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BEEKEEPING
The arithmetic of a small-time Gauteng beekeeping operation
An article in our regular series on bees and beekeeping by Peter Clark , veteran beekeeper and chairman of the Eastern Highveld Beekeepers Association
Beekeeping is a way of farming similar to any other farming venture : it is governed by the weather , good management and continual hard work . The bees are your work force , your employees and need to be cared for and kept up to a good working strength . Therefore you are the boss in a partnership with millions of workers . But unlike unionised human workers , they are always eager to work from early light to dark every day of the year . There are no public holidays and no demands for increases in pay every six months . And , in a good nectar flow season they will even work overtime , deep into the bright moonlight . There are three types of beekeeping :
# SAFoodCrisis
From page 23
And he has been most handsomely rewarded for his efforts . Before he retired recently his salary was R100 million a year . And when he retired , his fellow directors thought it a fine idea to vote him a small retirement present . Of R1,7 BILLION . Not surprisingly the largest institutional investor in the Shoprite – Checkers group , Allan Gray , took a dim view of this . Butthepointisthatifthose are the sorts of number being
❑ The pure hobbyist who keeps up to five hives in his back yard and enjoys an abundance of honey for his family and his friends , ❑ The beekeeper who keeps up to 100 hives . This will constitute a good paying hobby . He enjoys good pocket money , does not count his costs and keep going in a merry way . ❑ There is the commercial beekeeper , with 500 hives plus . He has to specialise to keep the boat afloat and practice good management skills . He will employ trained semi-skilled assistant staff . And he will have the headaches and heartaches of any other farmer . Commercial beekeeping is not a quick-fix-get-rich venture . It entails hard work for which one needs to be fit ,
Continued on page 27
bandied about the boardrooms of the big food retailers , something is mightily wrong , and South Africans in the street can be sure in the knowledge that they are being royally screwed food price-wise . This is one of a series of articles and comments by Pete Bower , publisher , on the state of South Africa ’ s food industry as it affects farmers and consumers . Other articles in this series appeared in the July , August and September editions .