Many sideline and commercial beekeepers started out keeping bees as a hobby. The number of colonies you start with will depend on whether you are planning to keep bees simply for your own enjoyment and use, as a sideline for generating additional income, or as a commercial venture. A plan for control of Varroa mites and other diseases.Registration of your honey-extracting facility (this is now required in some states like Pennsylvania, even if you extract in a kitchen or structure such as a garage).Registration of honey bee colonies with your state department of agriculture.Potential markets for your honey, beeswax, or other products.Local and state laws concerning the keeping of bees.Amount of time you have to devote to a beekeeping enterprise.Equipment needed (such as hives for bees, protective equipment for the beekeeper, and honey-processing equipment) and where you will purchase it.How and where you will purchase your bees (package bees and nucleus colonies should be ordered the fall prior to the spring they are needed).Location of your apiary and the amount of site preparation that will be necessary.New beekeepers need to consider the following before purchasing honey bees and the necessary equipment to keep them and produce honey: Good planning is an important part of successful beekeeping. About 3.9 million pounds of beeswax, worth about $7 million, are also produced annually as a by-product of the honey harvest. Honey is priced according to its color (water white, extra white, white, extra light amber, light amber, and dark amber), with recent wholesale prices ranging from $1.50 to $2.00 per pound in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. However, the majority of individuals keeping bees today maintain a small number of hives for enjoyment and/or the production of honey for home use and pollination of home gardens and orchards.Īround 175 million pounds of honey are produced annually in the United States. Other beekeepers sell equipment, nucleus colonies, and/ or package bees or rear and sell queens as a source of income. Some stationary beekeepers have apiaries in good honey-producing locations and make honey crops without moving their bees. Some move their colonies several times during the season to produce a variety of honey crops and/or to pollinate various crops for a fee (apples, peaches, blueberries, or pumpkins, for instance). Beekeepers derive income from their bees in a variety of ways.

Without the pollinating service of honey bees, the cost of many fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds would be many times what it is today.Ībout 150,000 beekeepers manage approximately 2.5 million colonies of honey bees in the United States. Honey bee colonies, however, can be easily moved and placed wherever and whenever they are needed for pollination.Īlso, honey bees have additional advantages over other pollinators such as their availability in large numbers and their instinctive pollen-hoarding behavior. While other insects, birds, and bats also are pollinators, people have little control over the actions or numbers of these pollinators. Although honey bees can be managed to produce large quantities of these products, they are even more valued for the major role they play in pollination, especially of our agricultural crops. These products include honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly, and propolis (a sticky resin collected from buds and used as a glue in the hive). Honey bees produce or collect a variety of products that benefit people.

Honey flow bee hives