Business plan: apiary, bee breeding

A business plan for an apiary is drawn up before purchasing the necessary equipment. Beekeeping is a business like any other and is subject to the same economic laws. If you do not have the necessary funds for an apiary, a business plan will be useful for obtaining a loan from a bank.

Apiary profitability: is it worth starting?

The market in Russia is not even saturated with beekeeping products yet. This niche is still more than half empty. The apparent abundance of honey is provided by imported beekeeping products. This is usually Chinese honey. It's cheap, but of very low quality. The Russian beekeeper will have to compete with this product due to quality.

The profitability of the apiary will be high if it is taken seriously. Business processes in beekeeping are still impossible to automate. This is monotonous manual labor.But it also brings good income, if you are not lazy.

An apiary business can bring in up to 4 million rubles annually. But this is the amount from which all expenses will have to be deducted. You will also have to engage in retail trade yourself. When handing over beekeeping products to resellers, the income from the apiary must be immediately divided by 2 or more.

Step-by-step business plan for bee farming

In fact, a business plan is not a “what to do if I want to start beekeeping” guide. A business plan is a calculation that allows you to see in advance whether a particular type of activity will be profitable. A business plan is drawn up before starting any business. At the same time, they study the sales market and draw up a business plan no longer in the abstract, but in relation to a specific place, as well as time and demand.

In beekeeping, they first look at market prices. Afterwards, the novice beekeeper needs to evaluate his site: whether it is suitable for an apiary. If your own plot for an apiary is not suitable, you need to find and rent a suitable one.

Before renting, you need to decide what type of business activity to choose and register the appropriate enterprise. After registration and clarification of the situation with the site, an apiary is built. They buy equipment and supplies for it. After this, you can already buy bee colonies and actively engage in beekeeping.

Registration and taxation

You can engage in beekeeping and not pay taxes, but you will have to forget about the nomadic apiary. A stationary apiary will significantly reduce income with almost the same amount of work. In this case, private household plots are registered.

Law dated July 7, 2003 No. 112-FZ “On personal subsidiary farming” and paragraph 13 of Article 217 of Chapter 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation allow the maintenance of an apiary by individuals on their own plot, provided:

lack of hired labor in the apiary;
availability of documents for the apiary;
if the apiary does not extend beyond the boundaries of the site.

Standard for a personal plot: 50 acres. The maximum size to which it can be increased is 250 acres.

Theoretically, even 50 acres should be enough for an apiary for 150 hives and the necessary buildings. Considering that the business plan assumes an apiary for 50 hives, the minimum size is sufficient and you will not need to pay taxes. But this will impose other restrictions: beekeeping products cannot be sold on the market independently.

If things go well and you want to increase your apiary or sell beekeeping products yourself, it makes sense to register as an individual entrepreneur.

Individual entrepreneur: why is it needed?

This legal status already involves the payment of taxes. In the case of selling honey through your own retail outlet, when registering an individual entrepreneur, it is better to choose the single tax regime on imputed income. The amount of this tax depends on the area of the outlet. The fee is fixed and no cash register is needed. With this form of business, it is better to choose OKVED code 52.27.39.

If you do not plan to independently sell beekeeping products, it is better to choose another code - 01.25.1, which means that the business will be bee breeding. In this case, you can choose one of two types of taxation: Unified Agricultural Tax or simplified taxation system for income. In the first case, you will need to pay 6% of the profit. But this is inconvenient for a private beekeeper, who often buys the necessary materials without a receipt. The simplified tax system for income is simpler from an accounting point of view: 6% of income. And there is no need to maintain full-fledged accounting with debit and credit.

Important! The second option is beneficial if the apiary brings high profits.

Rent of land

The most uncertain point that cannot be calculated in a business plan. It all depends on the diplomatic skills of the businessman and the greed of the owner of the site. Theoretically, agricultural firms should only be glad that their fields will be pollinated by bees, and provide plots for apiaries for free. And sometimes you have to pay extra if the plants themselves don’t pollinate. In reality: how to reach an agreement. From free placement of an apiary to high rent.

Equipment and inventory

In addition to the obvious: beehives and a honey extractor, an apiary also requires other equipment, which beginners think little about. But this mandatory “trifle” must be taken into account when drawing up a business plan:

beekeeper costume;
spare frames for hives;
smoker;
a grate or glass for flammable material in the smoker;
knife for cutting honeycombs;
mother catcher;
box for carrying frames;
pollen catcher, if you plan to sell pollen;
beekeeping chisel
propolis collector;
stand for storing printed frames;
honey filter;
hive dividing grid;
transportation for bees;
intra-hive feeder;
brushes for cleaning hives.
other inventory.

You may also need a gas burner and cylinders for it, an electric steamer or a steaming roller, or some other, at first glance, non-obvious things.

Apiary equipment is usually inexpensive, around 1000 rubles. But for everything together, when writing a business plan, you can safely set aside 20,000 or more. Of the above, the most expensive are: stand for honey frames and transportation for bees.

