How to Become a Beekeeper & 10 Best Ways to Make Money

If you want to know how to become a beekeeper and make money, you should definitely read this article.

It reveals exactly how and provides very powerful ways to really make money when you become a beekeeper.

 

Why Become a Beekeeper?

MYOB.

Perhaps as a child you heard or uttered these four letters.

Often, they were spoken when someone asked a question of another, and it was about a sensitive subject.

MYOB means mind your own business or mind your own beeswax.

Beeswax is an important by-product obtained from a beehive. Beeswax is a common foundational ingredient found in many cosmetic products.

Other products and uses for beeswax include making candles, lubricating wood, making crayons, etc.

Of course, a beehive can also produce honey and the residents of the beehive are critical to the agricultural industry. This importance is due to bees being a major contributor to pollination.

Consequently, because of the importance of a beehive, many individuals are looking to become a beekeeper.

 

Who is a Beekeeper?

A beekeeper has the managing responsibility of providing oversight for the hives that he or she has created or that they are managing.

Their specific duties are to care for the health of the bees and the queen bee and maintain the health of the hives.

One of the primary responsibilities of the beekeeper is to harvest the honey when it is ready to be gathered.

The beekeeper will extract the honey and process it so that we as individuals can consume its sweetness and incorporate its nutritional healthy value nutrition.

A beekeeper also may provide pollination services to fruit farmers and those that have vegetable gardens.

The beekeeper is responsible for a healthy hive and helps to prepare the hives or colonies for reproduction.

If there are any signs of abnormal these horrid diseases beehive may need to be replaced and possibly the Queen bee as well.

 

Are Bees Endangered?

An interesting fact about bees is that there are 20,000 species. Of these 20,000 species for thousand contribute to pollination.

Pollination is a critical process to the agricultural system that not only is big business but ultimately provides a vast variety of foods that we as individuals consume.

Many species have been placed on the endangered list due to the use of pesticides as well as other factors.

Some of those factors include the loss of their natural habitat, natural disaster, and the aggressiveness of other species.

The honeybee is not currently on the endangered list. However, there are individuals who even today are sounding the alarm.

This alarm is being sounded not only because there are fewer honeybees but of the honeybees that are remaining, they are not as robust as this species should be.

 

11 Best Ways to Make Money When You Become a Beekeeper

 

1. Selling Honey

One of the obvious ways that a beekeeper can earn money is to sell the product produced by hives. That product is honey.

The best way to sell honey is to have a small customer base if the individual has a few hives.

The most likely customer base would include immediate friends, family, and possibly coworkers.

Unless the beekeeper has an extensive number of hives, they probably will only have enough honey to provide for a limited customer base.

In selling the honey, the keeper would not have to involve him or herself in any extensive arcing efforts.

A simple email or utilizing social media platforms to the people aware of your limited honey product should be sufficient to sell this delightful product.

Another way to sell honey is by infusing the honey with different flavors or ingredients.

Uniquely flavored honey could contain special ingredients such as cinnamon, chili peppers, vanilla, etc.

That uniqueness can come by adding special ingredients such as cinnamon, chili peppers, vanilla, and cinnamon.

If there is a surplus of honey one can always approach the local grocery stores to see if they would want to stock those honey jars on their grocery shelves.

 

2. Selling Beeswax

Another product derived from the healthy beehive is the production of beeswax. The beeswax is generated from the beehive processes.

The wax itself can be melted and cleaned and the end result will be a solid block of wax. From a solid block of wax, one can make a variety of byproducts.

Those byproducts could include wraps, candles, and various uses for the skin of the individual who applies the beeswax.

One such product that incorporates beeswax is Chapstick. Additionally, one can make soap, body butter, or lotions with beeswax.

Of course, if one is looking to sell beeswax they would need to invest in appropriate packaging.

The actual beehive that an individual can invest in is called a nuc boxes.

The queen bee can be placed in this box and begin to hatch the eggs containing the drone and worker bees.

 

3. Selling Bees

A good way to promote the selling of bees is to offer to conduct a class. When the introductory class is completed, the students will most likely be excited and be looking for bees to purchase.

Selling bees in addition to the byproducts produced by the bees in the beehive will allow the beekeeper to sell bees or a queen bee to interested individuals.

These individuals may be agricultural workers or people who are wishing to start a hive of their own.

A package of bees or queen bees is called nuc.

 

4. Classes

Conducting classes during the off-season is a great way to increase one’s revenue.

These classes don’t have to go into great depth and can just touch the surface of how to get a beehive going and maintain that beehive.

Also, when introducing beekeeping students to a beehive an introductory eliminates the need for beekeeping protection outfits.

Also, if an individual has writing skills, the beekeeper could pen a quick e-book and promote that book either online or when they conduct their classes.

