What it costs, and when to start

It's the middle of March. There's still snow in the fields, and you've made up your mind. This is the year. You spend an evening online choosing a hive, a jacket and a smoker. Then you go to order your bees. The first supplier is sold out. So is the second. So is the third.

That happens in Ontario. When we checked in September twenty twenty six, most of the Ontario sellers we looked at had already sold out of their spring nucleus colonies for the year. The bees are the one thing you can't buy at the last minute. So this lecture is about two things. What it really costs to start, and when you have to act.

Let's build the budget for two hives, because two is where you should start. These are prices we found from Ontario suppliers in September twenty twenty six, before the thirteen percent HST. Prices change, so treat them as a guide, not a quote.

The biggest single cost is the bees. Most Ontario beginners start with a nucleus colony, called a nuc. It's a small working colony: a queen, a couple of frames of brood, a frame of food, and plenty of bees. In Ontario a four frame nuc costs about two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars. For two, budget around five hundred to five hundred and fifty.

Next, the hives. A beginner's starter kit, with one assembled box, ten frames, a floor, the covers, a veil, a smoker and a hive tool, costs around three hundred and twenty five dollars. A second hive without the tools is about two hundred and thirty five. And in Ontario each colony needs a second brood box to get through the winter, about seventy five dollars each.

Protective gear. A basic cotton jacket with a veil is about sixty dollars, and a vented suit around a hundred and twenty, plus gloves. Feeders can be as simple as a pail, or around forty dollars each for a proper hive top feeder.

Then the part too many beginners skip: mite control. A simple kit for counting Varroa mites costs about twenty seven dollars. Treatments for two hives for a year run from roughly eighty to a hundred and sixty dollars. This is not optional. Mites are the number one reason Ontario colonies die over the winter.

Two things you don't need to buy in year one. Honey supers, the boxes where the bees store the honey you take, are optional in your first season, because you probably won't harvest much. And an extractor, the spinner that gets honey out of the comb. A basic two frame one is about four hundred dollars. Borrow one from a club instead.

Registration with the province is free. And so is this course.

Add it all up. A careful beginner can start two hives for about one thousand four hundred and seventy dollars. A more typical first year, with a better suit, feeders and supers, comes to about two thousand and twenty. Buy your own extractor and a few extras and it can reach about two thousand six hundred. All of that is before tax.

Year two is much cheaper. You mainly buy frames, supers and mite treatments. But plan for one more line. With winter losses running around forty three percent for small scale Ontario beekeepers, it's sensible to budget for one replacement nuc in your second spring.

Now, timing. In Ontario, nucs are usually ready in late May or early June. That means you order in the fall or winter before. Many sellers take a deposit, some take full payment, and some lists are full by winter. When you order, ask whether the queen is Ontario raised or imported, and ask to see the seller's queen and nuc permit.

Use the months before your bees arrive. Register with the province. Choose your site and measure your setbacks. Assemble and paint your boxes. Find a local club, and if you can, a mentor. When your nuc arrives, everything should already be waiting for it.

Now let's change one fact. Suppose you couldn't get a spring nuc, and you find one in July instead. You can still start, but the calendar is tighter. A summer nuc usually has a newly mated queen, and it may not give you surplus honey until its second summer. It has only a few weeks to build up enough bees and stores for winter. The Ontario Beekeepers' Association says to start a nuc no later than late July.

The mistake beginners make is buying the equipment first and the bees last. Do it the other way around. Reserve your bees in the fall or early winter, then buy your boxes and gear while you wait.

And what about the honey you get back? In a good year, a mature Ontario hive averages around seventy to ninety pounds. Just don't count on it in year one.

Here is the rule, in one breath. Two hives cost about fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars to start, and the bees are the biggest cost, so reserve your nucs in the fall or winter before, have everything ready by late May, and budget for mite treatments and one replacement colony.

That's the end of module one. Next, we open the hive and meet the queen, the workers and the drones.