Editing Beekeeper (section)

===Commercial beekeepers===

Commercial beekeepers control hundreds or thousands of colonies of bees. The most extensive own and operate up to 50,000 colonies of bees, and they produce millions of pounds of honey. The first major commercial beekeeper was [[Petro Prokopovych]] from [[Ukraine]], operating 6600 colonies in the early 19th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://beekeeping.com.ua/html_en/prokopovych_en.html |title=Biography of Prokopovych |publisher=Beekeeping.com.ua |access-date=2013-09-21}}</ref> [[Moses Quinby]] was the first commercial beekeeper in the US, with 1200 colonies by the 1840s. Later (1960s-1970s), Jim Powers of Idaho, USA, had 30,000 honey producing hives.<ref>Bad Beekeeping, p 277, [[Ron Miksha]], 2004</ref> [[Miel Carlota]] operated by partners Arturo Wulfrath and Juan Speck of Mexico operated at least 50,000 hives of honey bees from 1920 to 1960.<ref>''Pequeña guía para el apicultor principiante'', by Wulfrath and Speck, Editora Agricola Mexicana, 1955</ref> Today, Adee Honey Farm in [[South Dakota]], USA, (80,000 colonies) and Comvita in [[New Zealand]] (30,000+ colonies) are among the world's largest beekeeping enterprises. Worldwide, commercial beekeepers number about 5% of the individuals with bees but produce about 60% of the world's honey crop.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}}

Commercial beekeeping is on the rise,{{when?|date=April 2025}} especially in high-value markets such as pollination in North America and honey production (especially [[Manuka honey]]) in New Zealand.