SBS SMART BUSINESS SERIES (ON NAIRALAND)
WEINTRODUCTION: So I am me. Very controversial, I like Messi, I am a christian but not religious, I am Yoruba but not a skullar🤔* and I am not tribalistic. I love Igbos and the northerners but I hate extremists and separatists. Summarily, Yoruba Amaka!

So, recently Nairaland has become a place for everyone to bash themselves, from "I hate Tinubu" to "developers are at it again" Nigeria is draining fast and we are still hoping for a miracle from Tinubu or perhaps a coup.
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Trust me Nigeria is perfect as it is. You are the one who have refused to be innovative. If you are unable to build yourself into a millionaire right now you can't perform either as a president. I mean Nigeria is just like your life. If you can't build your life....??
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And you don't have to Japan to make it either. Success is not a native of any land. If you can't make it in Nigeria...the story won't differ in other places. And if you can make it abroad, you can make it in Nigeria too. It's all about mentality. Don't get me wrong though... I encourage japa alot. Expecially for studying and tourism purposes.
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So I have decided to start this series on Nairaland. Once a week. Hopefully Nairaland mods will support this initiative. I am hoping to expose us to basically, business opportunities in agriculture that would cost little to zero capital to implement and would be extremely profitable by using advanced technologies, modern sciences, research updates e.t.c.
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I will also try to make things very simple and straightforward (as much as it could be). For this week I want us to look into bee farming. I will analyze how beekeeping (apiary) can earn nairalanders up to 5m every six months with little to zero capital and without quiting your main job (at least for now).
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I am not about to start defining beekeeping (please use YouTube to become familiar with this line of agro business quickly)
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A very good background knowledge of agriculture and apiary would be very good.
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WHAT DO YOU NEED?
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You need a few plots of land (your village or a farm area would be appropriate.) Perhaps this is an opportunity for you really start developing your village. But no matter what you are doing, don't attempt to buy land for this. We are in the experimental stage and we want to ensure cost of starting this is brought down close to zero as much as possible.
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You need some wood planks to construct the hives which I will show you shortly. You are not employing anyone for this. You can construct all the hives you need to start this in one or two weekends yourself. This, I believe is the best way to start a business. You learn a lot about the whole business and you get to keep cost to as low as possible.
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Beekeeping is not taxed and requires very little management processes. Which makes it possible for you to keep doing whatever you are still doing right now that is sustaining your livelihood. However it is massively lucrative.
Remember I said Nigeria is perfect as it is? It is easier to start agricultural businesses like beekeeping in Nigeria than most countries of the world expecially outside Africa. You do not need any documentation nor registration. If you know your way around, you will get massive lands free of charge.
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I mean, villagers are happy when citizens come back to invest in agriculture. You don't need to clear any bush either...you just need to make some boxes and follow my setup guide.
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WHAT IS THE PROCESS?
Well a kilogram of raw honey is now about 3,000 naira at the local market and 13,000 naira at the international market. For this guide I am showing us how to sell in the local market...(making sure you are the boss from production to selling) selling at the international markets requires extra documentations from the government. (Related agencies)
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So we will be setting up about 100 boxes in about 33 hive clusters (a cluster will have three boxes each)
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Each of those boxes will produce 80,000 naira worth of raw honey each six months (targeting only the local market)
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We are using an ancient Japanese method that prevents the bees from dispersing after each harvest. This means at least 70% of each clusters will retain their bees (colony) after every harvest. Ensuring that you can repeat a 6 to 8million naira revenue every six months continuously.
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We are going to place all the clusters in a land area of just about five plots to an acre. (Or make the land area even lesser for proper monitoring)
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We are going to want to plant luffa plant (please Google it. Very common in Nigeria) around the hive area. The huge flowers from luffa allows the bees to have good nectar source and make creamy brown delicious honey that can be eaten with comb. Planting luffa plant around your bee hive and not planting it can affect your profit margin by up to 70% or about 4million in this case!
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However, if there are lots of fruit bearing plants in your apiary, then it's all good.
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In my first and second picture here, I have attached the end product we are trying to target. We want to sell raw honey even with the combs. It is something many people crave for, it helps with quick selling as people are sure of getting raw unadulterated honey. It is kind of nice too and it increases your profit margin. However, it is up to you whichever method of selling you want to have. But bear in mind that if you are selling raw honey bee products without processing, you do not necessarily need a NAFDAC to sell legally. (Cool!)
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For the last two picture here I attached the boxes we are going to be making and how they can be arranged into clusters. Take note that we are using a Japanese beekeeping method and this method is what makes all the difference. See, using the usual conventional method, you would probably earn 200k to 1m a year. The difference is huge and we will get into that aspect shortly.
https://forms.gle/kgLHmLzyD4PBuCLZ6
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Please stay up to date with this thread. I will update it shortly.
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Meanwhile, if you click the link below, you will be able to access my Telegram channel where I post videos about all these processes.
https://forms.gle/kgLHmLzyD4PBuCLZ6

The Japanese beekeeping method encourages stronger colony (they get bigger every year since they no not have to re-group and recolonize new hives)
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The Japanese beekeeping method focuses more on using hives with smaller volumes to achieve tightly packed combs with high volume density of honey. Leading to dense nutrient rich honey.
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The Japanese method provides more protection against pests of bees.
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Remember I said you can harvest every six months?
Well actually, using the Japanese method, a single hive could be harvested twice or three times in six months! (Especially if you have a large and healthy colony in there) you do not have to wait for long to have the bees pack the hives to full to the brim with honey since they are relatively small. This have the advantage to let you determine which colony is not healthy and would not yield good honey early enough.
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The Japanese method also yield light brown honey that is delicious and looks clean.
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Harvesting your honey doesn't have to be a messy job. This is where the Japanese method comes in.
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Let's take more careful look at the hives used for this Japanese beekeeping method. (Remember you will be making them yourself).
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Maybe it's okay to hire people to do it for you, but I encourage you build one yourself. There is a nice feeling that comes with it😍

Booked space for update #