A table for opening honeycombs is expensive. Its price is 8-10 thousand. But this device can perfectly replace a baby bath or a regular basin.

Beehives and honey extractor

The cost of hives complete with frames today is 4000-6000.The second major purchase will be a honey extractor, the average price of which is 20,000.

Purchase of bee colonies

It is better to purchase bee colonies from nurseries where purebred bees are bred. When considering the purchase of a colony of bees in your business plan, you should take into account that they are usually sold by young, small families. Such colonies will not produce profit in the first season. But their cost is small - 2000 rubles.

Large, strong colonies are usually not available for sale. Unless someone liquidates their apiary. It is more profitable to use a strong family for producing honey or obtaining cuttings for sale.

Service staff

Even though an apiary is a rather difficult task with completely manual labor, it is not profitable to hire a hired worker for 50 hives. The hottest time in the apiary, when it is better not to waste days, is early spring and autumn. In the spring, the colony needs to be put into operation quickly; every day is expensive here. Autumn is less stressful. After pumping out the honey, all work in the apiary can be done gradually.

In summer, bees are often not recommended to be disturbed, and even an apiary for 100 colonies can be managed by 1 person. The hives are inspected every 2 weeks. 10 hives per day – 10 days for inspection, 4 for rest. The grass in the apiary should be mowed as needed, and not every day.

Hiring people is unprofitable not only because of taxes, but also because of salaries. When officially hired, the amount offered to the employee must be multiplied by 2. The second half of the “salary fund” will go to the employee’s social security payments.

An apiary of 50 hives does not require hired employees at all. In the spring, you can ask family members for help.

Sales of products

In order not to pay taxes and not waste time, honey can be handed over to resellers. But if now the retail price of honey is at least 300 rubles. per kg, then selling it to resellers is more expensive than 150 rubles.it won't work. Even in a very prosperous year, the revenue from 50 hives in this case will be: 50x40x150 = 300,000.

If you have your own place, honey can be sold at a higher price. With revenue of 600,000 rubles. you will need to pay 6% tax. That is, 36,000 rubles. There will be 564,000 rubles left in hand.

Important! In addition to honey, you can sell more expensive bee bread.

Possibility of additional income

Even if you sell honey yourself, the income from an apiary with 50 hives will be small: about 47,000 rubles. per month. If the beekeeper is single, this may be enough for him to live and maintain his business, but the family will require more. Therefore, it is worth including sources of additional income from beekeeping in your business plan. It can be:

by-products;
apitherapy;
provision of pollination services for greenhouses;
sale of queens and bee families.

The last three are unlikely to be truly profitable. There is no point in taking them into account in a business plan.

Sales of other beekeeping products

By-products of beekeeping mean:

bee bread;
wax;
royal jelly;
drone homogenate;
propolis;
dead

Among beekeeping by-products, beebread brings the maximum income. She also has the largest exit from the hive. The retail price of bee bread is 4000 rubles/kg. Although today you can already find bee bread on sale on the Internet for 2,000 rubles. The average yield of this product per hive is 15 kg.

Important! Beekeeping plans should include the sale of beebread.

It is not difficult to obtain this beekeeping product, it is easy to store, and it brings in even more income than honey.

The collection of royal jelly is carried out under the strict control of sanitary services. The labor costs here are high, but the revenue is small. It is easier to collect for immediate consumption than for sale.

Drone homogenate, also known as jelly, is not recognized by official medicine at all.You will have to look for ways to sell it yourself and illegally. Storing it is very difficult, although obtaining it is very simple even without a press: thoroughly mash the honeycombs with 7-day-old drone larvae and strain the resulting liquid.

In the same way, tinctures from dead animals are not recognized. But these are alcohol-containing liquids that are easily stored. And you also need to look for buyers yourself.

The yield of propolis from an apiary for 50 hives is about 2 kg. It will be more profitable to sell tinctures right away, since the price of raw materials is also low.

Both types of tinctures should not be indicated in a business plan for an apiary. It is illegal for the state to sell alcohol.

The wax output from the hive is only 1.5 kg. And a significant part of this beekeeping product is needed by the beekeeper himself for the next year. Only wax and lining contaminated with pathogenic organisms are sold.

Attention! Zabrus is considered the highest quality wax, but it is not suitable for honeycombs.

These are the “lids” that bees use to seal the honeycombs. Its composition differs from other waxes.

Apitherapy

It should be immediately noted that the specialty “apitherapist” is not included in the Russian register. On the one hand, this is good for a potential healer. The lack of a profession means that you can practice apitherapy without obtaining a license or medical education.

On the other hand, such illegal activities will be possible until the first allergy sufferer dies from anaphylactic shock.

Making money from pollination

There are many garden and garden crops that can only be pollinated by bees. Without such pollination, plants will not produce crops. Because of this feature, they cannot be grown in greenhouses, since bees from the street are very reluctant to fly into these glass buildings.

