I own a Honey Bee Company that produces honey for sale. Each mature beehive has an intrinsic value of about $500 dollars...can these be treated as inventory?

[Carl]

No. Inventory is the product that you sell. You don't sell beehives. The beehives are business assets which are used to produce the product you sell. So they get listed in the business asset section. They are not inventory, any way you look at it.

[Critter]

No not really ... you have hard costs for keeping up the hives that can be expensed.  And the cost of manufacturing a honey product can be used to put a unit cost on the honey you sell which is your inventory.

 If anything the hives themselves could be considered assets along with the bees if you replace or buy them.  

[Carl]

Oh yean, I've also seen this type of business that has beehives and sells honey, file a SCH F treating it as farming activity. There is no clear ruling on the IRS website that states if bees can or can not be classified as livestock. @Cattlerancher what's your take on this?