This video is the first in a series of videos about how to start and run a profitable beekeeping business.

In this video I talk about and share photos of my journey to becoming a beekeeper.

But first

This may seem obvious, but many people start beekeeping thinking they will quit their job and run a bee business. First, try beekeeping and make sure you like it and you can successfully keep them alive!

My Start to Beekeeping Couldn't Have Gone Worse

I ordered a package of bees and built one top bar beehive. I installed the package of bees, released the queen a few days later and a week after the entire hive had absconded. I couldn't find another farm with bees for sale so late in the spring and had to wait until the next year to order more bees.

My second year, went a little bit better. I ordered two packages of bees and they both stayed through the spring and summer. Unfortunately, both died over winter.

After that winter I was left with the question, "Should I keep going or am I going to just kill my bees again?"

That winter I took a trip to Hawaii and learning about wwoofing. It's a work exchange program for people interested in working for a farm. I found a farm on the Big Island of Hawaii with a beekeeping wwoffing opportunity. A few months alter, I flew back to Hawaii to spend 6 months working as the beekeeping intern for an apiary. 

At this internship, I learned how to properly care for bees - deal with mites and small hive beetles, harvest honey, inspect a hive, requeen, split hives and breed queens. I learned how to help my bees thrive and be heatlhy.

While working for the farm, I also got a job working for another apiary 30 miles away. This apiary wasn't interested in hiring me to work as a beekeeper, but they had a sister business that packed honey and sold it in smaller jars, and they needed someone who knew about bees to work in their farm shop as a cashier.

As a cashier, I was still able to go out with the beekeepers from time to time to help with tasks like requeening the yards. I also started an apiary at the farm shop where we gave tours and opened a live beehive for general public to watch. I also saw how much work went into running an apiary with thousands of hives and how much honey you have to harvest in order to make a decent income and I knew that was not for me. What I did enjoy was giving the beekeeping tours and teaching people about bees and the hive.

I cannot stress enough how helpful it was working for an apiary before starting one of my own. 

The apiary I worked for not only showed me how to run a bee business and all the work that goes into it, but I also found out where the gaps in the market were. They told me that they get calls for comb honey often, but can't fulfill the request because no one wants to do comb honey. When I decided to start building my own apiary, I did comb honey because I knew I would have a client to buy it from me right away.

I worked for this apiary for 7 years, giving beekeeping tours, working in the warehouse for the honey-packing company and going out to the bee yards with the beekeepers. 

I then decreased my time to working part-time and selling my honey part0time.

I was able to finally quit my job and work for myself as a beekeeper when I found a second source of income other than selling honey. 

My second source of income as a Beekeeper

A hotel near me contacted me inquiring if I could take care of their bee hives. They paid me a monthly fee and in exchange I came to their property and took care of their bees. This gave me a monthly income and allowed me to quit my job and have an income I could depend on.

From this one client, I contacted other hotels and businesses and began to get a few businesses interested in having me keep bees for them.

And that is how I went from hobby beekeeper to full-time, self-employed keeper of bees!

Thanks for watching!