Beekeeping business plan or how to make money by breeding bees. Should beekeeping be considered a profitable business?

04/27/2018 at 18:28

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Is it profitable to keep bees? Can a fun activity turn into a highly profitable business? These questions are asked by many beginning and potential beekeepers.

To find out whether beekeeping is promising as a business, you should calculate all the initial financial expenses, find out what documentation is needed to officially register the business, create a rough business plan and calculate the expected profit.

Of course, having your own apiary means having a constant source of very healthy and delicious food product. To purchase high-quality natural honey, many are willing to overpay or travel a huge distance.

And all because the quality and taste properties of the product have differences characteristic of certain areas and herbs.

Still, the main advice to everyone who perceives bee breeding as a business is not to think about big money. You must initially understand that developing this activity will require a lot of time, a lot of effort and physical labor, especially during the honey harvest season. But how profitable beekeeping will be for you largely depends on the first steps...

Bees as a business: how much money do you need to start?

Judging by actual practice, one person is capable of simultaneously maintaining about a hundred bee colonies. Yes, this is an extremely difficult task, but this is the only way to achieve truly high business profitability. To set up such an apiary you should purchase:

✔Bee families (3,000 rubles* for 1 piece, 300,000 rubles for 100 pieces);

✔Beehives (500 rubles for 1 piece, 50,000 rubles for 100 pieces);

✔Trailer (15,000 rubles);

✔Inventory (sushi, smoker, masks, flasks, chisel, honey extractor (used) - RUB 10,000)

Attention

All prices are approximate, as of 2018, and may change over time, depending on the region and the seller.

As we can see, considerable start-up capital, but there is also a positive factor: so high costs- one-time, and profit - annual.

Beekeeping as a business: where to start?

Selection of land

The very first thing a novice beekeeper is puzzled by is choosing a suitable piece of land to place bee hives. A special plot of huge area is not necessary. If you have your own dacha, this question is unlikely to become a subject for much thought. But there are some wishes: it is advisable to place bee “houses” near orchards, forests or flower fields.

If you do not have your own plot, when searching for one, you should take care of the availability of documentary rights to use the selected territory. If you have available funds, it is advisable to either fully purchase the land territory or take it for long-term rental use. By the way, what about business legalization?

Documentation

An entrepreneur-beekeeper deals with living beings, so it would be a good idea to collect some documents. It is advisable to obtain a special passport from the veterinary service, coordinating your business with this structure.

Also, the apiary must be registered with the regional administration. If you plan to register an individual entrepreneur or company with limited liability, you need a standard package of documents, including:

✔ Application for registration of individual entrepreneurs;

✔Receipt for payment of state duty;

✔Copy of identification document;

✔A copy of the tax registration certificate.

Purchasing hives

As noted above, the cost of one hive on the market is approximately 500 rubles (often around 450–600). At first, 30 pieces will be enough. On at this stage You can form a final opinion: will this be an exciting and useful hobby, or whether there are prerequisites for turning your favorite activity into the main source of profit.

In turn, professional beekeepers-businessmen with certain experience and a developed business plan work with at least 60 hives.

Is it possible to make a hive yourself? This will allow you to save a lot of money, although not everyone can do it.

Purchasing bees

Be responsible when purchasing required quantity honey bees. They are not bought individually, but in bee colonies, and if you are targeting good results, it is advisable to initially purchase at least 50 bee colonies.

Since bees require special care and attention, a good beekeeper is needed. There is no need to work in the apiary all the time, but it is difficult to do without additional help in the process of collecting honey.

2–3 clues - work for pleasure and experience. This is a good place to start to gain a practical understanding of all the nuances of working with bees. But if you are expanding your apiary to at least 30 hives, you should think about a business plan. Perhaps it was not originally chosen optimal site? Bee colonies should not

Suffer from wind, excess sun, there should not be farms or other apiaries nearby. Renting the optimal plot of land will certainly pay off due to High Quality honey product and the possibility of installing a large number of hives.

As for honey itself, it is characterized not only by medicinal properties and unsurpassed taste, but also by cosmetic and medical uses. To successfully sell the finished product, several factors should be taken into account: important rules:

1. Good quality is the key to good demand. Do not add anything to the product to increase its volume. Be honest with the buyer, and only then will he become yours regular customer.

2. Consumers have different needs. Not every buyer is ready to buy honey in liters - package the goods in different containers, from 100 grams and above. Moreover, before purchasing, the client may want to sample the product to ensure its quality and naturalness.

3. During the honey collection process, strictly follow the beekeeper’s rules.

4. Take care proper storage finished product.

Business profitability

According to statistics, the main place for purchasing honey is at the market or at home (for friends). Lower sales figures are at retail outlets. The purchasing wholesale price in Belgorod, Saratov, Kursk, Tambov (and corresponding regions) is approximately:

✔125* rub. (and above) - for 1 kg buckwheat honey;

✔70–105* rub. (and above) - for 1 kg of honey from herbs;

✔70–90* rub. - for 1 kg of sunflower honey.

