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beekeeping in your woods

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beekeeping in your woods

Postby Dexter's Shed » Sun Aug 09, 2015 3:44 pm

quite a while since my last post, so a bit of an update, also if any other woodland owners fancy keeping bees, then get in touch, quite happy to lay on a taster day explaining what kit you would need, prices, best places to buy hives etc, and a one day course on becoming a beek as we call it


https://youtu.be/RmDGUv6GiC8


excuse the one swear word at the end of this clip, it's made me wonder whether to faze out keeping rose hives and stay with national hybrid, a rose osb could have upto 60lb of honey, that's a fair weight to lift up and down

https://youtu.be/lDJmtoI5Pqo
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Re: beekeeping in your woods

Postby boxerman » Sun Aug 09, 2015 10:07 pm

As you know, Dex, I do fancy having a go at this at some point and when I get somewhere to do it I'll probably be in touch. A simple question if I may? OK, there's obviously a satisfaction and fun element to this element to this never mind giving nature a helping hand but taking into account the costs of setting up and the work involved but does running a couple of hives pay for itself or does it just subsidise a hobby?
Phil

https://twitter.com/boxermanphil for my Badger videos
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Re: beekeeping in your woods

Postby Dexter's Shed » Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:36 pm

boxerman wrote: but does running a couple of hives pay for itself or does it just subsidise a hobby?


I suppose it depends how far you want to take it, but yes, you could recoup back the cost of the hive (£99) the bees always come from collected swarms,, so cost (£0) and a little time when visiting the woods anyway, a full super of honey, which the could easily produce two supers will hold around 25-30lb of honey, so lets say 25lb x 2 = 50lb @ £6 per 1lb jar= £300 give or take, add cost of jars bought in bulk and labels, plus some sugar to feed over winter, lets say £50, so your first year you could get back your money, plus £150 ish profit

of course, that's in an ideal world, but you'll then spend £99 of that profit on buying a 2nd hive, as the following year your first hive will want to swarm, you'll do an artificial swarm and have 2 hives, great more honey = more money, but you'll buy another hive or two :lol:

last year I had four hives in the woods, one died over winter, three hives, after collecting swarms I now have eight hives over there, and am expecting to remove at least 5 supers of honey = 125-150lb honey
I've already removed three supers this year, and have another two to remove from my garden hives, it goes on and on
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Re: beekeeping in your woods

Postby boxerman » Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:35 pm

Thanks for that, Dex. It gives a good enough idea tho I suspect you'd also be looking at another £100 or so for protective gear?
Phil

https://twitter.com/boxermanphil for my Badger videos
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Re: beekeeping in your woods

Postby Dexter's Shed » Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:04 pm

boxerman wrote:Thanks for that, Dex. It gives a good enough idea tho I suspect you'd also be looking at another £100 or so for protective gear?


with no one guiding you YES.......

but my bee jacket was £10 from ebay (yes it's a chinese import)
pair of marigold gloves £0 (pinched from work)
smoker about £10
hive tool about £6
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Re: beekeeping in your woods

Postby Dexter's Shed » Mon Aug 31, 2015 12:16 pm

have just finished extracting this years honey, I already had 2 supers worth earlier in the year, which gave me around 45 x 8oz jars, which I sell at £3, so approx £100 as I do tend to give a few jars away to family,friends and other plot holders

I then removed just over two supers, and have just jarred up 75 x 8oz jars which will get sold at our local show this coming weekend so a possible £225, along with the honey and cut comb that I remove from my garden hives,

and yes, all the money will go back into my bees, :lol:

a few more hives will be bought and made up,painted etc ready for next year, but it's all fun, If I wanted to make money, I wouldn't have bought a woodland

honey
https://youtu.be/fgQBGHoVZkc
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