[Plantoid]

Try beekeeping on a shoe string like I did.. no extractor .. cut the comb out the frame with a knife heated in nearly boiling water ..leave a 1/4 inch margin for the bees to start rebuilding comb ( they do this at the expense of making honey for a few days or so.) Once all combs are freed  keep the cut sealed comb covered and at night once the sun  has gone down warm the oven to say 60 oc don't use a gas oven as the highly volatile flower oils from the comb can ignite with disasterous consequences  ..it can even lead to a horrendous explosion .

 Put the freed comb in  a large covered pyrex dish in the oven for a few minutes till it is melted , stirr with a stailess spoon if needed .  The wax floats on top of the honey and any crud in the honey will settle to the bottom or just under the wax.
 Leave it to cool or pour it all into a cooling  container . Once cold and the wax has set  .... .take off the wax , wash the wax in a bowl of luke wrm water  and pour the washings into the mead barrel , pour the clear honey into a settling bucket and wash the dish out in the same manner as the wax.

 Eventually I made a hot water jacket melter ...often refered to as easy bee or lazy B..  I filled it with cold water to correct level ,just plugged it in and shoved  cut frame after cut frame in then drained things off the next morning ...mine took ove 50 frames a session .

 I have also used a largish lidded pyrex dish in a microwave in the customers kitchen to give the lady some fresh honey from wild comb when I removed a feral nest from her porch roof void . Once melted down I ran it through  brand new J cloths to take out the crud and grubs etc. . the cleanest comb honey was done first & jarred , the degunged stuff was to be used for cooking , the real crappy stuff was going to be used for a couple of gallons of mead..

 Some mention the need for a second hive .. i'd go as far as saying get to hive number three and two neuc boxes as soon as you can ..it allows you to increase a hive and then unite the sets of bees to give you two very strong hives  on in late April /early May if you do your research and get your timing right .
 It also allows you to grow your own queens each year and re queen ..using the neuc boxes to grow  a new queen .
At the end of the bee honey harvesting year you can unite the two smallest hives in early to mid august and let the bees keep everything they make for the winter stocks as well as only having two hives to feed & treat for varroa etc mouse guarding & overwintering.

 This thing about melting at night .... bees will come from miles around at the merest sniff of melted honey , but as they don't fly after dark you can have a fairly bee free session.
 
At onee place I was called to by the police as an emergency help case ....... the guy  had melted the frames in the kitchen  just before 11.00 hrs using the electric oven .. the whole kitchen and lounge was black with bees , Mr clever was being threatned with castration my his screeching wife who was trying to protect the baby from the bees..