Bee Log #86

A beekeeper in Akron, Ohio wrote and asked about our business model and said that he was interested in doing something similar in his city. I realized as I wrote my reply that my husband and I had learned a lot about city beekeeping in the few years that we have been involved. My reply to that beekeeper is below.

Dear ******,
I am glad to hear that you are interested in city beekeeping. We have 35 hives in about 10 locations including 2 nearby farms. We have found that the amount of driving involved really cuts into our profits. It is difficult to break even. I would suggest that you concentrate on one area of your city for beehives. It also helps if you can keep 4 to 10 hives in any one location. Check with city ordinances for the number of hives that can be kept in any single location.

Security is a prime concern on vacant lots. You will need some kind of protection from vandalism like a big cyclone fence or video surveillance. Swarms are a neighborhood event and can be very scary for those who do not know what is happening. Neighborhood education can really help with that.

Be really careful about selecting a queen breeder. Aggressiveness in bees is a genetic issue and the queen source can make a big difference. Don't get bees from Texas. Use a trusted source. You want gentle bees in the city. Re-queen any hives that show highly aggressive tendencies.

Before you get lots of hives, consider how you will market your honey. When we got 4 hives, we suddenly had far more honey than we knew what to do with. At that point, we started selling honey once a week at a local farmers' market. You could do that or you could sell from your front yard if the city allows it or you could market to local organic type groceries. We like the direct contact with customers and the profits we can get from direct sales. All our honey sells rapidly and we usually sell out before Christmas.

We use a 6 frame radial extractor from Maxant (based in Massachusetts) with a motor drive. This small extractor keeps up ok for now. We use a hot knife to uncap the frames. We bottle by hand from food grade plastic buckets with a honey gate. If you do not have an extractor, check with your local beekeeping club. They may have one you can rent.

We have kept bees for about 6 years. We started when our daughter studied bees for a college course and she thought we might like the hobby. We started selling honey 5 years ago. Our business really started taking off last summer when we found people coming to our small farmers' market just for our honey. We do not make a whole lot of money at this because the expenses are too great but we have a whole lot of fun and meet some great people.

Bee Log #16: March 15, 2010

Honey bee on ornamental pear. Taken 3/15/2010

I have a question for my readers. Should we change our name to Seattle Urban Honey? We will have bees in Queen Anne, Fremont, Green Lake-Wallingford, Northgate and Bothell. If you are reading this please take a minute to let me know what you think.


The bees are flying. Some maple are putting out buds. The season for honey collection may be really early this year if the maple blooms this early.

We are trying to get the rest of our hive parts so we can get them painted, set up and ready before the bees arrive April 17. The sellers of bee-ware must be very, very busy if they can't stop to fill a rather large order. Perhaps there is a shortage of merchandise due to the great interest in backyard beekeeping. I don't know why we can't get the goods pronto and I shouldn't speculate ahead of the facts.

We are set to put hives in 6 yards in north Seattle. 12 packages of bees are arriving shortly. We need hive parts! NOW, PLEASE!

I have located a firm that sells product liability insurance. I had no idea where to look for that product and did not want to call just anybody. I guess I needed a referral from a trusted or at least known person. The broker that handles our home owners insurance had a knowledgeable agent. He did not even seem to be thrown by a backyard beekeeping business in the city that sells at Farmers' markets. I got a City of Seattle license. I registered the name "Seattle Urban Honey" with the state. I got a resale certificate so I don't have to pay sales tax on jars . Anything else?