Welcome to Day 1 of the 7 Day Sideliner Starter Challenge. By Sunday you will have a one-page plan for your next 12 months. The path has three stages. In Backyard the job is keeping bees alive. In Sideliner the job is selling more than one thing. In Commercial the job is running a business. I started in 2017 with 10 hives and now run 900-plus colonies, and every stage matters because a dead hive earns nothing. Task for today: write four numbers. How many hives you have right now (zero is fine), how much you have spent on bees so far, how much you have earned from bees so far, and the one thing you would like bees to pay for. Reply with your four numbers and your stage. If you are not sure which stage you are in, say so and I will place you. @Justin McAdams @Paula Carnell @Jennifer Rochlin which stage would you put yourselves in right now?

Say hello in a way that helps us help you. Copy this and fill it in: - Where you are (state or region): - Hives right now (zero is fine): - Years keeping bees: - Your stage today: Backyard, Sideliner or Commercial - The one way you want bees to pay you: honey, nucs, queens, leasing, pollination, wax products, classes, swarm removal, or something else - The biggest thing in your way right now: winter losses, mites, selling, startup cost, time, or other I read every intro and reply to each one. Reply to someone else's intro too, especially if you are in the same state or have the same goal. Introductions with numbers in them get the best answers.

Day 2. Today we put real prices on the start. Task: find the current local price of three things. A bee jacket or suit with veil. A hive tool and a smoker. Bees: a package or nuc from two local sources. For comparison, our 2027 5-frame Ten Box nuc is $275 now that the $250 presale ended Nov 1, and it is picked up in Burleson. Add it up. For reference, Extension budgets for the first hive run about $800 to $1,100 with new equipment, and a swarm costs nothing but is not guaranteed. Reply with your three prices and your total. Prices differ by area, so post yours even if they look high or low. @Gus Lutjens @Xander Du Preez @Tommy Gan what did bees cost you to get started, roughly?

A nuc is a small colony, usually five frames: a laying queen, brood, bees, and some stores. For a sideliner it is one of the best ways to turn strong hives into cash, because you are selling bees, not waiting on a honey flow. What we charge: our 2027 five-frame nucs were $250 on presale through November 1. The regular price is now $275. Pickup is in early May at the farm in Burleson, and we do not ship bees. What goes into one nuc. Work out your own cost for each line before you set a price: 1. The queen. A mated queen from us is $50. If you raise your own, your cost is time, equipment, and the ones that fail to mate. 2. Brood and bees. These come out of a strong colony. Every frame you pull is a frame that is not making honey or building that hive, so count it as a cost even though you did not buy it. 3. The box and frames. A nuc box and five frames, either sold with the nuc or returned. Price this from your own supplier. 4. Feed. Most nucs get syrup while they build up. My estimate is a few dollars per nuc, but it depends on sugar prices and your weather. 5. Losses. Some nucs fail: the queen does not take, robbing, a cold snap. Plan for a share of them not making it to sale and spread that cost over the ones that do. 6. Your time. Making splits, checking for eggs, feeding, and handing off to customers. Add those up and you have your cost per nuc. The gap between that and your sale price is the profit, and it can shrink fast if you lose a lot of them. Why presale matters: - It tells you how many nucs to make, so you are not guessing in March. - Deposits bring cash in during winter, when nothing else is selling. - It locks in buyers before everyone else's nucs hit the market in spring. - A lower presale price rewards people for committing early, and it gives you a deadline to point to. The catch: once you take money, you owe bees. Do not sell more nucs than your strong colonies can make, and keep enough back to cover your own winter losses. Your turn: if you sell nucs, reply with what you charge, how many you made this year, and what share failed before sale. If you have not sold any, how many strong colonies do you think you could split next spring?

Starting today, every Sunday I am going to thank the members who helped the most that week. Here is how it works. Every like you get on a post or comment earns you a point. Points move you up the levels, starting at Level 1 New Bee, then Level 2 Hive Helper, Level 3 Wax Worker, and on up to Level 9 Bee Baron. You can see where you stand on the Leaderboards tab. Top three this week: Gus Lutjens, Xander Du Preez, and @Tommy Gan . Thank you for what you shared this week. This week, like at least three posts or comments from other members. It takes a few seconds and it helps good questions and answers get seen. The 7 Day Sideliner Starter Challenge starts tomorrow, so there will be plenty to like.