✔as of 2017

If your apiary has 100 or more honey-bearing individuals, it is more profitable to pack the goods yourself. Perhaps it makes sense to purchase finished products from small beekeeping farms and private beekeepers, and then package them simultaneously with your own product. Of course, after personally verifying the quality of the purchased honey.

In addition to the initial costs described above, for packaging you will need to purchase a heat chamber (30,000+ rubles), and for preparing mixtures - a blending apparatus (12,000+ rubles)

But even taking into account these expenses, beekeeping as a business, reviews of which may be mixed, is a fairly profitable activity. A beekeeper who is engaged in this business professionally and has expanded his apiary to 100 or more hives, as practice shows, can annually earn from 360 to 700 thousand rubles.

Of course, with proper business management, adherence to technology and active advertising.

Where do these numbers come from?

During one season (in middle zone conditions) you can extract up to fifty kilograms of honey from 1 bee colony. If there are 100 such families, then the final volume of the finished product will be 5,000 kilograms - 5 tons. Let’s take the increased (as for wholesale) price tag of 150 rubles per 1 kg and we get the maximum earnings value - 750,000 rubles per year.

About 50,000 rubles should be deducted by fixed costs: frames, foundation, fuels and lubricants... Additional profit can be obtained by selling beekeeping products: wax, propolis, royal jelly and more.

Asking the question whether beekeeping is profitable as a business in Russia, and having calculated all the items of expenses/income, one can come to the conclusion that the initial costs can pay off already in the first season of work. But for this it is important to find a profitable point of sale, with reasonable, not low price tags.

Even if the beekeeper’s income level is one and a half times lower - let’s say, 450,000 rubles / season, in terms of monthly income we get 37,500 rubles. Quite a good profit for doing what you love. In addition, you can always strive for something more, develop and independently raise your profit bar.

What should you be prepared for?

Of course, beekeeping is a troublesome and in many ways risky business.

Firstly, finding channels for selling goods can cause many difficulties. Before you invest in a business, you need to clearly understand what you will do with the finished product. If 10–15 hives “feed” your family, friends, acquaintances and neighbors, then with increased production volumes you should look for profitable business connections: wholesalers, retail stores, markets, etc.

Secondly, strict adherence to bee colony maintenance technology is mandatory. It is important to choose the right frames, regularly inspect the condition of the evidence, monitor the health of the bees, organize overwintering and more.

Third, apiary (beekeeping) as a business is not only profitable, but also unsafe. Bee stings are poisonous; bee venom contains histamine, which can lead to allergic reactions, swelling and inflammation.

Therefore, before engaging in such activities, you should make sure that you are not allergic. But not everything is clear - some beekeepers manage to benefit from this! Bee venom also contains useful microcomponents: melitin with antibacterial properties, adolopin with analgesic properties, and cardiopeptide, which has a positive effect on the functioning of the heart.

Results

Summarizing the information presented above, we come to the conclusion that the answer to the question “bee breeding as a business - is it profitable or not” is more affirmative than negative. To count on a good profit, it is important not only to be able to successfully “monetize” bee breeding, to follow technologies and the unwritten rules of a beekeeper...

Since the entire article is based on real experience and reviews of professional beekeepers, we will quote the instructions of one of them:

« If you want to achieve high heights in beekeeping, it is important to love bees, be passionate about your work, attentive, hard-working, and patient. And don't forget about the risks».

Honey production (beekeeping) has a quick payback period (~2 years) and profitable business(~15-25%). Despite the waste-free nature of honey production, the business requires experience and specific knowledge in feeding and caring for bees. Honey - natural product containing many useful vitamins: retinol, group B, C, E, which strengthen and support the body’s immunity. The main producers of honey in the Russian Federation are private farms and industrial companies. In this article we will look at the main points on how to organize beekeeping as a business from scratch.

Advantages and disadvantages of starting a honey production business

The technology for producing honey is subject to little unification, and organizing an apiary does not require a large investment of capital. Therefore, this type of activity is well suited for small businesses.

According to the results of a study of the market for beekeeping products, most consumers purchase honey not in retail stores, but in apiaries and markets. Because of this, distribution networks do not exert monopolistic pressure on beekeepers. One beekeeper can take care of 60 hives, which makes it possible to expediently approach the independent packaging and sale of honey. Let's consider key benefits and disadvantages of starting a business.

Despite the need for expert knowledge in caring for bees and apiaries, the final product for sale can be not only honey, but also wax (for candle makers or craftsmen), pollen, propolis, beebread and royal jelly.

Consumers of honey are large wholesale stores (buying honey at an ultra-low price), cosmetology companies, medical firms, retail stores, markets, honey fairs. One of the most optimal options sales with the maximum margin (markup on cost) are honey fairs held 1-2 times a year.

The honey fair in Moscow at VDNKh is traditional; local weekend fairs are also developed in various parts of the city.

