Beekeeping can be the basis for creating a profitable business, because honey is a popular product. Even waste from such production is of certain value, can be sold or put into further processing. Honey has a long shelf life and relatively high cost.
Organization
Beekeeping is a profitable business, if you approach the matter wisely. But only an experienced beekeeper can competently organize production. It is better for beginners to start with one or more hives to provide for their own needs, and as they gain practical experience, try to enter the market. Necessarily needed in beekeeping and a business plan.
For beginners, it is important to think through all possible risks, calculate investments and analyze the market. It is necessary to assess the level of competition in the sales area and carefully examine all the features of the business. You need to find out how many apiaries in the region, how much production they produce, what quality honey and so on.
Market choice
The honey market is oversaturated with counterfeiters, so most buyers tend to purchase beekeeping products from private business representatives, friends or recommended on the advice of friends, regular sellers in local markets. It is almost impossible to buy natural honey in a supermarket, so there is a demand for products from private beekeeping farms.
A complete beekeeping business plan should include a detailed analysis of product distribution channels. It is important to know that large retail chains will cooperate with private owners only if they deliver quality products on time to the required extent. The required minimum is usually at least ten cans of 20-30 liters of honey in each. But novice beekeepers rarely reach such volumes.
Another option for selling honey and beekeeping products is wholesale purchasers. The problem is that such intermediaries often artificially lower the price in order to get more profit on resale. The only way out is the independent sale of goods in local markets, seasonal fairs or through friends.
Starting investments
The business idea of beekeeping may seem very profitable, but before buying beehives and bees, you must always consider all the necessary expenses and possible income, determine the profitability of the business. An apiary is considered a production that requires a small initial investment. According to the most conservative estimates, you can keep within 200 thousand rubles.
To organize the work of a small apiary, you will need inventory (30-40 thousand rubles), ten hives (40-50 thousand rubles), ten bee families (40-50 thousand rubles), feeding and medicine for bees (5-10 thousand rubles). The apiary’s business plan must include additional costs for arranging and organizing the winter house (80-100 thousand rubles).
An experienced beekeeper can recoup all the costs and make a profit in just one season, but a beginner should hardly expect such a dizzying success. Most likely, the apiary will pay off only for the next season. And even this can be counted on to provide bees with all working conditions and the proper organization of the apiary. A good solution is to get the first experience by working in someone else's apiary. This will help you learn how to care for bees and stop being afraid of them.
Financial planning
Be sure to take into account the seasonality of any apiary business plan. Beekeeping only makes profit for six months, and the rest of the time requires financial costs. It is worth calculating everything so that the profit received for the season is enough for the whole year and the organization of further work. For this, first of all, one should determine the size of the economy.
A small apiary with 40-60 beehives can easily contain one middle beekeeper. Experienced beekeepers cope with farms for 150 bee families without any outside help. A family apiary business plan for 10 hives (this is a very small farm) is required only for beginners, and experienced beekeepers contain so many hives for themselves without the need for careful planning.
The larger the farm, the more effort will have to be made to make a profit. Large apiaries often unite, distributing roles, that is, someone is only involved in caring for bees, and someone is marketing products. You can not associate with partners, but simply hire service personnel to organize smooth operation.
When developing the financial part of the apiary’s business plan, it should be borne in mind that the basis of profit is the sale of honey and beekeeping products: zabrus, propolis, podmore, peargi, royal jelly, wax and poison. By-products are sold worse than honey, so you can make contacts only with one (for starters) pharmaceutical or cosmetic company.
Documents for business
An entrepreneur who decided to organize an apiary to start selling honey and beekeeping products needs to get a special passport of the veterinary service and coordinate his activities. An apiary must be registered with the local administration.
You can register as an IP or LLC, but you should take care of collecting a full package of documents. Otherwise, you can spend quite a lot of time and nerves on the design. You will need: a statement on the opening of activities, a copy and the original (for verification) of an identity card, a receipt on payment of the state duty at the bank, a copy of documents from the tax office.
To register this kind of business, you can choose a simplified taxation scheme. If you design an apiary as a peasant farm, you can use special tax privileges for gardeners, livestock breeders, beekeepers and agronomists. Such benefits are different in all regions, so details should be found in the local administration.
Choosing a place for an apiary
The profitability of the business in beekeeping even depends on the place where the apiary will be installed. In a good place there will be a lot of quality honey, in another - only vain work and empty investments. You need to choose a warm and possibly protected quiet place. In the summer, it is better to place the apiary in the humid lowlands, and in the spring - always in a dry place.
