# Easy Money!! Easy Money!!



## bearkarting (Mar 13, 2013)

If it was easy everyone would be doing it. :banana:


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## MichaBees (Sep 26, 2010)

LOVE it....


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Put ur money in ur wallet and it won't blow around like that....


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

That money would come a whole lot easier if you kept your hives right side up. Where'd you learn beekeeping?


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## stajerc61 (Nov 17, 2009)

That looks more like a " sideliner" to me.


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## khicks12 (Feb 28, 2012)

Are you kidding? There's LOTS of money in beekeeping . . . most of it is MINE!


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## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

khicks12 said:


> Are you kidding? There's LOTS of money in beekeeping . . . most of it is MINE!


Now THAT is a truly brilliant statement!


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

Well Harry, things can always get worse....
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/loggermike/100_0687.jpg

(Not mine, John Millers)

So what happened?


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## westernbeekeeper (May 2, 2012)

Ooooof! I suppose I have seen worse, but still can't be fun.


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## westernbeekeeper (May 2, 2012)

loggermike said:


> Well Harry, things can always get worse....
> http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/loggermike/100_0687.jpg
> 
> 
> > What are we looking at here?!?


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## ScoutBee (Feb 25, 2011)

That doesn't look like a good way to move hives Harry. I'd go back to using the hot rod.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

loggermike said:


> Well Harry, things can always get worse....
> So what happened?


Just another day in paradise Mike!
Actually, I had about 300 hives in radish with this grower. One day my cell phone rings and he says,"Harry,,,,I have something to tell you".
I knew instantly that this was not going to be good news.
The irrigation gun that you see in the picture got off the gunway and snagged a strap on a pallet.
The gun then drug that pallet along until it made contact with the next pallet and the next, and the next rolling them over on their side, tops, twisting and mangeling a total of 24 hives (six pallets).
The first thing I thought of upon viewing the mess as I drove up was a brand new thread that someone had started on this forum that morning dreaming about becoming a commercial beekeeper.
So I called my daughter and asked her to come out and shoot some pics.
It was about 95 deg F and humid that day.
Easy money, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasy money!!


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## mnbeekeeper (Jun 30, 2010)

i feel your pain harry i feel your pain. logger mike what happend there in cali almonds was it vandals. bears? do tell.

also i see how his pallets are set up that the hives dont have a entrance close to each other. its opposite front to back on each hive on the pallet. i have wondered if that is a big problem when two big hives are close together and hanging on the front. seems like it would be better to keep them opposite. to help prevent fighting and spread of other problems. what have you all got to say about that.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

Easy money? More like easily spent and easily broke.


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## westernbeekeeper (May 2, 2012)

Btw: Harry, I love your tagline.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Going to have to re paint those perfect looking hives, there will be scuff marks on them now!


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## The Honey Householder (Nov 14, 2008)

That is why I stay away from pollination jobs. I keep all my hives in the woods so only trees can smash them.:lookout:


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## jdmidwest (Jul 9, 2012)

Looks like you are going to have to invest in heavier straps. There goes the profit margin again.


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

Sorry Harry, Sounds like it was 'worse'! 

The deal with Millers hives was a spray rig snagged it and dragged it.Someone should start a thread called 'Hits I have taken while getting rich(or broke) in the bee business' or something like that. Sometimes it seems like everything is out to 'get' the bees.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

loggermike said:


> Sorry Harry, Sounds like it was 'worse'!
> 
> The deal with Millers hives was a spray rig snagged it and dragged it.Someone should start a thread called 'Hits I have taken while getting rich(or broke) in the bee business' or something like that. Sometimes it seems like everything is out to 'get' the bees.


Sounds like a good idea, I'm sure everyone has a horror story in them. When disaster strikes!!!


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

CCD, Pesticides, Mites, Nosema, Crappy Queens, Poor Nutrition; What other easy, easy, issues contribute to the annual waterfall of cash that commercial bee keepers enjoy?

















So, you deliver strong, healthy hives into a crop and when you return to check what do you find?
Well,,, I'm not sure what you find.
Some idiot, loser has (no it was not a bear) cut your straps and thrown boxes, kicked over boxes, rolled boxes.
But they took nothing.
WHY? No one knows.
But of course, it was during a rainy period. So by the time you caught it your bees are in poor shape.
EASY MONEY!! EEEEEEEEEEEEASY MONEY!!


