Price? Anyone know? Established, 2 deep(10 frame) brood chamber

[Cindi]

I may have to sell several of my colonies.  There may be a move we may engage in and I do not wish to move 9 colonies.  Moving four perhaps, but not all nine.  The distance we may move is in the vicinity of about 400 km.

Healthy colonies, 2 deep (10 frame) brood chambers.  If the colonies are healthy and building up properly in the spring, what is the approximate value of these 2 deep colonies?  These are things I need to ponder and need a little help here.  Have that wonderful and awesome life and day, great healthy wishes to us all.  Cindi

[Irwin]

Why are you thinking about moving.

[KONASDAD]

Cindi- hope the move is for the good...

we pay about $130US for one deep w/ bottom board and migratory top last year.

May I make a sugestion. Find a friend or gardener who wants a few hives for a seasons worth of honey! Or a local farmer who wants free pollination or a new beek who wants to try it before diving in . Just a few ideas...

[Nate]

I hope you don't have to part with your hives, combine them and make 4 deep brood chamber hives :P
as to the value, i've seen some locally for 150$ double deep hive with tele top and sbb.  But, the price is to one's own as the true value of it is the price someone is willing to pay for it.

[Kathyp]

nate might be on to something.  even if you don't combine, can you strap them together and take them?

that's a bit of a move.  which direction are you going??

[BjornBee]

Healthy colonies coming out of winter are much more than some of the prices seen after pollination season or the honey flow is over.

If you were a  new beek, a nuc would be $85 dollars, the equipment for doubles with top, bottoms etc, would be close to a hundred. Throw in the fact that you have all twenty frames drawn, the hive will make honey the first season, and one could even get a pollination fee, all adds up to a great deal. I could easily see someone who understands what they are getting, paying 200 or more. Of course this is all dictated by supply/demand and local market conditions. A beekeeper may recoup all of this expense in one honey season from such colonies. Not bad... :-D (And a smart keeper may split a strong two deep colony and benefit from two hives...just good marketing if your talking to the right person  :-D )

You can set the price a bit high, and add "or best offer" and see where it goes.

[HAB]

If at all possible, I would take them with me.  If I Had to sell, with good clean hardware, drawn comb and a strong colony near the end of winter $200.00 would be my minimum.  With that said, just last Saturday I bought three heavy strong colonies with good looking hardware for $100.00 each and danced all the way home.

[oldenglish]

Here is my guess based on current prices (allow for some depretiation for used equip)

Deep + frames ($50 new, 30-35 used)
Bottom boards and covers (type ?) estimate $20 per hive
Bees, sounds like you could ask for the high end Nuc price, say $130

So you would be looking at about $210 each.
Of course it also depends on local demand, nobody is going to travel hundreds of miles for hives (I dont think)

[Cindi]

Good replies, lots of good food for thought.  I don't think I want so many colonies, when we do move, so I will downsize them.  About the move, this will be short and sweet.  I will talk more about it later.  The move could take place anytime from a few months to a few years, depending on how long it takes to sell our place...  We live in rain (as you can tell by my avitar, hee, hee), getting so sick of no sunshine and nothing but rain, time to get to the central part of my province where there is actually lots of sunshine, and still a good supply of rain too.  We can got weeks and weeks without seeing blue skies, and yep, yep, it can rain for days and days on end, cloud cover most of the time, it does get to you, and that it has done to me.  My oldest Daughter lives up there, my youngest Daughter, Husband and Grandsons are moving up there in a couple of weeks, going to live with my oldest gal til they get settled.  I need my children family, I could not bear to live 450 km from them all, so we are gonna move.  It is time, it is time to get a smaller property, one that I don't have to work almost 365 days a year to make it liveable and nice, as how I like it.  Maybe only one acre, or two, still a place for my barnyard critters and bees, a rancher, those stairs are getting too stairy.  Eeks, ramblin'.....anyways, preparing myself for an eventual move to the land of sunshine and nice hot summers.  Beautiful day, love our wonderful lives, health.  Cindi

Oh Kathy, we would be moving northward, probably eastward as well, up near to a place by the name of Kelowna.  The central interior it is called, the Okanagan Valley.  We may be in a radius of Kelowna 100 km either east, west, north, south, hee, hee.  I am kind of leaning towards a beautiful place called Salmon Arm......that is actually really where I want to be, around a lake called by the name of Shusuap.

[rdy-b]

they should fecth $150-$200-(american)-But what about the rock pile  ;) RDY-B

[asprince]

I have been to Salmon Arm.....you are right, beautiful place.

Steve

[Cindi]

RDY-B.  You're gonna get a kick out of this.  I am pretty sure that I will be moving that rock pile with us, the bees need a landmark, and I have spent too many years throwing rocks to leave them all behind.  Beautiful day in this great life, live it and love it, health.  Cindi

[Irwin]

Maybe now we will know what's under it :evil:

[Melilem]

Jon and I were just discussing this this morning. This summer, between $150 and $200 (from a sellers perspective) would have been good. We were thinking the prices will stagnate or even go down soon, if they havent already.

