Honey? I sunk the quids!

Beekeeping is an expensive business. Here's what your average novice might expect to pay in our local beekeeping store for the absolute basics:

• One colony of bees = £200
• Hive to keep bees in = £300
• Bee-suit, smoker, hive tool = £120

Add in a queen marking pen, queen cage, clearer board, Porter escapes, varroa treatment and feeder bucket and you are well on your way to spending £800 just to get started.

And here's the UK average honey yield per hive for last year (2012): 8 lb.

Yes, honey from your local small time beekeeper costs £100 jar to produce!

Okay, I exaggerate. To start with I'm mixing 'fixed' and 'variable' costs and there are economies of scale and if you shop around you can buy kit more cheaply, but on the other hand I haven't costed in the gloves, the jars, the labels and lids, the honey buckets, the honey extractor, the wax extractor, the wax moth treatment, the sieves, the uncapping knife.....and the time.

Still, some of us are better beekeepers than other, right? Last year I took 176 lb off my two hives versus 16 lb for your average Joe. Quids in,you might think.

So here are my results for 2013: Nothing, nada, rien, nichts, or diddly-squatum if you prefer Latin.

I predicted as much in my post of 13th June. My bees simply never got going. They've have ambled along all summer; good natured and healthy enough, but no honey.