There are no days off at my production, the office housing is a closet, they work for food, and the staff is still growing

DISCLAIMER: The article was written for the blog, based on an interview with beekeeper E. Elert.

My grandfather is a beekeeper. I helped him: I looked after the bees, sold honey, and thus earned money for a rented apartment in Tomsk. When my grandfather passed away, the apiary went to my aunt and uncle, but 2 years later I will continue my grandfather’s work.

Today I drive bears away from hives, sleep alone in the forest, make 5 tons of honey and sell 2.15 million a year, mainly on marketplaces.

But it seems that the bees do not work for me, but I work for them.

How to make money from bees from scratch?

We need hives – 7,500 for 1 piece.

I cut out the hives and frames myself. Before the season starts I have to cut out 20 hives and 30 frames. Bees reproduce quickly. If they become crowded, they will separate and fly away.

Standard hives with honey, frames and bees are heavy – they weigh 80 kg. And you have to carry them using your back. So I changed the material for the hives and now they weigh 40 kg.

Usually they use standard frames – 30 cm. This gives the bees a lot of space for honey and larvae. But they are heavy. One such frame with honey weighs 4-4.5 kg. And there are 12 of them in only one hive.

I use frames – 14 cm. And so that the bees do not feel cramped, I increased the bottom of the hive to 11 cm. The space inside the hive is the same as with standard frames. Only my frames are the lightest – 2 kg.

We need bees

There are three ways to get bees for an apiary:

1. Catch other people’s swarms – 0 ₽

Beekeepers make boxes from plywood, put old honeycombs in them and hang them on trees. Wild swarms fly in on their own. You spend almost no money, but it takes a lot of time.

Good bees can come to you, or evil and sick ones can. Angry bees attack humans and other bees, preventing them from collecting honey and washing their hives.

Another disadvantage is that farmers do not like beekeepers who catch bees in the fields. They crush crops and spoil the soil when they go after traps. And you can’t do without a car – one full bee trap weighs 30-40 kg. In response, farmers bury nails and screws in the ground.

2. Buy bee packages – from 5,000 to 12,000 RUR/piece.

A bee package is a ready-made mini-bee family in a frame. The package already contains a purebred queen and worker bees. They don't produce much honey the first year because they are raising young. This is more reliable than catching swarms, but costs money.

Beekeepers specially prepare them for sale. For example, my grandfather had 30 families. During the season, he increased the number to 50 families, and sold the extra 20. Usually such sales take place in the spring, before the start of the new season.

3. Buy bees from beekeepers who are selling their apiaries – from 3,000 to 6,000 ₽/piece.

Although, as Don Corleone said, a man should always take care of his family, sometimes this becomes impossible for natural reasons. Relatives are selling off the inheritance or the owner himself has decided to give up this business. The bees are already settled, accustomed to the local climate.

But there are also risks – you don’t always know what condition the bees are in: there may be old queens or weak colonies. Therefore, you need to buy such bees when you know at least a little about bees.

How much does your own apiary cost?

To open your own apiary, 10 bee families are enough. The average cost of one is 8,000 rubles. It is better to buy hives (also about 8,000 ₽) with a reserve of 13 pieces, since bees multiply quickly. Yes, and the hives need to be washed periodically, and to do this, beekeepers move the colony to another hive.

We select frames for the hives (3,750 ₽/piece). For 10 bee colonies, two such sets are enough.

To get honey from honeycombs, we need a honey extractor (35,000 ₽), to get wax – a wax melter (23,000 ₽). In total, in addition to beehives and bees, you need to be prepared to spend 136,385 rubles on equipment.

At the first stage, you can do it without a filling pump – a ladle will help.

I wear clothes made of smooth fabric, wide and light – it’s easier to work in the heat. I also bought myself a mask with a mesh to protect my face from midges and angry bees. I buy all this in fishing and hunting stores, since they are cheaper there than in stores for beekeepers.

You also need to have:

• omshanik – a room for wintering bees, I use my grandmother’s former bathhouse,

• large tent where you will pump out honey (30,000 ₽)

• trailer where you will live for a season, material about 70,000 ₽

• car with trailer (300,000 ₽). Beekeeper on both the seven and the Matiz

In total, for the bees to start bringing in money, you will need 652,085 rubles.

The process of extracting money from a bee

Need to dig up bees – 9,000 ₽

I take the bees out of the warm room and check to see who has survived and whether there is food.

