Beekeeping For Business or As Hobby

Today, honey and beeswax are produced in large amounts by beekeepers from all over the world. The number of people keeping bees is increasing in the United States, Africa, Asia and many parts of Europe. Beekeeping has its origins from the European Continents but it has been modernized to a large extent since its introduction on the United States. Interestingly, it has not been affected by each cultural system and remains a part of a cultural heritage in many parts of the world.

It is useful to know that honey has been used extensively in religious rituals throughout the ages and during moments of special celebrations, where it is used as a flavoring to add that extra dash of sweetness to any meal. Most Americans who enter beekeeping produce honey to supply the local market and for shipment to countries that do not possess honey bee producers of their own. Most of the American beekeepers do not possess facilities to mass produce their honey products in large quantities to supply to the bigger department stores such as Whole Foods Market.

We are blessed with an advanced technology that enables us to harvest more honey from a single hive, using effective beekeeping techniques, and so we are able to collectively cater for the demands worldwide. The bounty of spring beckons the beekeepers to start producing, as bees are normally inactive during winter and mating season starts in spring, when flowers are abundant for them to feed on. Restaurant owners and restaurants worldwide which use honey in its menu, often gets its supply from the home country.

Beekeepers could be observing hives every 7 to 8 days generally making the weekend the ideal time to do this. Hives don't need a lot of maintaining just an hour a day in the peak season around May to September. A good productive beekeeping season often produces around 60-100 pounds of pure honey for the keepers; you can get a good idea how much money you will be able to make per harvest depending on the market price you get.

The most common beekeeping annoyance to beekeepers during their harvesting and maintenance of the hives are bumblebees; these are the big ugly black and yellow bees that are seen going through the flowers. Bumblebees live underground; they become menace to beekeepers as they swarm and feed on flowers that should preferably be, from the beekeeper's point of view, left for the honey bees. Many beekeepers will migrate the hives, move it to a new place to allow those bees to get access to fresh new supply of flower to feed on. The flowers will determine the type of honey being produced, so when migration of the hives are done, it is good to note what types of flowers are available at the new area to determine the type of honey that will be produced.

Visit: Beekeeping for Beginners to get started in beekeeping.