If there is a greenhouse farm nearby, you can rent out hives to it.A beehive standing in a greenhouse will help “kill two birds with one stone”: pollinate the plants and get honey and bee bread.

But income here cannot be calculated in the same way as with renting a plot of land. Perhaps there will simply be mutually beneficial cooperation: the beekeeper puts hives in greenhouses for free, and the farm receives pollinators for free.

Growing and selling queen bees and bee colonies

It will be possible to engage in this business in the apiary only after its own colonies have grown. It won't give you a big profit. Even if each colony swarms annually, you can get 50 colonies for sale from the apiary. At a cost of 2000 rubles. total annual revenue will be 100,000 rubles. But families do not swarm every year.

Raising queens if the beekeeping business plan was calculated for a honey apiary is even less profitable. You can earn a small amount by selling surplus queens.

Production and sale of hives and equipment

This is a separate type of activity, which must be considered its own business plan. Profit from the production of hives and equipment depends on the cost of materials for their production, labor costs and demand for the product. This area has no special relation to the beekeeping business plan. This can be done without owning an apiary.

Ready-made beekeeping business plan

For a novice entrepreneur, selling honey to resellers means killing the business in the bud. It’s worth trying to come up with a business plan immediately involving the sale of honey at your own outlet. Initial costs for an apiary of 50 hives:

hives 60 pcs. 5000-300000 rubles each;
bee colonies 50 pieces, 2000-100000 rubles each;
honey extractor – 20,000 rubles;
table for honeycombs – 9,000 rubles;
spare frames for hives 100 pcs. – 10,000 rub.;
veterinary medications – 10,000 rubles;
inventory – 20,000 rubles;
paperwork and rental of retail space – 50,000 rubles;
unforeseen expenses - 100,000 rubles;
living expenses for 2 years – 480,000 rubles;

Total amount: RUB 1.099 million.

It's not worth taking it right away. There are always some circumstances that require additional funds. You need to ask the bank for a loan of 1.5 million rubles.

In the first year, it is unlikely to generate income from the apiary, since the families will still be weak, and all the honey must be left to them. 40 kg per hive is the maximum possible figure. Most likely, you will get less honey. The average amount of bee bread per hive is 15 kg. The main income in beekeeping comes from the sale of these two products. Independent sale of beekeeping products through your own retail outlet will give you twice as much income:

honey 30 kg from 50 families at a cost of 300 rubles/kg - 450,000 rubles;
beebread 15 kg from 50 hives at a cost of 2000 rubles / kg - 1.5 million.

Total income: 1.95 million rubles. in the second year.

You will need to pay 6% tax on income: RUB 117,000. Net income: 1.833 million rubles.

Theoretically, it is already possible to fully repay the loan. Net income is not yet profit. With this money you will need to purchase supplies for the next year. The apiary will fully pay for itself and start working in the third year.

Important! Other beekeeping activities are unstable and relatively low-income.

It is unlikely that the sale of wax and propolis will even cover overhead costs.

List of documents required to start

It is very difficult to say whether documents are needed to open an apiary, since it depends on the path that will be chosen for the development of beekeeping. A dozen hives in your own garden are a subsidiary farm for which registration is not required.But such a number of colonies is really only for personal consumption and a little sale to friends. Actually, the lack of sale of beekeeping products is the basis for not registering an apiary.

If you immediately start a serious business, you will need papers for the apiary:

documents confirming ownership of land or lease of land;
veterinary passport of the apiary indicating the location and all necessary veterinary and sanitary measures;
a certificate with honey analysis, which also includes the details of the apiary owner;
veterinary certificate giving the right to sell beekeeping products;
a certificate of the number of colonies in the apiary, issued by the local veterinary service.

To be on the safe side, you can also take certificates about the presence of heavy metals in honey, analysis of bee brood and dead bees. But these certificates are not required, although they are desirable.

The remaining documents are standard for opening any business. For apiary purposes, it used to be better to register private household plots. After the law on self-employed people comes out, it may be better to register this way.

You should definitely ask the local authorities whether the new apiary will interfere with the existing ones. It is also necessary to find out where bees cannot be transported if the apiary is nomadic.

Assessment of possible risks

Despite the external benefits, beekeeping is a risky type of business. When calculating a business plan, you need to take into account that the entire apiary may die from the varroa mite, nosematosis or European foulbrood.

Often the death of an apiary is caused by the owner himself due to an incorrect assessment of the upcoming winter. Families can freeze to death in severe frost. In a hot summer, an apiary placed in the sun will all die from the heat. But these are removable moments.

Today, beekeeping is also difficult due to climate change and the unexplained extinction of bees in the world. But it is difficult to take this into account in a business plan due to the unpredictability of the phenomenon.

Conclusion

A business plan for an apiary is necessary not only to convince the bank of the profitability of the loan, but also to find out for yourself whether beekeeping is worth it. The business plan is first drafted for oneself and only then is it decided whether to engage in beekeeping. But it’s optimal to work in someone else’s apiary for a couple of years to gain experience.