Habitat and types of bees

• If you are a beekeeper, you will have to live near bees and take into account the nature of the insects when working. In summer, the apiary will require your daily presence. For an apiary with 60 hives you will need about 25 acres of land. It is advisable to fence this area with green spaces. There should also be an abundance of honey plants around the apiary. The most valuable varieties of honey are obtained from:
• mint;
• buckwheat;
• acacia;

linden trees

Be careful when buying foreign bees: Italian, Ukrainian, Buckfast. They cost significantly more and are subject to lengthy inspections.

In addition to the abundance of honey plants, when choosing a location for an apiary, the availability of electricity, communications and water supply is taken into account.

Product certification

To sell honey, you must undergo certification of your products at a certification center, where the quality of the honey will be checked. The certificate will determine the level of toxicity and the amount of additives in a given product. The conditions of storage, packaging and transportation of products are also subject to verification.

Types of apiary: comparison

There are two types of apiary: nomadic and stationary. The table below shows their advantages and disadvantages.

Registering an apiary as a business with the tax authorities

If the apiary is registered on individual(not an individual entrepreneur), then it is not subject to taxes. The apiary plot must be registered as a private household plot (up to 50 acres, no auxiliary workers are hired), and all the necessary documents must be drawn up for it: a certificate from the household register, which is issued by the administration of the village council, an apiary passport (issued at the interdistrict veterinary station), vet certificate for honey (for sale). The form of private household plots can be used for other types of agricultural activities: → , → , → .

You don’t have to pay taxes if the apiary is registered as a private household plot - up to 50 acres and without hired workers.

If the business form is an individual entrepreneur, LLC, UTII is paid ( single tax on imputed income). In this case, the amount of tax depends on the area (often simply for workplace) and fixed, and no cash register is needed. When registering as a tax individual entrepreneur, you must select OKVED - 52.27.39 " Retail others food products, not included in other groups." If you take from an individual entrepreneur, LLC or peasant farm OKVED 01.25.1 “Bee Breeding”, the optimal choice would be the Unified Agricultural Tax (Unified Agricultural Tax) or the Simplified Taxation System (USN) with a tax rate of 6%.

Top 7. Rating of honey varieties in the Russian Federation

According to a study conducted by the analytical company “Step by Step”, the following types of honey are most popular among the Russian population:

1. lime
2. chestnut
3. buckwheat
4. acacia
5. melilot
6. floral
7. fireweed

Video lesson “Beekeeping for Dummies”

This video explains in detail how to organize your own apiary from scratch.

Beekeeping costs: business plan

The further away the site is from large settlements, the lower its cost. Therefore, it is best suited for the site middle lane Russia: Bashkiria, Altai Territory, Caucasus, etc. Additional costs may include repairs or construction of buildings on this site. But the main initial investment costs will be the purchase of raw materials (~70%).

It will cost about $200 to purchase one hive with all the equipment and a bee colony. It is also advisable to purchase containers for honey and a three-frame honey extractor - this is an additional $500. The beekeeper's overalls will require another $100. As a result, the initial cost of organizing an apiary will be ~$15,000.

At proper organization business one hive produces up to 40 kg. honey per year. With a retail price of $7.5, the annual income will be $18,000. In addition, the bees will provide the beekeeper with pollen, wax and propolis.

This calculation does not take into account some costs, which include:

• taxes;
• sales expenses;
• bee colony insurance;
• water and electricity fees;
• obtaining quality certificates for honey.

All costs vary depending on the location of beekeeping activities. The main obstacle for a novice beekeeper is lack of experience. Therefore, a novice beekeeper should take into account the following points:

1. Do not start 60 hives at once without having work experience. Start with 15 and gradually increase the number of hives; by the 3rd year of doing business, bring it to 60. This will reduce possible losses and costs.

2. Communicate with beekeepers whose apiaries are located next to yours - their experience will be useful to you.

Connect with the beekeeping community! At forums (pchelovodstvo.ru/forum, dombee.info), conferences and fairs.

Profitable sale of honey

When selling honey important has a cooperation of neighboring beekeepers. Local rural population has low purchasing power and often itself contains 2-4 hives to collect honey for own consumption. People who buy honey and sell it in cities lower the purchase price, reducing the profitability of the apiary.

A good solution is for a group of beekeepers to partner long-term with one honey retailer. IN in this case he will be confident that large volumes of honey will be available for sale. This will significantly reduce his transportation costs and raise the purchase price.

Attempts to reach an agreement with supermarkets in large cities are doomed to failure. The consumer is willing to pay a high price for honey purchased directly from an apiary. Honey from the manufacturer makes the consumer confident in its naturalness. If you want to sell tons of honey, then pay attention to large bakeries, which are the largest consumers of beekeeping products.

Organizing an online store is a very interesting direction for the development of an apiary. Many city residents who rarely visit markets and do not trust store-bought honey, choose this method of purchasing the product. Also, pollen is successfully sold using this method.

Feedback from beekeepers about the business

Below are reviews and opinions of beekeepers about this business.

