Shastina Millworks’ business has taken off by building bee boxes for commercial use, and now the company is going after the hobbyist industry.
Shastina Millworks’ business has taken off by building bee boxes for commercial use, and now the company is going after the hobbyist industry.
“It’s a totally different market,” [Dave] Schoenmann said. “For a commercial beekeeper doing it every day, it’s a business. He is doing it as efficiently as he can, taking care of 500, 1,000 or 10,000 colonies with crews, treating them with chemicals. The backyard hobbyists are more green and organic.”
In researching the industry, Schoenmann discovered that commercial beekeepers handle 2.5 million hives or colonies, while there are more than 3 million hobbyist hives. “One might have one and another five,” he said. “The backyard beekeepers have regular jobs, but are trying to get honey for themselves or want to make flowers and plants nicer in their yard.”
Without being specific, Schoenmann said the impact on his business should be substantial over the next two years and exponential at the end of five years.
“It’s such a hot market that I could see us go from zero to 100 mph in a year,” Schoenmann said. “I think it’s realistic to get 10,000 (new) customers in two years.”
Read more at The Mail Tribune.
{biztweet}beekeeping{/biztweet}