An important condition is good honey collection as close to the apiary as possible. Other amenities without this factor do not matter. Bees can fly for honey (in orchards, lawns with flowers, on the field) quite far, but in this case there will definitely be less honey. Many bees can die on the road, especially on cloudy or cold days. So, distant honey harvest greatly weakens the apiary. It is very good if there are honey plants near (alfalfa, mint, sunflower, buckwheat, linden) with different flowering times.
You can not install the hive near the road or close to other apiaries, near sugar or honey factories, villages. It is highly undesirable to have large ponds or wide spills near the river, especially if the bees go to the opposite side to collect honey, flying over water. For a kilometer from the apiary, large waters are no longer dangerous.
For an apiary, you need at least 140-150 square kilometers. It is best to fence this area. It is also necessary to provide in advance a place for wintering of bee families. Such a place should be safe, warm and calm. All this must be reflected in the apiary's business plan. Beekeeping is a profitable business, but requires a competent approach at all stages.
Do I need permission
Special permission to organize an apiary is not required, but it is necessary to coordinate the installation of hives with the owners of the fields on which the bees will collect pollen. The remaining documents will be required when selling honey. For example, you should take care in advance of obtaining a certificate of product compliance with generally accepted quality standards.
Equipment purchase
Each beehive has one bee family. So, for ten bee colonies, ten hives and several more spare ones are required. Spare parts are needed in case of a family transplant, for the settlement of a separated swarm or for the period of cleaning the old hive. You can buy both new and used beehives for an apiary, but you need to clean them well and be sure to disinfect them. Also required are frames and other related equipment.
Beehives are different: alpine, hive-lounger, multihull. The most convenient and functional option is the Dadan-Blatt hives (multihull). Judging by the reviews of beekeepers, such houses increase harvest by 40% (compared with alpine or classic). The hive-lounger is convenient for a stationary apiary, but has limited functionality. Alpine (Delon hive) easy to maintain. Such houses have a large capacity, but may be inconvenient due to the non-standard size of the frames.
Popular bee breeds
The apiary’s business plan should even justify the choice of the bee breed, because the profitability of the business depends on it: crop yield, taste, love for one or another honey plant. The most popular in the CIS countries are: Ukrainian steppe bee, gray mountain Caucasian, Central Russian.
Ukrainian steppe bee brings a good harvest from sunflower and buckwheat fields. Central Russian beekeepers are rarely kept, because such bees are aggressive and angry. The gray mountain Caucasian bee gives a good amount of honey even with relatively weak honey collection, is active in the search for new sources of nectar and is peace-loving. But (especially in comparison with the Ukrainian and Central Russian breeds), Caucasian bees are less cold-resistant.
Exotic breeds for the Russian Federation
You can order bees from abroad (strawberries, buckfest). Such breeds, with proper care, give a huge harvest, but can be demanding and do not always survive in Russian climatic conditions. Bees of buckfast or karnik breeds are very expensive, but the main risk factor remains that they may not take root in local conditions.
Karniks are more resistant to cold than Caucasian bees, they are peaceful and use spring honey collection effectively. Such bees pollinate clover very well. Italian bees are very prolific. This is the most popular breed in the world, very honey-producing in the presence of sustainable honey collection nearby.
Risk analysis
Beekeeping as a business (where to start a business, described above) is associated with certain risks. No one can guarantee profit and one hundred percent profitability. Traditions also play a big role in business success: it is impossible to buy the experience of beekeepers in several generations. Therefore, in order to really make good money, you need to practice beekeeping from experienced people.
All positive calculations in the beekeeping business plan are called into question in connection with the deteriorating environmental situation and climatic conditions. Over time, it becomes increasingly difficult to choose the best place for an apiary and provide a good source of honey collection. Any beekeeper is not immune from the fact that the whole economy can die from chemicals used to process agricultural plants, or fall ill with something and degenerate.
How much can you earn
For one season, from an apiary located in the middle lane, you can get up to 50 kg of honey from one bee family. With a hundred hives, with proper care, you can get up to 5 tons of honey. With the cost of wholesale sales of the product an average of 150 rubles per kilogram, you can get 750 thousand rubles per season.
From this amount you need to subtract fixed costs, namely: framework, wax, fuel and lubricants and the like. About 50 thousand rubles are spent on this. It will turn out clean 700 thousand rubles in one season. This amount does not include additional income from the sale of propolis, royal jelly, wax, and so on. Starting costs can be recouped in the first season and still earn extra.
Main difficulties
When compiling a business plan for an apiary, it is necessary to take into account the main difficulties encountered by novice beekeepers: finding channels for selling products and observing strict technology for keeping bees. You need to regularly inspect the condition of the hives, know the diseases of the bees, choose the right framework, solve wintering issues, and so on. As for the sale of honey, from 10-15 beehives the products can still be sold to acquaintances and friends, but with large volumes of production, you will have to look for other ways of selling.