Assessment of the attractiveness of a business by the magazine website

Business profitability	(3.0 out of 5)	Business attractiveness 3.0
Project payback	(4.0 out of 5)
Ease of starting a business	(2.0 out of 5)
Beekeeping as a business is a promising business. The payback period for the initial investment is ~2 years with a profitability of ~15-25%. The main difficulty is the need to have experience and expertise in this area (this can take 2-3 years). Business is seasonal from May to August. The ability to avoid paying taxes when registering as a private household plot (up to 50 acres and without hired workers), this allows you to reduce costs and concentrate on creating an apiary and organizing product sales channels. When scaling, it becomes necessary to register as an individual entrepreneur, LLC or peasant farm.

A honey business is ideal for those who have just decided to become an entrepreneur. There is no need to be afraid of importers, since the requirements of Rosselkhoznadzor do not allow the import of honey from abroad. Honey production will always find its consumer, allowing the manufacturer to make excellent profits. According to statistics: in 2008, honey went up in price by 50%, and in all subsequent years the price increases by an average of 20-25%. That is, an increase in prices for this product is guaranteed. The main income comes from honey (90%), and all other bee products are consumed by beekeepers themselves or offered to relatives. You should know that the main selling time for honey is September – December. In fact, you can sell pollen, honey in combs, propolis, royal jelly. All these products also have various important medicinal and preventive properties. They help maintain immunity and are even used for cosmetic purposes.

What does a future entrepreneur need to know?

Of course, if you decide to start this type of business, then you need the appropriate knowledge and experience. Each honey is universal according to various criteria. For example, acacia, mustard and sweet clover varieties are among the most expensive high-quality goods of natural origin. These also include: clover, sow thistle, mint and phacelia. And the high cost is explained medicinal properties, which are inherent in each variety. For example, linden honey can be used to treat diseases of the respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract.

It should be noted that the price of this product is also affected by how you intend to rent it out. Most high price You can get it through direct sale, but you risk losing half the cost when selling honey wholesale. But for the first option for selling honey, you need to find your clientele, but believe me, it’s worth it.

You should also know that honey is named according to the plants from which nectar is collected by bees when they bloom. Therefore, try to use a botanical atlas of the area where you are going to install the apiary. You should also familiarize yourself with the flowering calendar, which is intended for the zone you have chosen.

That is, a beekeeper who wants to make a good profit from his business must definitely understand the places for “walking” his bees and always be aware of the time of collecting various types of honey. Most the best option renting several plots of land for an apiary, so that each place is intended for a specific type of plant. It will be better. If these areas are not too far away. If you properly organize your apiary and collect honey, all your expenses will pay off with interest. Purchasing several plots for nomadic honey collection will allow you to make a profit five times higher than collecting using the stationary method. That is, one mobile apiary will give profit to five permanent ones.

How to properly organize an apiary?

Place the apiary close to honey plants so that it is surrounded by trees for protection from wind and sun. There should be no businesses, rivers or lakes nearby. The bees should have a drinking source nearby and each apiary should be separated from the other by ideally seven meters. Arrange the hives in a checkerboard pattern.

Try to properly distribute your time, since you will have to devote at least 6 hours a week to one family. If you have chosen nomadic honey collection. Then take care of a stationary winter shelter, cell storage and housing for yourself.

Bees are not toys!

In addition to all of the above, a real beekeeper must understand the breeds of bees. Each type has its own purpose and characteristics. For example, few people know that there are good and evil bees, honest bees and those who steal.

In order to calculate the financial efficiency of such a business, you should take into account the income that you will receive from the sale of honey and the expenses that will be spent on the apiary. You will need to purchase evidence, bee families (bee package), various equipment and supplies, various veterinary drugs. There are times when bees need veterinary care. It is advisable for the future beekeeper to undergo training and specialization.

If you are planning a business, then 2-3 hives will not be enough for you. In order to feel the profit, take about 50 hives. You will have the opportunity to make a profit of three million rubles, but you need to work around the clock with short breaks. Every job has its challenges and this one is no exception. You will build up a clientele over the years; start with a small number of bee families, increasing them gradually. If you want to start a honey business, then this should be your main job, you should not take on any additional ones.

Difficulties arise especially in cases where the beekeeper has no education. You must realize that bees require attention and veterinary care. They may have intestinal pain, various mass diseases, poisoning, suffocation from improper ventilation. A bee is a living creature that requires careful care. And for its correct implementation, appropriate training is required.

Is it worth running such a business?

Let's return to the profit figures. If you have 30 pieces of evidence, you can get about 100-150 kg of honey. You can sell it, if it is, for example, fake, then for 400 rubles per 1 kg. The cheapest is flower honey, the cost of which is approximately 120 rubles per kg.

Thus, if you plan your business correctly, your income per season can reach up to 600 thousand rubles. But you must understand that the first year is a year of waste, but the second and the rest are gradually increasing profits.

We come to the conclusion that the honey business can rightfully be considered profitable, but for this it is necessary to organize it correctly and operate it for several years. This type of work is quite difficult and requires all the personal time of the beekeeper. Ideal for those who are approaching retirement age or those who strive for a hermit lifestyle.

