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by markatkinson 516 days ago
I went from a Full Stack Software Engineer -> Lead -> Eng Man -> Burnout -> Wild Mushroom Exporter in Zambia.

Currently trying to become a wild beekeeper dropping hives anywhere anyone will let me while coding on side projects at the same time.

I recommend beekeeping. Go on a course somewhere, learn a little, get a hive, make mistakes, learn, scale, profit.

5 comments

What, was goat farming too pedestrian for you??

(Just a little joke, based the meme of developers quitting their jobs to start a goat farm.)

Also, I'm allergic to bees.

I thought the meme was woodworking or metalworking
I would have said something about a microbrewery.
I think microbrewery might be a little 2010, you probably want to start a coffee roastery.
>I recommend beekeeping. Go on a course somewhere, learn a little, get a hive, make mistakes, learn, scale, profit.

Oooof, I don't... maybe you know the secret, but being an amateur beekeeper and watching what the pros do, it looks darn hard to reach scale.

Yea absolutely, I had a real eye opener moment when I spoke to a friend who keeps some random beehives on his farm. I thought I was going big with my 20 hives, and plans to scale up to about 60.

He casually drops that he has 250 hives, and that he's not that into it...

A friend in South Africa does bee tech[0]!

[0] https://web.bluebeansoftware.com/whats-all-the-buzz-with-sma...

This is their dedicated webpage: https://hivepulse.co.za/

Too cool! Might give it a try.

Curious! What do the hives you drop look like?

I'm assuming no-touch hives are designed differently than honey-extractive hives.

Kenyan top bar hives is what you'll find in Africa and what people are familiar with. I'm trying to phase in more Langstroth hives for sanitary reasons.

https://www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au/natural-beekeeping/th...

Can you elaborate?
Yes, please do, I've been considering changing careers as well. (Currently software engineer)