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## NewJoe (Jul 1, 2012)

I'm working on my second million dollars that I am making from beekeeping........I GAVE UP ON THE FIRST MILLION!


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

Good thing that didnt happen in a month or so when all you commercial guys are in Europe or in the middle of the Pacific on a fancy cruise ship. What would you have done then?
Count your blessings!


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## minz (Jan 15, 2011)

I got my first call like that this year, maybe I am going to be big time like Harry!
‘Sorry to bother you but the water trailer with totes of water broke free on the way through the gate and ran over your hives. I had to dump the water to get the trailer out of the hole do you want to come out now or wait until morning?’
what a mess.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

"...I will tell a story and it is a true one. A number of years ago a man came to see me who was conductor on a passenger train. He had held that position for 25 years and had laid up some money. He said, "I think I have served the people long enough as I have worked hard as conductor. I have about decided to buy a little farm and about 500 colonies of bees and just take life easy and let the bees work for me. What do you think of it?" I replied, "As conductor you just think you've been working. Now if you want to know what work really is you get 500 colonies, do all the work yourself, then you will realize that as conductor you just thought you were working." He insisted there could not be much work caring for bees. All there was to it, you just put on the supers and when filled take them off and people would come running for the honey. He may have been reading an advertisement of a supply manufacturer that ran something like this, "Costs little to start. Practically all profit. No experience needed. Very little work," etc."--Jay Smith, Better Queens

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbetterqueens.htm#The Question of Mating Hives


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

That must be a well known story Micheal. My friend was telling me about that one too. Unfortunatley, since all this media hype on the bees, every man and his foolish thoughts come running out to "strike it rich" making "easy money" in the "soft cushy job" of beekeeping.

We have a fella here local who has thought the same way. He hasn't a clue how to keep bees or whats involved to keep them alive through the winter let alone produce a crop and this year he has just found out that he is riddled with EFB. Thankfully he's not near my yards.

I think we will see an increase in various diseases like this from people who want to do there part in keeping bees. They are well meaning but very uneducated.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

There are folks here on beesource who say it cost nothing to get into beekeeping. That's nothing new. There are even people who start Threads like I wanna be a commercial beekeeper. Sorry, but my attitude is that they probably don't know what they are talking about. Those new boxes and new trucks are not as easily come by as they seem to those who don't know.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

chillardbee said:


> he has just found out that he is riddled with EFB.


Hang on to your shorts.... your going to be hearing alot more of this in the furture.


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

Keith Jarrett said:


> Hang on to your shorts.... your going to be hearing alot more of this in the furture.


Sorry I'm derailing.
Hearing more of EFB or beekeepers getting in over thier heads?
Is EFB becoming more prevalent ? 
How is it identified early and treated?


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## VolunteerK9 (Aug 19, 2011)

Those pics made me nauseous and they arent even mine.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

One year I had 3 loads of bees pollinating carrots 185 miles from home in the desert.
When your bees are released the first thing is to confirm that they will be acsessable when you get there.
"Hey, this is Harry Vanderpool! I need to pull the bees out of field #25 tomorow. Is the coast clear?"
The grower answers, " It's a freeway!"
" O.K, I will pull them out tomorrow evening!"

The mud was 10" deep and the water was still on when I arrived.
Easy money! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasy money!!


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Where's that hot rod at Harry? I was hoping for a pic of a twenty foot roster tail behind ole blue flame.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Easy money, easy money. Yep...........Right!!!!!!!!...........?


This new and upcoming trend in beekeeping about being horizontally integrated needs be better defined before people take it to seriously like you have. That or it looks like the top bar hive people from the "natural" forum are trying to help "convert" you.

As the old song goes: Nothing like a little help from my friends...........And here I thought I was the only one who found out that "bears" happen to drive tractors like a drunken sailor on his first day of leave. :scratch:


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

"Nothing like a little help from my friends."? Was that by the Rowling Beetles?


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## GuyDurden (Jan 16, 2013)

Who/where was it implied that it would be easy money? or easy work? Not sure I found that thread...


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

LOL Harry,

Reminds of a few conversations I had with our farm manager....