Beekeeping can be turned into an excellent business that does not require huge investments. However, in order for this business to start generating the desired income, you need not only to know how to properly behave with bees, but also to competently create a business plan for a beekeeping farm.

To run such a business, it is not at all necessary to hire workers, unless, of course, we are talking about large apiaries. In addition, you can also pack and sell honey yourself.

Before you start beekeeping, it is very important to find out all the pros and cons that such a farm has.

There are also a few disadvantages Things you should know about before you start beekeeping:

• Firstly, this high level competition in the sales market. But this drawback can be overcome by selling a quality product and advertising it well.
• Secondly, prices for honey are now quite high, so at first it will be very difficult to form a large customer base. However, it is a matter of time.

Like any other business, beekeeping has its own nuances and underwater rocks. So, the following points should be understood:

How to build a bee pavilion yourself

Where to begin?

From the very beginning you need to think, where will the bees live, how many hives do you need? And where to set up an apiary. First of all, it should be noted that if you decide to keep a beekeeping farm yourself, then you will have to live next to the apiary. This need is due to the fact that during the summer you will need to check the hives every day.

It should be noted that around the apiary it is best plant a green fence. When choosing a place, you need to pay attention Special attention to ensure that there are as many honey plants as possible. Bees produce the most valuable and healthy varieties of honey from acacia, linden, mint and buckwheat.

The nature of honey plants determines the type of bees.

The most common bee colonies:

• Central Russian view

They are very aggressive and have a tendency to swarm. Central Russian bees collect pollen mainly from linden and buckwheat.

• Gray Caucasian bees

Forbs and clover are their main honey plants. Main disadvantage The advantage of such bees is that they tolerate cold very hard. Their aggressiveness is low, but they do not allow foreign bees near their hives.

• Ukrainian steppe bees

This species interacts well with buckwheat, sunflowers and linden. Their main advantage is that they tolerate winter very well and very rarely suffer from such common diseases as nosematosis and European foulbrood.

Basic methods of bee breeding

Apilift is an apiary trolley for transporting hives

It has become very popular now year-round maintenance. But this method involves caring for bees throughout the year.

How to write a beekeeping business plan?

If you decide to start an apiary as a serious business, and not an ordinary hobby, you will need quality business plan.

First of all you need define your goal- opening a private apiary and selling honey. And then you can think about the organizational stage. It consists of the direct purchase of hives, bees and equipment for beekeeping. In addition, you need to take into account additional costs for equipment, as well as special clothing.

At the first stages of work, you can take care of the apiary yourself, but as you expand, you will have to resolve the issue with hiring staff.

Then follows study the market, where it will be possible to sell the goods. It should be noted that in addition to home consumption, honey is also needed in production. Therefore, in the future it will be possible to establish contact with one of the industries.

During the sales process, it is very important to take into account and monitor all financial indicators. This is necessary in order to understand which type of honey is the most profitable, or simply to track sales dynamics. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that beekeeping is seasonal business.

In the end you have to think through everything possible risks so that no force majeure situation takes you by surprise.

The main risks include:

Treating bees with isatizone and oxalic acid

Thus, having a rough business plan, it will be much easier for you to open your own private apiary.

How to sell honey correctly?

The main advantage of honey trading is that the product itself can can be stored for a long time. If you didn’t manage to sell the whole game right away, it’s not so bad.

In addition, profit can be made not only from honey, but also from bee products. Namely from propolis, pollen, royal jelly.

Do you need to register beekeeping as a business?

If you are planning to build official business, then it will be necessary legalize your type of activity. And here special license to engage in beekeeping, no need to receive.

To establish trade, you will need to obtain quality certificates. They are needed if you cooperate with enterprises. But in any case, you need to obtain a veterinary passport. To make your business official, you should choose a taxation system. Most convenient option- This is a single tax.

Is the apiary safe for a beekeeper?

There are several different points of view on this question. First of all, it should be noted that a bee sting contains a certain amount poison - histamine. This substance can provoke severe allergic reactions, which may be accompanied by swelling and inflammation. Before you do, you need to make sure that you are not allergic to bee stings.

However, there is also an opposite point of view. Some beekeepers say that a bee sting can be beneficial. This is explained by the fact that bee venom contains many useful components.

In conclusion, it should be noted that beekeeping as a business is quite profitable. But for this you need to love nature and bees, and also completely devote yourself to what you love. It is possible to make good money from beekeeping, but for this you need to invest a lot of effort and work and never forget about the possible risks.

Honey has long been known for its taste and healing qualities, so there will always be a demand for this product, which means beekeeping as a business is interesting and profitable view activities. To achieve success, an entrepreneur needs to have a good understanding of the specifics of beekeeping, as well as be able to properly organize the work of an apiary and establish sales channels for finished products.

Advantages and disadvantages of beekeeping

The bee business attracts a considerable number of people because it can bring not only good income, but also pleasure. This type of activity is ideal for entrepreneurs living in rural areas, besides, you can start extracting honey without large investments (unlike such an expensive business as, for example, fattening bulls for meat).