We need to take the bees away from civilization – 7,000 ₽

As soon as the road in the forest dries out, I move the apiary.

One day I was driving bees alone at night, and my car stalled in the forest. There was no connection, there were 1.5 tons of bees in the car. I had to wander through the forest in search of communication.

We bring the hives to the clearing.

I live all season with bees without the benefits of civilization. It's like a hike. Only I have gas, a wooden kitchen and a trailer. I bring water, food and other supplies in advance.

The apiary should always be clean. Firstly, because I work with a food product, and secondly, the honey leaks onto the ground, the bees flock there and are easy to crush. Therefore, I often go to the neighboring village for water.

I might not take the bees out. I have a large yard in the village, there are many honey plants around. But.

– Bitten neighbors are unhappy

Bees fly into neighboring areas and bite their owners.

– In the village, bees often intersect with other people’s bees and can get sick, but for me it is important which drone the queens will be fertilized with.

– In the forest there is a lower risk of theft

If the queen becomes ill or there are few worker bees, the bees stop protecting the nest. Then other families attack them, kill them and take the honey. In the forest I gain time while I create new strong families. Although now there is theft in the forest.

Selection

In the spring I check bee colonies. If the family is strong: it has a lot of bees, larvae and a queen, I separate it into two families.

Otherwise, strong families themselves will divide into two families and fly away.

I unite weak families, otherwise they will not survive.

Weak colonies have few bees, larvae, or the queen has died. They cannot maintain the optimal temperature in the hive and feed everyone.

Bees do not like strangers, even from their own apiary. That's why I combine them with a common scent. I spray them with Corvalol, aroma oil or valerian.

Each colony must have a queen, worker bees and drones.

There is only one queen in the family. She does not collect nectar, but only lays eggs, 2500 eggs per day.

If the queen lays fewer eggs or becomes ill, the bees quietly create a new queen and kill the old one. This is Game of Thrones like a bee.
Therefore, the beekeeper constantly monitors the colony.

I have to get ahead of the bees: remove the old queen and give a new one. Otherwise the bees will fly away.

To raise a queen, I take the larvae of a regular bee and put them in special wax bowls. I glue these bowls onto a frame and give them to a family without a queen.

It’s easier with worker bees and drones – they don’t need to be raised artificially.

Worker bees do not sleep. They look after the larvae, clean the hive, make honey and feed everyone. When the wings become too worn out to fly, the worker bees die.

If the queen becomes weaker, the worker bee may develop reproductive organs. Then she begins to lay eggs. But only drones hatch from these eggs.

Drones are males. Their main task is to fertilize the uterus. After mating they die. Or they are driven out of the hive in the fall by other bees.

When the family is assembled, I move them to a new hive – clean and disinfected.

Apiary income

I’ll write down the results for last season, I expect it to be a little better this season.

Wildberries – 1.8 million ₽

I handle the marketplace myself: I take the goods to the warehouse, respond to reviews, take photos.

In total this year I sold 1,800,000 rubles. The berries were charged 500 thousand for logistics and commission.

Wholesale – 300,000 ₽

If on WB I sell honey for an average of 800 ₽ – 1.5 kg. I rent to wholesalers for 160 ₽. This is very unprofitable, but completely eliminates the task of selling.

Social networks – 50,000 ₽

I used to sell well on VKontakte and through articles on Pikabu, but I almost abandoned this direction because it was simply inconvenient.

Yes, in Yagody you will lose on commission, but the sorting centers work around the clock, and you can take the parcel to SDEK only from 9 to 18, when there is already enough work for the apiaries, and there are traffic jams in the city.

In total, the income of my apiary amounted to 2.15 million rubles.

Apiary expenses

The 2.15 million rubles received are distributed as follows.

Marketplace – 500,000 ₽

About 28% of all sales are immediately taken by Yagoda. I transport the goods to the warehouse myself, so several thousand more are spent on gasoline.

Product packaging – 225,000 ₽

This includes: boxes, jars, labels, tape. I buy boxes and jars from manufacturers. I go to Barnaul myself to buy banks.

Building materials – 60,000 ₽

I build the hives myself. One bee house costs about 6,000 rubles.

Taxes – 86,000 ₽

I have an individual entrepreneur, but I pay not 6% per year, but 4%. Because I switched to tax on professional income, this is a kind of self-employment for an individual entrepreneur.

Advertising – 30,000 ₽

I advertise on my personal blog on VK: I make videos about honey, bees and apiary. I also display products there. Sometimes I buy advertising from other bloggers, but it rarely pays off.