 

5. Pollination

Another way to make money off of a beehive is for the beekeeper to provide his or her bees for pollination.

This is a big moneymaker for significant-sized beehives as the commercial beekeeper depends on quite a bit on income from the bees and their pollination.

Depending upon where the beekeeper lives, this may or may not be an option to raise revenue through the use of one’s beehives.

However, if a beekeeper has approximately 50 or more hives, they may be able to sell their pollination services to the agricultural community.

 

6. Keeping Bees

Another option as a beekeeper to earn money is to provide a hive for bees that are owned by other business entities. In essence, it’s like providing lodging for the bees.

Usually, the business transaction involves the hotel or restaurant keeping the manufactured honey for themselves.

The upside for the beekeeper is that they keep the bees in their beehive and of course use the various products associated with a beehive to sell to other retailers.

Also, the business arrangement can include giving credit to those that sell the honey as part of the production team with the beekeeper getting paid by the hotel to manage the bees.

 

 

7. Bee Removals

Occasionally, as a beekeeper, you may receive a call from an individual who wishes to have a beehive removed from their premises.

Often, these nearby residences and their families hear of your beekeeping ability, and they think of your professionalism and experience when needing help to remove a hive from their home from a nearby area.

Generally, this service entails scaling heights and removing the hives. Often, the beehive turns out to be a hornet’s nest and one must exercise great caution.

If this is a subsidiary of one’s beekeeping company or an additional way to earn money, a bee vacuum can be extremely time-efficient and safely allows the removal of the bees and eventually the hive.

 

8. Pollen

Another product that some beekeepers are able to harvest, and sell is the pollen that is produced in the hives.

It is important that the beekeeper know the rules and regulations in regards to selling products from their beehive including the possible sale of pollen.

Pollen of course is collected by the bee as it flies from flower to flower. Pollen is the primary source of protein for the bee’s health.

Therefore, pollen can be harvested from the beehive and sold to individuals who wish to use this as a supplement for their protein needs.

The specifics of collecting pollen is the use of pollen traps and should only be utilized at a maximum of two hours a day and only for a few days over the course of a week.

The pollen traps are constructed outside of the actual hive and are actually trough shape and located just below the entranceway for the bees.

This cannot be over manufactured because if too much pollen is taken from the hive, it will affect the health of the bees and their offspring.

Also, it is critical for the beekeeper to educate themselves about pollen.

Specifically, pollen has a life expectancy and should only be gathered or harvested in keeping with the standards of the industry.

Also See: How to Become an Audiobook Narrator & How to Find Jobs for Disabled People at Home.

 

9. Bee Venom

A cutting-edge medical process or treatment involves the use of venom collected from bees. This treatment is known as apitherapy.

Therefore, beekeepers cannot only sell the venom to medical researchers but also be part of cutting-edge technology in regard to medical treatment procedures.

The negative aspect of selling venom is that once the bee stings and releases its venom, the bee dies.

 

10. Propolis

A sticky substance that is carried back to the hive by the bee is a secretion from various trees and plants.

This secretion from this vegetation acts as a disinfectant for the hive and promotes the healthy activity of the Queen bee and her workers.

The disinfectant properties of this substance have also been found to have great potential in the medical world.

To capture this substance, the beekeeper simply needs to set up a trap that will gather this sticky substance. The trap only nets the beekeeper a small quantity.

However, if there are a number of hives obviously the number of propolis increases.

Unlike pollen, this substance has a stronger shelf life and as such makes its gathering less cumbersome.

Additionally, this secretion from the various trees and plants has a greater demand than the ability of beehives to keep up with that demand.

Therefore, the law of supply and demand takes over and makes the harvesting of this substance increases in value.

 

How to Become a Beekeeper FAQs

 

How Much Can You Earn From Beekeeping?

A professional beekeeper can expect to earn, roughly, an average annual salary of $44,000.

A salaried individual, depending on experience, can earn $22 per hour. Also, available maybe bonuses tied to the production of beehive products.

 

How Many Beehives Do You Need to Make Money?

The suggested minimum number of beehives needed is two. This will allow the beekeeper to generate enough honey and wax from the hive to sell for beeswax products.

Additionally, five is the suggested number of hives needed to be in operation before offering products to businesses.

 

Conclusion

It appears that by being a beekeeper, a broad spectrum of critical and wonderful adventures can be participated in.

These adventures range anywhere from being involved with the outdoors and caring for one of nature’s critical players in the ecology and growth of our environment.

Additionally, there are the business aspects of beekeeping and selling the various products that are manufactured from the beehive.

These products can contribute to an individual’s health or by being on the cutting edge of experimentation as it relates to medical treatment.

A beekeeper maintaining their beehive seems to have all of the exciting components of operating a business enterprise.