"Hi, we're going to be harvesting the next few days, please do no irrigate the field..." Sure thing they reply, show up at 5:30am the next day and watch the crew slip and slide in the first 10 feet of mud for 5 minutes before calling it a day......


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

> Who/where was it implied that it would be easy money? 

Here's a thread that covers some _unrealistic expectations_.  And the phrase "_easy money_" is explicitly mentioned in at least one post.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...ekeeper-make-in-a-year-owning-100-hives/page4

:gh:

.


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## Waterbird17 (Apr 30, 2012)

its really easy were just a bunch of complainers


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## Honey Hive Farms (Nov 1, 2012)

Honey Hive Farms,

Who said it was easy work, taking care of that many girls,,, really
Then you have mother nature, she can be very mean..
And then there is farther time, again not a nice guy...

You must love it to do it and be successful..with a little luck.

Tim Moore


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Honey Hive Farms,
Why do you open every Post w/ "Honey Hive Farms,"? We know who Posts each Post. It's right there in the heading. Just like mine says "sqkcrk".

It just seems to me like you are writing each Post to yourself.


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## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

A couple of years ago I spoke about something at a bee meeting and afterwards a gal walked up and said, "I've been thinking a lot lately about putting out bees for a job."
I just stood there for a second trying to decode her statement and then said, "Put out bees?"
"Yes", she said. "Putting bees out in farmers fields and charging them, like you do".
Trying really ,really hard to be as polite as I possibly could, I said, "Maam, PUTTING OUT BEES is about 1/2 of one percent of what my job entails".
Right there I decided to make a new powerpoint presentation entitled, WHAT IS BEEKEEPING.
That presentation goes behind the scenes with many of the tasks we perform that the general public hasn't the foggiest clue about.
Speaking of which; next time you roll into a crop with your $80,000.00 truck and your $40, 000.00 forklift and trailer and bees and are thinking about your pollination fee,; Most people that show up with $126,000.00 worth of equipment and materals at a job site; WHAT DO THEY CHARGE?


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## GuyDurden (Jan 16, 2013)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> > Who/where was it implied that it would be easy money?
> 
> Here's a thread that covers some _unrealistic expectations_.  And the phrase "_easy money_" is explicitly mentioned in at least one post.
> 
> ...



Thanks haha. I posted that question because I was curious if all the guys commenting on people that started threads called "I want to be a commercial beekeeper" 

I did, you probably saw it. What I didn't understand was if I had somehow implied that I wanted to roll out into the beeyards wearing brand name clothes and a brand new car. Cuz I sure didn't mean to come across like I wanted to get "rich" (monetarily). There was another one or two threads entitled the same way that were started a lil after mine so who knows what they said. 

I just meant that I think I have found what I would like to work towards not what I wanted to get "rich" from....lol

t: :lookout:


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

GuyDurden said:


> I just meant that I think I have found what I would like to work towards not what I wanted to get "rich" from....lol
> 
> t: :lookout:


if you wonder why commercial beekeepers give other "newbee" beekeepers a hard time when they ask basic financial questions, is because the math is simple and plain as can be. Just do the math and you aint coming ahead most of the time when you put all the figures in. Most of the math I see is only the top end of the equation. 

How do commercial beekeepers do it? They cut costs and work twice as hard as anyone else I know. They build their business from the bottom up with sweat equity, scrape by with what they can afford and work throughout the production season without any relief or break. How much do you like your weekends? Hope not very much. 
In time the equity catches up, men get hired, that sore back gets relief and you find out what everyone meant by "long weekend"


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## Crsswift70 (Sep 9, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> Honey Hive Farms,
> Why do you open every Post w/ "Honey Hive Farms,"? We know who Posts each Post. It's right there in the heading. Just like mine says "sqkcrk".
> 
> It just seems to me like you are writing each Post to yourself.


 It's advertising without actually having to pay any fees. Plus, it's the same method politicians use to make their name stick in your head. You read it enough times, you'll never forget it.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

dead on Crsswift70:
do a google search in a couple of days and HHFarms will begin to show up regularly.
In the mean time I'll (we'll) have to put up with this annoying game. Usually these posters show up out of nowhere, post a ton, then disappear. 
If I'm wrong, maybe HHfarm can answer sqkcrk's question.


