Record Keeping

It is always a good idea to keep good records and I've attempted this over the years with my bees.  I have seen beekeepers have bar codes on their hives and they keep really good records of each visit to the bee year.  The only record I keep is how much honey was produced each year.  I don't keep track of how many colonies I kept each year so my stats are somewhat flawed, but it does give me my bottom line of production.  I don't keep track of the income and out-lay because I'm sure I'd get depressed over only making a few cents per hour for my efforts.

This year was a particularly poor year for honey.  Most years I get around 250 pounds; this year the yield was a mere 60 pounds.

2012 was the first year I kept track of the daily egg harvest.  During the year my hens laid 2273 eggs of which 67 were broken and had to be thrown away.  This comes down to nearly 190 eggs per month or a little over 6 eggs per day.

I'm doing a little better than breaking even on the eggs I sell, or at least I will after a few more years considering how much money I spent building the coop.  The honey price will need to go up this year.  I've been charging the same price for about 13 years now, so it is time to boost the bee economy.