From page 27 of 200 hives it does not pay to migrate one ' s hives. Rather, find good sites that yield two crops during the year. Additionally, here are some of the problems one would encounter attempting to migrate 200 hives, ❑ One needs a truck that can load at least 40 hives in one load, which means that to move 200 hives involves five trips to deliver the bees and five trips to move the bees to the second site and a further five trips to return the bees to home base to overwinter. ❑ As this truck is too large and costly to run, one also needs a smaller bakkie to super up the hives where a second super is required on the first site. This involves five trips to service all the sites. At the end of the first flow, one will need ten trips to crop off all 400 supers before moving to the second site. The 200 hives, all fitted with one super, will be loaded and moved to the second site that will only yield one super of honey per hive. One will have five trips to crop off this last super of honey for the year before returning to home base to rest the bees over winter. Total up all the kilometres travelling @ R3.00 per km for the bakkie and R4.00 for the bigger truck, and then total
Table 2. A non-migratory beekeeper of 200 hives on a one crop site: Expected honey yield: 200 @ 15kg / hive = 3 000kg = 6000 bottles @ R40 / bottle Therefore total revenue R240 000 Anticipated Total costs = 40 % of turnover R96 000 Therefore total net income R144 000
Table 3. A migratory beekeeper of 200 hives on sites that yield one crop, migrating with 1 / 3 of his hives. Expected honey yield: 130 hives @ 15kg / hive = 3 200 kg. plus 70 hives @ 40kg / hive = 2 800kg, therefore total intake of honey = 6 000kg Total revenue from 12 000 bottles @ R40 R480 000 Anticipated costs @ 60 % of turnover R288 000 Therefore Total net income R192 000
the overtime labour costs when moving the bees at night, through the night in some cases. The conclusion is that this small time migrating will be too costly and must be left to the large beekeepers, who move 400 to 500 hives in brood chambers only in one trip, and follow up with adding 1 000 supers( two per hive) at one trip. The capital investment relating solely to the 200-hive beekeeping venture will be as follows: 200 hives @ R1 200 = R240 000 Motor vehicle = R120 000 Honey house equipment =
BEEKEEPING
R15 000 Sundry tools = R1 000 Total capital outlay = R376 000 Article by Peter Clark, tel 011 362-2904, Chairman of Eastern Highveld Beekeeper ' s Association, which meets on the third Saturday of each month at 186 Uys Street, Rynfield A / H, Benoni.
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