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## DLMKA (Feb 7, 2012)

clyderoad said:


> dead on Crsswift70:
> do a google search in a couple of days and HHFarms will begin to show up regularly.
> In the mean time I'll (we'll) have to put up with this annoying game. Usually these posters show up out of nowhere, post a ton, then disappear.
> If I'm wrong, maybe HHfarm can answer sqkcrk's question.


Seems to be post padding, lots of recent posts with 1 brief sentence with very little substance.


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## marios (Nov 20, 2012)

i think you have said it all ian, if you don't like work don't be a beekeeper


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## Father & Sons Apiary (Sep 4, 2013)

Got a call at night today from my farmer he said a bear came knocked down a few hives, I came in the morning and there was that bear eating honey and scratching the frames I called the farmer quikly and he shot him easy money easy money and 67 hives got knocked down ;(


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

The Farmer needed you to witness the shooting of the bear?


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## Father & Sons Apiary (Sep 4, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> The Farmer needed you to witness the shooting of the bear?




No its just the bear left when he found out one of the nieghboors called


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

sqkcrk said:


> The Farmer needed you to witness the shooting of the bear?


SQKCRK? Not sure if this helps or not but I think we need to cut this Father and Sons "guy" a little slack. After reading his posts I have come to the conclusion that I doubt English I this persons native language. If it is the whole education system needs a major revamp for sure. He's trying hard but the sentence structure and punctuation are not of the best quality which makes getting his point across a difficult task.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I can understand him just fine. I just thought it was strange that the Farmer called him and then shot the bear, rather than the other way around. Some hives might have been saved. Just like when I had my Honey House fire. My neighbor saw it and came down and told me about it, rather than calling the Fire Dept themselves. The 15 or 20 minutes might not have saved much, but maybe something. Like he needed my permission?


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## Father & Sons Apiary (Sep 4, 2013)

sqkcrk said:


> I can understand him just fine. I just thought it was strange that the Farmer called him and then shot the bear, rather than the other way around. Some hives might have been saved. Just like when I had my Honey House fire. My neighbor saw it and came down and told me about it, rather than calling the Fire Dept themselves. The 15 or 20 minutes might not have saved much, but maybe something. Like he needed my permission?)
> 
> At least the bear wont cause anymore damage thats all i care about!
> 
> to Honey-4-All its bee source-for-all


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## mbevanz (Jul 23, 2012)

I lived in Philomath 10 years and don't remember a single day of 95 degrees or any humidity in Summer. Now that 40 degree humidity I remember well.


HarryVanderpool said:


> Just another day in paradise Mike!
> Actually, I had about 300 hives in radish with this grower. One day my cell phone rings and he says,"Harry,,,,I have something to tell you".
> I knew instantly that this was not going to be good news.
> The irrigation gun that you see in the picture got off the gunway and snagged a strap on a pallet.
> ...


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Years ago, before I was palletized I got a call at about 9pm from a landowner telling me that they were going to be taking out the trees that my bees were in early the next morning. He thought maybe I could just run out there and load up my hives so they would be gone the next morning when the dozen showed up. They were about 3 deeps high and just beginning a nice honeyflow. At sunup the next morning my hired man and I moved all 30+ hives. Some of the heavier hives we had to break apart and move in pieces. Fun times.


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## rryahaloms (Feb 2, 2015)

chillardbee said:


> Easy money? More like easily spent and easily broke.


In my experience there is no easy money anywhere...


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

rryahaloms said:


> In my experience there is no easy money anywhere...


There is elap.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Keith: Don't get me going on that route. Every year the wonderful ladies at the local FSA office hound me about filing out my paperwork so all four of us can get our $37 "Wheat" check. The overhead and paperwork costs to get us that 150 bucks must be at least 2x the amount issued. Drives me nuts since we have only had wheat on the place one time in 20 years..... But still the wheat checks keep coming.????????????



When the last person holding the last dollar in the US turns out the lights I sure hope they cut it into a billion pieces... Gotta make sure all those folks in China who are helping to fund the 18 trillion will all get their cut when the piper shows. They most surely are going to want to get repaid!!!




For those old enough to remember the days of when hitch hiking was all the rage it reminds me of the old bumper sticker that used to be on nearly every other car in the 60"s. "GAS, Grass, Or AZZ...... No one rides for free........."

The rule still applies today......... Unfortunately many in Congress think it does not apply to them.


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