[Scadsobees]

It all depends on if there are people around that want to buy them.  It is nice and probably fair to try to get $200 per hive, what we think that they are worth, but probably only a beginner is going to pay that, and even then usually would only do one at a time.  The reality of it is that a 2 deep hive is little better than a 1 deep hive which is only a little bit better than a nuc in the spring.

It also depends on how badly you want to get rid of them.  300 miles is a long way, and you already probably will have quite a few trips just for that rock pile, much less all those bees.

I'd shoot for the $200 but be willing to change that quickly and deal depending on your urgency (nobody ever pays full price, right?).  Get as much as you can for them, but depending on your market I'd guess it will only be $100 - $150.

Sun?  We don't need no stinkin' sun!!!

Rick (in sunny michigan)

[Cindi]

Rick, I remember you speaking some time ago about having vacationed in British Columbia (that is why you are aware of the Salmon Arm district, I am sure), very green, very dry, close to that lake, makes for tons of irrigation everywhere.  Oh the rock pile, wonder how much it weighs, my rock pile, in case some of my friends don't know what we are talking about.  I am pretty proud of every rock that I have thrown or lifted onto this pile, this is a life achievement, hee, hee.  All these rocks have come from the vicinity of the apiary, some were pretty big and I had to use the quad to pull them to the pile (guess I wasn't superwoman, after all, hee, hee). 

You may really think I am weird, but I am seriously considering moving that rock pile to our new home, I have my ways.......

Yep, yep, JP, me rock lady......have a wonderful and most awesome day, love our lives we all live and share.  Cindi

August 17.06



May 25.07
Different perspective of the location of my rock pile




December 17.07



August 23.08

[reinbeau]

Cindi, you are a hoot!  Move your rock pile - don'tcha think it will be fun to build another one at your new place?

True story (I don't think I've told this here).  We moved here from Grand Rapids, Michigan when I was very little, seven or so.  The moving van was almost filled up, and we were in the car, ready to go to the train station, when my father said he'd forgotten something.  He skipped up the driveway (he couldn't run, his nickname was Skip because that's how he moved fast - one leg was much shorter than the other) and grabbed the rock that had held the garage door open.  He handed it to the van driver and said to make sure it made it out to Massachusetts.  The van driver, who was from Massachusetts, looked at my father like he was nuts - because he knew Massachusetts was full of the rocks the glaciers had scraped from Michigan!   Once we got to our new home my father understood why the van driver was laughing his butt off at him.  :)

[Cindi]

Ann, what a story about your dear ol' Dad!!!  Rocks can be special things to people, and that one single rock that held open the door, must have had a very special place in the heart.

I am pretty sure that I am going to be bringing these rocks when/if we move.  I will add the next bunch of rocks in my new place to the original ones.  You have no clue the hundreds upon hundreds of rocks that I have looked at closely as I pitched to into the pile, or put them in my pocket, to be added to other special piles and places.  I have encountered some of the most unusual and beautiful rocks (well, they are in my eyes anyways).   I think that I am weird, yes, the more I think about the rocks I have in special places, the more weird I think I am becoming.....I'm gonna show you something in a minute.....hold on.....gotta get that picture....

how about this one?  this is in my bathroom, in a wall recess, that has a light shining upon it.  I have rocks, rocks and more rocks, hee, hee.



There is another one I found a couple of weeks ago, it is really pretty, it looked like it has purple crystal veins in it, very beautiful.  Have a wonderful and beautiful day, Cindi



Yes, I know, I do have a very bad habit of running around, off topic!!!!

[Brian D. Bray]

Cindi, that last picture looks like it might be a shred of dinosaur egg shell.

If you must move, and can find out if and what's required to transport bees across the line, I'll take 2 or more if you really need it.  I'll even re-imburse the inspection fees.

[Cindi]

Cindi, that last picture looks like it might be a shred of dinosaur egg shell.
If you must move, and can find out if and what's required to transport bees across the line, I'll take 2 or more if you really need it.  I'll even re-imburse the inspection fees.

Brian, OK, I think you have officially gone off your rocker!!!  And your imagination has gone to the wild side, hee, hee.  No way on earth could this be a dinosaur egg.  I looked at it more closely and if anything it is some kind of quart with an amethyst vein running through it (amethyst is purple right?).

We are moving.....that is final.  It is just when, that is the big question.  I need to get into a land of sun, not this land of rain.  I think that here in my microclimate, during the 365 days of the year, there may be a total of 5 days of sun a month, if that, and it seems that it is getting much more rainy and dark.  That is not very much sun during the year.  Maybe in the summertime there might be a maximum of 10 sunny days in a month's time.  It really is sad weather.

Now, Brian, if I do decide to not take all the colonies. I will look into this cross-border stuff for you.  I am pretty sure that bees can go to the states, but Canada just does not allow bees to come across our borders.  Not sure, but I will investigate for you (and me.)  have that wonderful and most awesome life and day, Cindi