# How much time does beekeeping require?



## gunsmithgirl (Sep 28, 2003)

Hi, Just wondering how much time beekeeping requires. I have 18 acres of land I am slowly working towards building on. I would like to keep bees there but I only get to be there on weekends. Is it possible to keep bees if I can only be there on weekends? or do they require every-day attention?


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## sugarbush (Jul 15, 2007)

Having land is a good start. Most of us have many hives and no land I keep my bees on others peoples land. Some of my out yards are an hour away and I only get to them maybe once a month in the summer months and not at all in the winter. If you are organized you can work your hives on any schedual. Really the less you mess with them the better off they are.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

If you have bears or skunks, you will have to keep them from getting to your bees. Otherwise, weekly will be more than enough time.


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

Actually I would offer that it only requires about 25% of the time I spend with them......I would put the minimum required at something like this (assuming an average of 15-30 minutes per hive per month during the summer so this could easily be combined with other tasks at the stead. I would save the bees for last as trust me, you'll want to spend some time with the A/C after working the bees in July LOL. Total time I would estimate at about five or six trips to the apiary per summer. Since my apiary is in the yard by the garden, I usually spend a couple of hours a week out there doing something even if it's just watching them fly.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

In my bee keeping association, there's a long running debate amongst beekeepers as to how much time bees actually require. The "professionals" who do it for money put an awful lot of time into it. The hobbyists do as well. Those of us who just want bees and were looking for crop pollination and extra honey to sell don't spend much time in it at all.

From listening to them, there's not a huge difference in production rates between the people who spend lots of time and the people who spend very little time. My bees are out in the pasture now less than a half mile walk from my house and I only visit them maybe once a month and suit up for a peek inside maybe twice a year. For the labor costs involved versus the production I got out of them, they were the most cost effective thing on my farm.


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## the kid (Jul 9, 2006)

the one thing to watch for is ,,,, addiction ... you may only think you going to spend 30 min to an hour a week ,, working the hive .... If your like me and the grandkids ,, a good chunk of time is spent hand feeding the girls ...
( dip your finger in syurp and get a girl to climb on from the porch ,, and watch it suck up the syurp ) the kids love to watch there tonuge .... or driveing the hive nuts by opening it just to watch what there doing... you learn to let the mean :flame: hives alone .... :nono: :shrug: :nono: 
I think I need a observation hive ..
the kid


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## orpington (Apr 26, 2007)

So it takes not so much time to keep the bees, but a lifetime to savor and enjoy the experience of keeping them!


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