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So according to Google one Beehive can produce 20-30kg of honey per year. For the 24 beehives in this machine that would be 720kg of honey max, selling for arou

So according to Google one Beehive can produce 20-30kg of honey per year. For the 24 beehives in this machine that would be 720kg of honey max, selling for around 10€ per kg in Germany. That would make a maximum of 7200€ in one year, while the machine costs 4800$/year plus 2000 for delivery in the first year. Additionally, the Beekeeper has to retrieve, package and sell the honey. I don't see this machine reaching profitability, even if it would mean no work whatsoever for the beekeeper.

freemint 5y ago
This seems to be target for people who runs agricultural farms which need bees for their other modes of profit.
- giantg2 5y ago
  Maybe. Usually they contract out pollination. The cost of this machine seems to still make that more feasible. If it's a big monocrop place, then it probably still makes sense to contract pollination because you only need it for a short period during the year. You likely couldn't harvest any or much honey in the large monocrop fields because they would need that honey to support themselves the rest of the year when the monocrop is not flowering (or you'd heavily feed them). Smaller places, like local orchards, could maybe benefit, but only if they're willing/able to process and sell their own honey. Many small places can currently partner with beekeepers for little to no money. In some cases, beekeepers will even pay the orchard owners (usually in honey) for being able to place the hives there. So maybe the orchard could make a little extra profit. But it seems this machine costs money on a yearly basis. This could create a huge liability if you have a bad year.
femto 5y ago
Beekeepers also make money by renting out hives for pollination? Edit: Found an interesting article: https://theconversation.com/the-farmer-wants-a-hive-inside-the-world-of-renting-bees-94904 https://theconversation.com/the-farmer-wants-a-hive-inside-t... To quote: "Alternatively, crop growers can buy their own hives and set them up permanently, eliminating the cost of rental and reducing the pressure on honeybees used for pollination services. However, this comes at its own cost. Growers need to maintain the beehives themselves or hire a beekeeper to do it." It seems like this robot may be aimed at farmers who want their own hives for pollination purposes, but also don't want the burden of looking after them?
- mattferderer 5y ago
  You might also enjoy this rabbit hole of bee thieves across California - https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/22/beekeepers-california-gps-tracking-cameras-theft-hives https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/22/beekeepers-c... Interestingly enough, across the Midwest US, beekeepers tend to give farmers a case of honey if the farmers allow them to put bee hives on their land.
- znpy 5y ago
  > Beekeepers also make money by renting out hives for pollination? The sad things of those practices is that the hive is stressed by being moved around a lot, and that hives are often used to impollinate but after pesticides have been used thius killing the hive. It happens very often, sadly.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    This is true for the industrial size farms and industrial sized beekeeping operations. Smaller local farms and beekeepers can work together without these problems and without having to move hives, or at least not very often.
  - freemint 5y ago
    Bees swarms are pretty much the only organism that consents to how it is treated. They stick around because it is easier that way.
    - znpy 5y ago
      I wouldn’t talk about “consent” in this context.
- giantg2 5y ago
  Maybe. The cost of this machine seems to still make contracting more feasible. If it's a big monocrop place, then it probably still makes sense to contract pollination because you only need it for a short period during the year. You likely couldn't harvest any or much honey in the large monocrop fields because they would need that honey to support themselves the rest of the year when the monocrop is not flowering (or you'd heavily feed them). Smaller places, like local orchards, could maybe benefit, but only if they're willing/able to process and sell their own honey. Many small places can currently partner with beekeepers for little to no money. In some cases, beekeepers will even pay the orchard owners (usually in honey) for being able to place the hives there. So maybe the orchard could make a little extra profit. But it seems this machine costs money on a yearly basis. This could create a huge liability if you have a bad year.
Existenceblinks 5y ago
Raw material is hard to sell these days, due to covid, some countries try not to rely on lots of supply. Those material needs to be processed, package it up, put a cool story to it.
kkfx 5y ago
IMVHO the real point is another, that's just an experiment to see if and how we can change agriculture. The point is can we automate agriculture in a way to run on solar in a semi-autonomous way? If so berry-picking robots, these etc are just test pilot. Surely so far they are too costly, as any new thing, but if they prove to be reliable and usable enough things might change. We already have a certain dose of tech in agriculture but that's not good tech (cloud-bound by choice of the vendor, abusing the mean ignorance of their customers) but not something like "hey can we get rid of tractors and still be productive?", "can we farm poultry in automated fashion?", "can we harvest various crops in autonomous semi-self-sustainable ways?". We are probably 20 years behind, but we must start from something in a world who really lack public research...
WaitWaitWha 5y ago
Depending where I put my hives, I can make 30 to 60lbs of honey with my "100 year old wooden box" technology. My ladies do not like "unnatural" (i.e. mostly plastic, metal) things. They will cover it with propolis quickly. They also do not seem to like electricity or odd magnetic fields, and things that constantly hum, like transformers. The listed things that the robot supposedly is doing (feeding, watering, treat illness & pests, harvest honey, prevent swarming, splitting & combining) are very inconsistent depending on my queens, hive to hive. Much of it is done by the hive herself. The rest is so cheap to do, it is but an a few hours per year per hive. It is not profitable to spend $57600/year for (looks like) 28 hives. It is also seems to be going the John Deere route with the equipment. No thank you. And, the "bees are dying, the bees are dying!" is becoming tiresome.
- simonebrunozzi 5y ago
  Nice comments, but you're way off on the annual cost. It should be $400 x Beehome (24 beehives) x month, or $4,800 per year for 24 beehives. That's ~$200 per beehive per year.
  - WaitWaitWha 5y ago
    Thanks for the correction. I miss-read it as monthly cost.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    True. $200 per hive is still high in my opinion. Close to half of expected revenue for local honey (50 lbs avg at $10/lb). Then you have additional costs like bottling, the treatment chemicals, packages to replace lost hives, etc.
gtvwill 5y ago
We get bout 15-20kgs 3 times a year from our hives. Spring, summer n autumn harvests.2 hives gives plenty for a family and all our friends :)

