PARK CITY —
Beekeeping has turned out to be a lucrative agribusiness for Cleo “Whimpy” Hogan.
Most beekeepers raise honeybees for the honey they produce, so they can sell it at retail.
But not Hogan. He’d rather sell the bees than the honey.
“There’s virtually nobody right now who is selling live bees,” he said.
Hogan estimates there are only three to four people statewide who selling live honeybees.
He offers whole, complete beehives for $125 each.
“This last week I put my name on Craig’s List and I’ve already sold three [hives] off of Bowling Green’s Craig’s List. I’ll sell about 100 to 125 this year at $125 a piece, so $12, 000 to $13,000 [a year],” he said. “This is just sideline. Since I’m retired from the Army, it’s just a summer time job. It’s good business.”
Hogan has very little money tied up in his honeybee business.
He makes his own beehives, and the wood he uses comes from scraps area carpenters donate to him.
“The only thing I have in the boxes are the plastic [tops.] I buy them, but other than that, I make everything else in the winter time when I’m not doing anything else,” he said.
The plastic hive tops cost $11 each.
Hogan has been involved in beekeeping since the mid 1990s. He took up beekeeping after becoming concerned about the future of tobacco. He began selling live bees in 2008.
He ordered his bees from the Walter T. Kelley Co. in Clarkson. He began with three pounds of bees, which is about 10,000 to 12,000 bees, plus a queen bee, to get his initial brood stock.
The queen bees Hogan uses cost $18 each, but there are more expensive varieties that can run upwards of $20 to $25 each.
Each hive contains wooden frames where the queen bee lays her eggs and the worker bees produce honey from nectar and pollen they collect from area plants.
Hogan begins with two or three frames of brood stock in a small hive called a nuke or nucleus. Next, he adds the queen bee.
“They will stay in that nucleus for about three weeks until that new queen starts laying. As soon as they’ve been in there for about three weeks, … I’ll transfer them into a regular size hive. It takes about two more weeks and then they are ready for a customer to pick up,” he said.
Customers can move the hives to desired locations in their vehicles, he said.
Hogan raises Italian and Russian honeybees.
“I do have a few Cardovas ... just a different breed. It’s like a herford or angus. It’s whatever people like. I like the three-banded Italian because they are more gentle as a general rule. They are a good honey producer,“ he said.
Most of his better producing hives will produce 10 to 14 gallons of honey per year.
“This year, I’ve harvested one time, and I’ve gotten 160 gallons off my brood stock,” he said, adding that honey is just a byproduct. “I wholesale all most all of my honey in 5 gallon jugs. I’d rather wholesale it in 5 gallons jugs and spend my time selling bees.”
As a commercial beekeeper, Hogan’s operation is inspected once a year by the state.
“I had my inspection back in June. We have a state bee inspector, Dr. (Philip) Craft. He sets up an appointment every year to come inspect me to certify me to able to sell live bees and used equipment,“ he said.
“You can’t sell used equipment legally and then use it commercially unless it has been inspected.”
It is not mandatory for beekeepers to be inspected in Kentucky, unless they are commercial beekeepers.
“If you are not commerical, anybody can have three or four hives in their backyard. If you want to him to inspect you, he’ll come and inspect your hives as a courtesy. It‘s not mandatory yet, but I think it will be,“ Hogan said.
He thinks there will be a time when all beekeepers will be inspected as a means of stamping out disease and other problems that affect beekeeping.
Agriculture
Beekeeping — a different type of farming
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