Like any other direction, the honey business has a number of advantages and disadvantages. TO positive aspects should include:

• high profitability of beekeeping;
• the ability to independently run a business without hiring staff;
• lack of unified production technology;
• the possibility of combining beekeeping with the main activity;
• affordable cost of apiary equipment;
• comparative ease of obtaining honey and bee waste products.

To organize your own small apiary, an entrepreneur needs to invest up to 30 thousand rubles, and scale his activities as his income increases. As practice shows, the profitability of beekeeping ranges from 30-40%, so it is very promising and profitable (especially for beginners).

Beekeeping on initial stages you can do it yourself. This will allow you not to spend money on staff salaries and invest it in expanding your business in the future. Over time, when the number of hives exceeds 10, you can hire helpers.

A significant advantage of the honey extraction business is the absence of monopolists in this niche. This is due to the fact that most large buyers prefer to purchase apiary products directly from the manufacturer, bypassing supermarkets and other stores.

You don't have to quit your job to start raising bees. This type of activity allows you to combine your business while earning good money. In addition, the process of pumping honey is not particularly difficult, so even an inexperienced beekeeper can handle it with some skill.

Despite the obvious advantages of a “sweet” business, there are still negative aspects that aspiring entrepreneurs should be aware of. First of all, we should highlight the high cost of honey and other bee products. Unfortunately, this fact does not allow us to form a large number of clients. It should also be noted that there is a fairly high level of competition in this niche. The number of beekeepers has especially increased in last years, when there is widespread unemployment in the country, and many people are forced to engage in agricultural activities (growing vegetables, fruits and berry crops, breeding worms at home, cattle breeding, beekeeping, etc.).

Is it profitable to engage in beekeeping?

To understand how profitable it is to breed bees, you should consider the main formats for running this business. Most of the farms are small private apiaries. As a rule, they have several dozen (up to 50) bee families.

This format is ideal for running a home business that can generate a stable income. The hives are mainly located on land owned by the entrepreneur. The benefits for small businesses are obvious:

• minimal labor costs for caring for bees;
• no need to rent space to maintain an apiary;
• ease of selling honey and bee waste products to retail outlets.

Average beekeeping farms contain from 500 to several thousand bee families. In addition to selling its products in retail network, such enterprises have established wholesale distribution channels. The profit of representatives of medium-sized businesses is quite large, however, when working in this format it is impossible to do without serious investments, renting large land plots and availability of staff.

The least widespread are large enterprises, which, in fact, are industrial apiaries containing at least 2.5 thousand bee families. Such beekeeping farms are simultaneously engaged in agricultural activities, growing crops such as buckwheat or sunflower. This approach allows you to get maximum effect from breeding bees that pollinate fields, thereby increasing crop yields. The income of large enterprises can be very large, especially since they are engaged in complex farming.

Since the lion's share of the honey market (producers) is occupied by small private apiaries, we will find out how profitable it is to engage in such a business individual entrepreneurs. Let's consider the approximate income from one beekeeping farm, which has 20 hives.

In one season, a bee colony produces about 40 liters of honey. In turn, 20 families will provide 800 liters of finished products. On the market, 1 liter of honey can be sold for 300 rubles, so the sale of the total volume will bring 240 thousand rubles. The benefit is obvious. In addition to honey, beekeeping farms sell products such as propolis (2,200 rubles/kg), beebread (600 rubles/kg), dead meat (500 rubles/kg), wax (320 rubles/kg) and others. All this sells well, besides, wholesalers themselves offer a good price for them and buy them in large quantities, so there should be no problems with sales. Also, beekeeping as a business can generate additional income if you provide the following services:

• production of equipment (frames, beehives) for sale;
• carrying out excursion tours in the apiary;
• breeding new bee families for sale;
• conducting training sessions for new beekeepers;
• creating and promoting your own website in order to make money through affiliate programs and advertising.

Unlike a business such as pig breeding, the development of an apiary does not require large start-up investments, and, with proper organization and scaling, it can generate good income.

Technology and features of beekeeping

Beginning beekeepers must know that there is no unified technology for operating an apiary, raising insect families and obtaining honey. Each beekeeper works based on his own experience and knowledge. Nevertheless, there are techniques that can significantly increase the honey-bearing power of bee hives.

It is known that in nature bees are capable of uniting in whole swarms. For example, this phenomenon may occur when weather do not promote honey production. By uniting, insects help each other build nests, intensively producing honey. This fact is widely used by many beekeepers to obtain high returns from maintaining an apiary. For this purpose, giant swarms are formed - honey-bearing families, the weight of which ranges from 6-7 kg.

It is not recommended to form honey cakes that weigh more than 8 kg, since after this each insect begins to carry a small amount of nectar, which affects the indicator of honey-bearing power. A family can be created using the following methods:

• inclusion of the second queen bee;
• uniting several bee families;
• strengthening the hive with helper bees (queenless packages);
• creation of artificial swarms (layers).

Please note that honey colonies can only be used for one season, and such colonies are eliminated by winter. As practice shows, it is thanks to the “work” of giant bee families that apiaries collect large amounts of honey.

