I could apply for one of the Apprenticeship jobs with Jon.
I could apply for one of the Apprenticeship jobs with Jon.
I thought you need about 150 colonies. I only have about 50 and a load of Apideas.
Prakel, you are not kidding about picking up an injury. The bad back I have really cramps my style.
20-39 - associate membership
40 upwards - full membership in various tiers
http://beefarmers.co.uk/join-the-bee...s-association/
Whats the definition of a colony.
Interesting thread, sorry to have missed it earlier in the year.
We rear a lot of queens and produce a lot of nucs for sale each year, we do it because we enjoy it and it contributes to our income. All of our bees are home reared here in the South of England which does limit the scope we have to produce more to meet early season demand.
We don't handle any imports at all, but I can see why people do, quite simply it's easy money. No real work, no real risk.
The trouble is that QUALITY home bred Bees & Queens are undervalued in our market in relation to the costs of production, certainly either queens or nucs that have been overwintered demand a significant premium over spring production. Anyone who sells them cheap is not in it to earn a living for sure.
We also differentiate our nuc prices on frame size, a 14x12 is 1/3 bigger than a standard national for example, so more brood, more bees and more stores. Surely that has to demand a premium.
Sipa
Last edited by Charlie; 17-09-2015 at 06:04 PM.
Not really, other than the difference in equipment costs, there's very little value in an extra thousand or so bees.
The value is in the healthy colony headed by a suitable queen. Nobody would pay an extra 25% for a 5frame nuc over a 4 frame nuc, especially when the extra bees only represent a matter of a few days in spring.
I would love to see a nuc that overwintered on foundation, I was working on the presumption that a 5 frame nuc would have 5 frames of bees on drawn comb with 2 frames of brood minimum. The comments were only on the difference in value between 14x12 and standard. If we presume both a standard and a 14x12 with 5 frames of bees and simillar brood/stores/ arrangements then i dont see much value in the extra bees in the 14x12.
Out of interest Charlie , how much extra do you charge for a 14x12 ( not 33% surely)?
Last edited by SDM; 21-09-2015 at 11:23 PM.
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