Building a Beekeeping Business: What Our Two Paths Really Cost Us

🎥 About this video What does building a beekeeping business really cost you? Gruffydd Rees of Gwenyn Gruffydd joins me to compare two very different paths into making a living from bees. We started putting beekeeping videos online around the same time. Griff built a business around a physical bee farm, honey production and beekeeping supplies. I moved towards queens, nucs and online education. We talk honestly about how those decisions happened, the risks we've taken and whether we'd make the same choices again. 🧠 What you will learn We discuss selling honey, the uncertainty of honey crops, diversifying a beekeeping business and the difference between employing people in-house and outsourcing. We also explain where YouTube fits financially, why an audience of beekeepers doesn't automatically mean more honey sales, and how filming affects the work we're supposed to be doing with the bees. Two businesses, two sets of sacrifices I explain why failing to find the right farm changed the direction of Black Mountain Honey. Griff talks about building his operation, leaving a secure job and living where he works. Then we get into the family side, the pressure to keep producing videos and the difficulty of ever properly switching off. Chapters 00:00 A preview of the conversation 00:57 Two Welsh beekeepers, two different businesses 01:49 Being taken seriously as a beekeeper on YouTube 04:41 Opportunities created by social media 09:14 Why beekeeping videos didn't sell more honey 11:36 Our early YouTube rivalry 13:50 When our business paths started to separate 17:58 Why I changed my bee-farming plans 20:19 YouTube income and the risk of going full-time 22:32 Honey, nucs, equipment and different income streams 27:25 Fitting filming around the beekeeping 31:37 What viewers don't see in our videos 34:48 The pressure of being on camera 39:46 Getting more content from one filming day 44:28 Building a business while raising a family 49:46 What we'd do differently if we started again 53:33 A free starting point for new beekeepers 🎓 14 Day Beekeeper If you'd like a structured way to learn, explore 14 Day Beekeeper: https://blackmountainhoney.co.uk/beek... Getting started? Get my free beginner beekeeping guide: https://black-mountain-honey.kit.com/... 🐝 Queens, nucs and honey from Black Mountain Honey Explore our bees, honey and the rest of the business: https://blackmountainhoney.co.uk/ Queen bees: https://blackmountainhoney.co.uk/prod... Nucleus colonies: https://blackmountainhoney.co.uk/prod... Welsh honey: https://blackmountainhoney.co.uk/prod... Join us in HiveQ Continue the conversation with other beekeepers: https://blackmountainhoney.co.uk/hiveq/ Try HiveQ free for 30 days: https://learning.blackmountainhoney.c... Which direction would you choose, a physical bee farm or a business built around online education? Tell us in the comments. If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe and share it with a beekeeper thinking about working for themselves. #Beekeeping #GruffyddRees #BeeFarming #BeekeepingBusiness #BlackMountainHoney