There is also a technology called anti-swarm technology. It is known that bees actively reproduce during the honey season. This phenomenon can cause serious losses to entrepreneurs, since the honey-bearing power of insects is reduced by more than half. To prevent the apiary as a business from becoming unprofitable, beekeepers take a number of actions at the onset of the honey-bearing period. To do this, insects are given more work in the form of forced construction of new nests (the number of frames in the hive increases). It is also necessary to carefully monitor that the queen is laying eggs well.

Beekeepers use nomadic and sedentary methods of apiary work. In the first case, it is possible to obtain several times more honey, since the hives are located in various places. The transportation time of the apiary depends on the flowering period of various plants, which are pollinated by bees.

The mobile method requires quite a large investment of money, since to implement it you need to purchase specialized transport, as well as constantly look for a new place and pay a lot of money for its rental. With the sedentary method of apiary work, the hives are located permanently in a certain place (for example, on a beekeeper’s plot of land). It has a much smaller effect in terms of the amount of honey collected, however, labor costs are significantly lower. This method appropriate if there are orchards or fields with honey plants.

If you want to make money out of nothing, beekeeping should be considered as a very promising activity. Knowledge of the products of a similar business, from which apiaries have a decent income, will help with this:

1. Honey. There are many different varieties honey that is extracted from the honeycomb. For this, a device such as a honey extractor is used, and the method by which it is extracted is called centrifugal. If honeycombs are pressed to produce honey, it is called press honey.
2. Propolis. This product is obtained by processing the resinous components of various plants by bees. Propolis is a very valuable component of various medicines. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory, diuretic and antibacterial effects.
3. Beeswax. Insects have special glands that produce wax, which serves building material for cell layout. Wax has a number of healing properties and is also used to make cosmetic products.
4. Pollen. This component can be obtained using a special pollen trap. The product is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.
5. Royal jelly. This product looks like a paste. white having a sour taste. This component has excellent bacteriostatic characteristics and is also used in the manufacture of immunostimulants.

In addition to the above products, it is worth noting such a component as bee venom (apitoxin). It is known that bee stings help with a number of diseases, so insects are widely used in medicine.

How to start a beekeeping business?

Let's look at the main stages of starting a business.

Business registration

When registering a bee business, you should indicate OKVED codes. Suitable for this:

• 01.49.11 – “Honey beekeeping”;
• 01.49.12 – “Beekeeping for pollination”;
• 01.49.13 ? "Beekeeping for breeding purposes."

You can also register your enterprise as a personal subsidiary plot. This will allow the entrepreneur not to pay taxes, provided that honey and other products are sold to friends and at fairs.

Finding a place for an apiary

One of the main criteria for running a beekeeping business competently is right choice places for an apiary. Many entrepreneurs at the initial stages of work choose to do this land their country houses or dachas with orchards.

For these purposes, you can also choose a place near fields with honey plants, but this option will require additional rental costs. To obtain excellent quality honey, it is recommended to locate apiaries close to flowering trees. Cherry, linden and acacia are well suited for pollination. Among agricultural crops it is necessary to highlight clover, field herbs and buckwheat.

It is recommended to locate beekeeping farms away from livestock farms. It is optimal to install the hives in such a way that they are located near trees that will create shade and also protect from the wind. As for the placement of hives, they must be placed in rows in a checkerboard pattern. The distance between each row should be about 4 m, and between hives - at least 5 m.

Purchase of inventory

When developing a business plan for bee breeding, it is necessary to calculate the costs of purchasing inventory and equipment for the future apiary. To master all the intricacies of this craft, a novice entrepreneur just needs to buy:

• hives (5 pcs.) – 9 thousand rubles;
• metal stands for hives (5 pcs.) – 1.5 thousand rubles;
• wooden frames (100 pcs.) – 1.5 thousand rubles;
• foundation (5 kg) – 1.5 thousand rubles;
• beekeeper mask and costume – 2.4 thousand rubles;
• beekeeper's equipment (smoker, brush, knife, chisel) – 1.8 thousand rubles;
• honey extractor – 5.5 thousand rubles.

Total - to equip a small apiary with an asset of 5 hives you will need to spend 23.2 thousand rubles. As you can see, the business of maintaining a beekeeping farm does not require large initial investments from entrepreneurs, which distinguishes it favorably from other types of activities.

Purchasing bees

Buying bees causes a number of difficulties for many beginners. First you need to find experienced beekeepers who practice insect breeding and purchase from them required quantity families. Please note that bee colonies must tolerate the climate well in the region where the apiary is planned to be located. Therefore, you should not bring insects from afar, as they will not be able to adapt. By contacting beekeepers in your region, you can not only buy healthy bees, but also receive valuable advice on their breeding.

What do you need to know when choosing a bee colony? When purchasing brood, you should pay attention to the following parameters:

• the amount of bee brood in a particular hive;
• insect activity;
• the state of the floor (bottom) inside the hive.

