Biggest keeps

[Riverrat]

Richard Adee was at one time the largest Bee keeper in The united states.  Is he still number one and lets hear some of the names of the big apiaries known in north america

[tecumseh]

reflecting backward a bit... Richard Powers of Power's Apiary who partnered up with Beneford Weaver to form Kona Queens was at one time reported to have had 90,000 hives primarily in the western states and Hawaii. Do you really think folks who have hives in the thousands actually know how many hives they own?

as a sidebar when doing consulting work recently for one of those often hated corporate entities one of the 'clients' was a married into relationship of the Addee... so sometimes you find families who's number of hives gets quite large.  often times it is these family connection that allow some of the big boys to survive when things go wrong.

although I will skip the detail Addee when he had the public incident with the shop towels the state inspector here discovered he had moved bees into Texas without a permit... essentially riding along on someone else permit which was likely a close relative.

and the final question to the choir is.... does size really matter?
 

[Chip Euliss]

I've driven by the Addee's holding yard in California and it is most impressive to see!  I believe Brett Addee is running the show these days but I could be wrong.  One of the holding yards I've seen is 60 miles north of the Addee holding yard and it should have 40-50,000 hives in there about now; I was told it has fewer hives but it stands out more because hive density is high. There are other large keeps but I don't know personally.  The ones I do know are the Browning's and the Miller's.  They are here in ND but also in Idaho, California and South Dakota if memory serves me. 

[tecumseh]

thanks for the reminder Chip... I seem to recall from an acquaintance (another OLD beekeeper not far from where Chip calls home) that Zac Browning runs about as many bees as Addee and being young is buying outfits and constantly expanding.  At some size the logistic of moving bees here and there is certainly a full time job.  Then of course you have to have location at each point in the travels to set bees down and you must keep all the landowners and folks that lease the bees for pollination happy... another full time job.

I will say it does take lots of money and labor to keep such outfits profitable but in terms of basic understanding of bees and keeping bees there are plenty of folks with a few hives that are equally as skilled at keeping bees as the big guys.  Lots and lots of the big guys have gone to working crews from Central America who get here on work visa,  stay for about 9 months and then return home < as a group these guys are a real joy to work for.... but you either need to know a bit of Spanish or take along you wife who is fluent in Spanish.

[Chip Euliss]

I can't speak for all of them but the larger beekeeping outfits I know about have "beekeepers" who are in charge of X number of hives so they manage only a portion of the company's bee assets.  Those beekeepers oversee seasonal labor assigned to them so there can be many beekeepers and laborers within a company.  Those beekeeper positions are typically "earned" by people coming up through the ranks although experienced beekeepers can been hired to come in and manage a certain number of hives.  The folks I know will often pay a bonus in really good years and a separate bonus paid to individual beekeepers who distinguish themselves from their peers by doing a really do a good job with the hives they manage.  Incentives can be based on many things including honey production over some baseline, stronger hives at the end of the season for almond pollination, nuc production, etc.  The basic idea in developing a huge beekeeping outfit is like eating an elephant--you do it one bite at a time!  Obviously, expansion goes hand-in-hand with developing a "crop" of experienced beekeepers who keep the operation running smoothly.

[apisbees]

Yes I doubt any of the big operators know the exact number of hives but count them in terms of how many semi loads of bees they have to move and know the number of hives that fit on a load. It is hard with quad packs cause at times you end up moving hives that have died.
Back before the Canadian border was closed to the bee movement Homer Parks was one of the biggest honey producers in Canada. At his operation in California he was one of the largest queen and package bee producers.

[tecumseh]

correct a prior comment I think it was Jim Powers and not Richard Powers...