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 .
Goods for sale ?
29 www . sasmallholder . co . za