Modeling sequential production: The migratory beekeeper case

Abstract

This paper formalizes a bio-economic model of migratory beekeeping activities, during the annual production cycle, so as to discern the optimal sequence of foraging sites for migratory beekeepers; it then proceeds to empirically verify the model via a case study. The model assumes that the apiary farm produces three marketable outputs under conditions of certainty with disjunctive resources at the sites. In particular, honey, commercial pollination services and nucleus colonies are produced sequentially at foraging sites throughout the year. The model determines a migratory beekeeper’s revenues, variable costs, gross income from each sequence of foraging sites under the constraint that the total time allocated to the foraging sites be less than or equal to the annual production cycle duration. The bio-economic model allows sequential choices and jointness in foraging sites to be tested, so as to ascertain whether the various stages in the sequential production process are independent of each other. Jointness in foraging sites can arise with regard to variable costs, revenues or both simultaneously.