The Apiarist

Beekeepers are classified into three categories based on the number of colonies they manage: commercial, sideliner, and hobby. These classifications are useful since commercial beekeepers with large numbers of colonies can have different practices and challenges compared to hobby beekeepers that keep a smaller number of colonies. The number of colonies a beekeeper manages can indicate the reason that a beekeeper keeps bees, the beekeeper's demographics, management strategies, apiary size, colony transportation, health monitoring practices, and the risk of pathogen and pest transmission. Veterinarians may need to consider more complicated logistics when visiting larger operations. Beekeepers are also classified into categories based on how they use their colonies for income: honey production, pollination, and/or queen and package bee production. To demonstrate how a large-scale beekeeping business operates, this chapter includes an example of a year-in-the-life of a commercial beekeeper.