freemint 5y ago

This seems to be target for people who runs agricultural farms which need bees for their other modes of profit.

giantg2 5y ago
Maybe. Usually they contract out pollination. The cost of this machine seems to still make that more feasible. If it's a big monocrop place, then it probably still makes sense to contract pollination because you only need it for a short period during the year. You likely couldn't harvest any or much honey in the large monocrop fields because they would need that honey to support themselves the rest of the year when the monocrop is not flowering (or you'd heavily feed them). Smaller places, like local orchards, could maybe benefit, but only if they're willing/able to process and sell their own honey. Many small places can currently partner with beekeepers for little to no money. In some cases, beekeepers will even pay the orchard owners (usually in honey) for being able to place the hives there. So maybe the orchard could make a little extra profit. But it seems this machine costs money on a yearly basis. This could create a huge liability if you have a bad year.

femto 5y ago

Beekeepers also make money by renting out hives for pollination? Edit: Found an interesting article: https://theconversation.com/the-farmer-wants-a-hive-inside-the-world-of-renting-bees-94904 https://theconversation.com/the-farmer-wants-a-hive-inside-t... To quote: "Alternatively, crop growers can buy their own hives and set them up permanently, eliminating the cost of rental and reducing the pressure on honeybees used for pollination services. However, this comes at its own cost. Growers need to maintain the beehives themselves or hire a beekeeper to do it." It seems like this robot may be aimed at farmers who want their own hives for pollination purposes, but also don't want the burden of looking after them?