I also give away honey when people buy my other products on the marketplace – oven mitts, towels and plaster coloring books for children.

Also, bees get sick, die and fly away.

Laboratories – 30,000 ₽

Honey tests: from 2000 to 3000.

Analysis of bee colonies (from 50 bee colonies) – 4,000 ₽.

The main expense is the beekeeper's time. I literally live in an apiary.

The costs do not include the cost of an assistant. I pay him all his expenses, I gave him gifts to several families, I don’t pay a salary. He helps me and learns beekeeping.

In total, the apiary spends about 951,000 rubles per season.

How much does a beekeeper earn?

In winter I prepare for the season. I do advertising, sales, manage social networks, make beehives and frames. During the season – spring and summer, I follow the example of the bees and hardly sleep.

All the work at the apiary last year brought me about 1,199,000 rubles per year, which is 99,916 per month. This is how much I earn as a beekeeper, carpenter, driver, loader, blogger, seller and seller.

Beekeeper's daily routine

Honey is a seasonal business. In Siberia, my honey harvest season is short. Bees are active from mid-July to mid-August. Then they have a decline in activity: they prepare for winter and collect nectar only for themselves.

A beekeeper’s schedule is like that of a mother with many children: you hardly sleep, take care of the children and constantly make sure they don’t kill each other.

Beekeeper's morning: picking up honey

At 6 am I go around all the hives and pick up frames of mature honey.

At first, bees bring immature honey – nectar with a lot of water. They dry it with wings and seal it with wax. Thus, the honey becomes mature.

If you pick up the honey later, the mature honey in the frame will be mixed with the unripe nectar. Such honey will quickly ferment and spoil.

To avoid choking the bees in the hive, I use a smoker. The bees are afraid of smoke and crawl down. I shake off the bees from the frames and take them into a cool room. Where I store them until the evening.

Beekeeper's Day: checking the bees

After collecting honey, I walk around the bees. I check who is going to split into two families, whether everyone has enough space for honey, how the uterus works. This work takes up most of the day until 5 pm.

If there is not enough space for honey, I give the bees wax. Bees use it to make honeycombs.

To understand how the queen works, I look at the brood. A healthy queen lays brood evenly and beautifully – one egg in one cell. If the brood lies crookedly, with several eggs in one cell, the queen has problems.

Beekeeper's evening: pumping honey

I pump honey in the apiary at night. It's cool outside and the smell of honey spreads worse. If you pump during the day, the bees will smell the aroma of honey, climb into the honey extractor and die.

Bears also smell honey and come to the apiary. But they do not eat honey, but bee children.

Bees seal the finished honey with a seal: a mixture of wax, honey and propolis. Therefore, first I remove the dam with a fork or knife.

Then I place the frames in the honey extractor and spin. The honey flows into a bucket and is filtered through a sieve to remove wax crumbs. I immediately bottle it into jars for sale.

Closing of the season

In October I move the bees to a winter room – omshanik.

Bees are not so much afraid of the cold as they are afraid of hunger and dampness. Therefore, the farmer must have good hoods, and the bees must have enough food. Usually 10 kg of honey is enough for a family for two months.

There was a case when I lost 30 families at once. I left them in the chicken coop for the winter. But the room was not warm enough for the bees.

In every family I check the uterus. She must be healthy and young. If this is not the case, I replace it.

After that, I prepare for the next season: I buy wood for the hives, frames, jars and sell honey.

Conclusions

1. To make money in an apiary, you need to become a worker bee.

I work 20 hours a day, live in the forest and chase bears away from hives. I relaxed a little – the bees flew away or made low-quality honey.

Now I plan to focus on breeding and selling queens.

2. It is difficult to calculate the economy in advance

The amount of honey depends on the weather and the health of the bees. The bees may fly away or may not survive the winter. You never know exactly how much you will earn and spend next year.

3. Selling honey through marketplaces is profitable, but expensive.

95% of my sales come through Wildberries, but commissions and logistics eat up 28% of the proceeds. But transport logistics would eat up this amount from the client’s wallet.

So it's still profitable.

4. Considering the amount of physical work, it is worth recognizing that beekeeping is often a man's job.

DISCLAIMER: This article was written for a blog. “fell, rose”based on an interview with beekeeper Ellina Elert. Thanks to Evelina Astapova for preparing the material.

For more than a year now, once a week I have been interviewing entrepreneurs about real business, and not this successful success of yours.

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