Starting Your Beekeeping Business
Running
a beekeeping business and being a beekeeper who manages honey bees is really an
enjoyable job and with great rewards too. Just imagine how you can enjoy the
sweet and delicious honey every day, while at the same time you’ll get the
benefit of pollination from plants and flowers in nearby gardens. Actually,
your hard working honey bees are doing the essential part of your job, the
collection of honey.You probably know very well a popular phrase that says “he works busy as a bee”. Yes indeed, bees are really hard workers. They collect nectar from surrounding areas that have flowers and put it back into the hives. It goes back and forth doing the same activities the whole day long. In spite of this hard working, they enjoy only a short lifetime of about 35 days. At the end of their lifetime, their wings become weak and they lost their value to the colony and simply die. What a pity bee.
So, why do bees collect honey so hard? They aim to store honey is to assure the availability of food supply during hard times, which is during autumn and winter when the flowers are not blooming. During summer, when the flowers bloom, the bees work hard to collect the honey in excessive amounts, even bigger than what they need and can consume. This will also be a good time for the beekeeper to harvest the honey and sell it at a profitable price.
Beekeepers can sell the honey in two forms. The first one is the liquid honey. This honey is extracted form honey combs using a centrifuge which is called an extractor. The result is a clear and condensed liquid honey that is suitable for cooking or drink sweetener. The second form is the pieces of honey comb. Here the beekeeper sells the original pieces of the wax comb that is made by the bees. This form is a kind of enjoyment to some people that seek for natural honey flavor.
Honey comes in different colors and flavors, since it might be originated from different flowers with different smells. Thus the color, taste and smell are determined by the kind of flower the bees are collecting nectar from.
Soil chemistry is also another factor that establishes the taste and color of honey. Flowers that are planted in dry and alkali soils like alfalfa are more likely to produce whiter to clearer honey. While flowers from a more acid soil like buckwheat produces a darker color of honey
Another factor that determines the color and taste of honey is the quality of the honey comb made by the bees. Different quality may produce different honey color such as golden to red color.
When it comes to producing a commercial honey product make sure that you follow the rules of proper processing, labeling and handling of food products as stipulated by your state and federal regulations. Please be aware that beekeeping is also a real business with a set of regulation from your local government that you as a beekeeper should comply to.
Being a competitive product, honey products need some touch of marketing management to be applied for the success of your business. Beekeeping may be your hobby in the beginning, but with your success in quality honey production, your hobby turns to be a profitable business. This is where you should treat your beekeeping hobby as a real business. Go for it, and be a success!