mattferderer 5y ago
You might also enjoy this rabbit hole of bee thieves across California - https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/22/beekeepers-california-gps-tracking-cameras-theft-hives https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/22/beekeepers-c... Interestingly enough, across the Midwest US, beekeepers tend to give farmers a case of honey if the farmers allow them to put bee hives on their land.
znpy 5y ago
> Beekeepers also make money by renting out hives for pollination? The sad things of those practices is that the hive is stressed by being moved around a lot, and that hives are often used to impollinate but after pesticides have been used thius killing the hive. It happens very often, sadly.
- giantg2 5y ago
  This is true for the industrial size farms and industrial sized beekeeping operations. Smaller local farms and beekeepers can work together without these problems and without having to move hives, or at least not very often.
- freemint 5y ago
  Bees swarms are pretty much the only organism that consents to how it is treated. They stick around because it is easier that way.
  - znpy 5y ago
    I wouldn’t talk about “consent” in this context.
giantg2 5y ago
Maybe. The cost of this machine seems to still make contracting more feasible. If it's a big monocrop place, then it probably still makes sense to contract pollination because you only need it for a short period during the year. You likely couldn't harvest any or much honey in the large monocrop fields because they would need that honey to support themselves the rest of the year when the monocrop is not flowering (or you'd heavily feed them). Smaller places, like local orchards, could maybe benefit, but only if they're willing/able to process and sell their own honey. Many small places can currently partner with beekeepers for little to no money. In some cases, beekeepers will even pay the orchard owners (usually in honey) for being able to place the hives there. So maybe the orchard could make a little extra profit. But it seems this machine costs money on a yearly basis. This could create a huge liability if you have a bad year.

Existenceblinks 5y ago

Raw material is hard to sell these days, due to covid, some countries try not to rely on lots of supply. Those material needs to be processed, package it up, put a cool story to it.

kkfx 5y ago

IMVHO the real point is another, that's just an experiment to see if and how we can change agriculture. The point is can we automate agriculture in a way to run on solar in a semi-autonomous way? If so berry-picking robots, these etc are just test pilot. Surely so far they are too costly, as any new thing, but if they prove to be reliable and usable enough things might change. We already have a certain dose of tech in agriculture but that's not good tech (cloud-bound by choice of the vendor, abusing the mean ignorance of their customers) but not something like "hey can we get rid of tractors and still be productive?", "can we farm poultry in automated fashion?", "can we harvest various crops in autonomous semi-self-sustainable ways?". We are probably 20 years behind, but we must start from something in a world who really lack public research...

WaitWaitWha 5y ago

Depending where I put my hives, I can make 30 to 60lbs of honey with my "100 year old wooden box" technology. My ladies do not like "unnatural" (i.e. mostly plastic, metal) things. They will cover it with propolis quickly. They also do not seem to like electricity or odd magnetic fields, and things that constantly hum, like transformers. The listed things that the robot supposedly is doing (feeding, watering, treat illness & pests, harvest honey, prevent swarming, splitting & combining) are very inconsistent depending on my queens, hive to hive. Much of it is done by the hive herself. The rest is so cheap to do, it is but an a few hours per year per hive. It is not profitable to spend $57600/year for (looks like) 28 hives. It is also seems to be going the John Deere route with the equipment. No thank you. And, the "bees are dying, the bees are dying!" is becoming tiresome.

simonebrunozzi 5y ago
Nice comments, but you're way off on the annual cost. It should be $400 x Beehome (24 beehives) x month, or $4,800 per year for 24 beehives. That's ~$200 per beehive per year.
- WaitWaitWha 5y ago
  Thanks for the correction. I miss-read it as monthly cost.
- giantg2 5y ago
  True. $200 per hive is still high in my opinion. Close to half of expected revenue for local honey (50 lbs avg at $10/lb). Then you have additional costs like bottling, the treatment chemicals, packages to replace lost hives, etc.

gtvwill 5y ago

We get bout 15-20kgs 3 times a year from our hives. Spring, summer n autumn harvests.2 hives gives plenty for a family and all our friends :)