By the beginning of spring, healthy bees have about 7-9 filled frames inside one hive. If you find gray-white lumps at its bottom, this means that the insect family suffers from ascopherosis, and such a family cannot be purchased.

The health of the bees is indicated by the condition of their wings: if the insects are healthy, they are active and regularly fly far from the hive. It is advisable to purchase bees during the day, since at this time it is easy to assess their health, and if good choice organize the preparation of the swarm for transportation. 5 families of bees can be purchased for 6 thousand rubles.

Beekeeping business plan

Before installing an apiary, you need to draw up detailed business plan beekeeping It will allow you to determine the exact amount of initial investment. Let's look at how to draw up a business plan yourself for organizing an apiary of 5 hives (excluding land rental). To do this, you will need to add up the following expenses:

• purchase of equipment – ​​23.2 thousand rubles;
• purchase of bee colonies – 6 thousand rubles;
• registration of individual entrepreneur – 800 rubles;
• permits from the veterinary service - 7 thousand rubles.

Total - the total amount of initial investment is 37 thousand rubles. Now let’s calculate the approximate income from operating an apiary with 5 hives: 40 (liters of honey from one family per season) * 5 (number of families) * 300 (price of 1 liter of honey) = 60 thousand rubles. Including taxes and purchases Supplies net profit will be 45 thousand rubles. The investment will pay off immediately after selling the honey. In the calculation, we did not take into account the sale of other bee products. According to experts, revenue from this alone is about 25-30% of the total honey sales for the season.

FAQ

Let's look at frequently asked questions on the topic.

Where to sell finished products?

If you plan to open a small apiary, honey and other products can be sold to your acquaintances and friends, as well as to markets and retail stores. There are a large number of thematic sites on the Internet where buyers offer their price for which they are willing to buy honey and other products, and many of them have the opportunity to come to the apiaries themselves and pick up the goods.

Larger enterprises can take advantage of this, but it is much more profitable to sell products directly to retail outlets or cooperate with large buyers, to attract whom the beekeeper can use the following advertising methods:

• banners, banners, billboards and other elements of outdoor advertising;
• contextual and targeted advertising on social networks;
• participation in fairs and exhibitions.

Important: in a business like beekeeping, word of mouth is an excellent tool for attracting customers. If a beekeeper sells tasty and high-quality honey, very soon he will have a large number of regular customers.

Almost every market has retail outlets selling honey and apiary products. It’s worth offering them your products, especially since with an interesting price and good quality you won’t have to look for buyers for a long time. The same offer should be made to retail stores.

Do I need to obtain permits to sell honey?

To open an apiary, an entrepreneur needs to receive a number of permitting documents. They are necessary for breeding bees, as well as for selling honey and other products to retail outlets. First of all, it is recommended to obtain a veterinary passport for beekeeping. It is considered the main document, without which the activity of the apiary is prohibited. It indicates the location of the beekeeping enterprise, as well as:

• data on the veterinary and sanitary condition of the apiary;
• information about laboratory tests;
• conclusions of the disinfection and preventive measures carried out.

In addition to your passport, you need to obtain a certificate with the test results of the honey produced in the apiary and a veterinary report. Without it, the sale of honey will be impossible. You also need to obtain a certificate from the veterinarian, which will indicate data on the number of beekeeping farmsteads.

Beekeeping as a business - reviews

Ivan, 32 years old, Krasnodar:

I have been breeding bees for the 3rd season now. To be honest, at the very beginning I considered this business solely as a hobby, because you can talk about a decent income when you have 50 or more hives. Back in 2015, he opened a small apiary for only 3 bee families. Like most of my “colleagues,” I didn’t think about how to start a business in honey. The first sales were encouraging at first, but I soon realized that I was in the red, because I had to travel out of town and monitor the entire process (which was 2 times a week). We managed to collect 110 kg of honey during the season; there were no problems with its sale, since almost everything was distributed to acquaintances, friends and relatives. The next year, I increased the number of families to 6, thought about my further actions, and I managed to reduce costs and increase profits. Today I have a good additional income, but there are no thoughts of expanding further. As soon as I increased the number of families, certain problems immediately began with the sale of honey, and now I have to literally live in the apiary, because I need to keep an eye on the bees. I want to tell beginners that you can make a good income very quickly, but you should think about whether you are ready to hire people for an apiary and invest money in its development, because you can’t run such a business yourself (unless, of course, the apiary is located at your home ) very hard.

Ivan, 54 years old, Arkhangelsk:

I have repeatedly thought about making extra money by opening my own apiary. I have brother, who lives in Kushnarenkovo ​​(Bashkiria), he has been engaged in beekeeping for about 15 years. Unfortunately, I cannot breed bees, since in Arkhangelsk there are not very suitable climatic conditions for this business. Since the geographical factor plays an important role here, before opening an apiary it is worth considering how this attempt might end.

Beekeeping can be a profitable business for many entrepreneurs that does not require large start-up investments. As a rule, investments quickly pay off in the first season, so you can count on receiving income from the beginning of the next one.

Beekeeping as a business - videos of successful people