Poly hive musings.

[fatshark]

Thanks DR ... those fancy services come at a price. Somewhere in the region of £25-30 for 2.5 litres I think. Since my son recently announced that, by his calculation, I'd be at break even point in my beekeeping income/outgoings if I sell 200kg of honey a year for the next 5 years i'm trying to minimise my costs.

Of course, his maths is rubbish and he has no idea about the enormous pile of flat-packed poly nucs behind the even larger pile of already assembled cedar brood boxes.

[Neils]

We really do need the like button on here.

[The Drone Ranger]

Thanks DR ... those fancy services come at a price. Somewhere in the region of £25-30 for 2.5 litres I think. Since my son recently announced that, by his calculation, I'd be at break even point in my beekeeping income/outgoings if I sell 200kg of honey a year for the next 5 years i'm trying to minimise my costs.

Of course, his maths is rubbish and he has no idea about the enormous pile of flat-packed poly nucs behind the even larger pile of already assembled cedar brood boxes.

You get the exact colour of hive you want though
What price should we place on Art ?

You are so right about escalating costs Fatshark
I used to loyally buy everything from Thornes but can't buy anything there now because they have gone mad overpricing things

[Dark Bee]

You get the exact colour of hive you want though
What price should we place on Art ?

You are so right about escalating costs Fatshark
I used to loyally buy everything from Thornes but can't buy anything there now because they have gone mad overpricing things

Do try and be more understanding - new premises need paying for.

[Trog]

Get a can/tub of ordinary white masonry paint, then some tubes of (water based) acrylic paint in primary colours from a local art shop. Using the white as a base (in a jam jar or tin), mix as much of each colour as you like, as pastel or otherwise as you like. All hives can be different colours and you'll end up with a Balamory-style apiary

[drumgerry]

Brilliant Trog! I'm going to do just that - sick of pastels!

[madasafish]

Thanks DR ... those fancy services come at a price. Somewhere in the region of £25-30 for 2.5 litres I think. Since my son recently announced that, by his calculation, I'd be at break even point in my beekeeping income/outgoings if I sell 200kg of honey a year for the next 5 years i'm trying to minimise my costs.

Of course, his maths is rubbish and he has no idea about the enormous pile of flat-packed poly nucs behind the even larger pile of already assembled cedar brood boxes.

Eeek!

I reckon on covering my running costs each year by selling one TBH nuc for c £120.

My original investment in hives is around £250... due largely to self build and pallets. Of course I will not get 200kg of honey a year :-(

[fatshark]

Nor will I ;-) But keep that a secret.

[Calum]

Nor will I ;-) But keep that a secret.

Guys, come on its easy.
Forget about honey, its alot of work and too often a discussion about why its more expensive than Aldi.
There is far more money in selling colonies, less work too.
I aim to sell 20 colonies again next spring, I figure 15€ for frames and foundation, 3€ Varroa treatment and 8€ for feed. With colony prices at 120-140€ here thats a tidy profit. Six frame colonies sell like hotcakes and need less of everything.

5 queens out of the incubator yesterday, 10 sealed cells in, and 20 cells grafted finally the queen raising is gaining traction...
got myself 1000 chinease grafting tools from China last week. Paid 250€. they flog them for 5€ a shot here, obsene - I'm tempted to give them away....

[drumgerry]

I think you make a really good point there Calum. To be honest the aspects of beekeeping that interest me concern the bees themselves. Their life cycle and the breeding and improvement of them. Honey's all well and good but it interests me far less. So like you I would prefer to be producing nucs and queens as a means to make a little bit of income from beekeeping.