Beekeeper

Beekeepers are also called honey farmers, apiarists, or less commonly, apiculturists[1] (both from the Latin apis, bee; cf.

Honey-producer beekeepers try to maintain maximum-strength colonies of bees in areas with dense nectar sources.

Taiwanese beekeepers, for example, export tonnes of royal jelly, the high-nutrition food supplement fed to queen honeybees.

[3] For the service of maintaining strong colonies of bees and moving them into crops such as almonds, apples, cherries, blueberries, melons, and squash, these beekeepers are usually paid a cash fee.

The breeders maintain select stock with superior qualities and tend to raise their bees in geographic regions with early springs.

As it typically requires a significant investment to establish a small apiary and dozens of hours of work with hives and honey equipment, hobby beekeeping is seldom profitable outside of Europe, where the lack of organic bee products sometimes causes buoyant demand for privately produced honey.

[5] Overall, beekeeping has potential to create not only a way for people to make extra money, but it also benefits the environment due to providing efficient cross pollination.

[8] A sideline beekeeper attempts to make a profit keeping bees, but relies on another source of income.

Sideliners may operate up to 300 colonies of bees, producing 10–20 metric tons of honey worth tens of thousands of US dollars each year.

Worldwide, commercial beekeepers number about 5% of the individuals with bees but produce about 60% of the world's honey crop.

Since Petro Prokopovych became the first major commercial beekeeper, there have been people along the way who have contributed to the success of keeping honey bees.

From studying their genetics, to writing well-known novels, to constructing tools to assist in the industry, these beekeepers helped guide the profession.