I am getting more and more requests from home school groups and various people that want to come "tour" my apiary. I don't mind doing it on occasion, but its getting to be too much. And honestly, I'm running out of personal time (kids, school, church,house chores, my other job, and oh yeah taking care of my own bees). I don't want to answer in a way that puts a damper on their interest of bees / beekeeping, yet I need to say no.
I thought about offering in an excited voice "yes we do! its $20 per person for 30 minutes and you get a 1 lb jar of honey! Please realize there is a possibility of you getting stung a few times as these are bees. I can do this on select good weather days .....etc etc etc"
Any other ideas?
If you don't want to do ANY tours, you could just say that the liability issues of having people on your property are not covered by your insurance. But that does raise questions of liability related to stings, which might discourage some people.
I think your idea of charging for tours is probably the best solution. At least if you do end up giving a few tours, you will be compensated. But then that also means if someone dies from a bee sting while on tour, your have taken money for the tour and are more clearly liable.
I like the insurance liabilty idea. You could even get signs like the post at garages to keep to customers out. Charging money would seem to raise the issuse of the same liabilty and are you offering tours of a "dangerous" animal. If you do, then get a release of liability for each person. Children would need one signed by parent or guardian. sorry if I got incoherent, coffee hasn't kicked in yet.
Be honest and tell them the truth. You could also set up a once or twice a year tour and let them know the dates well in advance.
These are great points. I did not realize that taking pay also meant taking on the liability. I do sell nucs and offer 30 mintues of training with the pickup of the nuc, I may need to reconsider that as well. I'm disappointed about that part.
Quote from: Robo on April 20, 2012, 12:05:49 PM
Be honest and tell them the truth. You could also set up a once or twice a year tour and let them know the dates well in advance.
The truth is that he doesn't mind doing some tours but doesn't want to do so many. So then he has to choose who gets a tour and who doesn't. In many towns, that is a way to make people angry. If you do one or two per year, they will be very large tour groups that may be more trouble than many small ones. And I think a concern with liability should be the truth. Whether it is or not is up to the OP. :-D
how about "No, we don't do tours?"
I actually like showing off my bees, and educating people on bees as so many people have memories of aunts/uncles/neighbors having bees when they were a kid, but the knowledge wasn't past down. In general people are amazed at the bees when I tell them what they do and how they do it. I think for the most part, I'll have to simply say no to the all the "tour" request. Bummer.
To take Robo's point a little further, just tell the rest of them this year that your available dates for tours are already booked but get an email address to send them the next available dates. Collect those email addresses and save them in a group. Figure out what dates you are willing to do a free tour and send the dates to the group. They are available on a first come-first served basis. Once the dates are booked, everyone else is out of luck. This way everyone has a fair chance at the dates, you are not overburdened and you are still on their radar for honey purchases.
You could offer to take some equipment and educational material to them and present a short demonstration. Bring a frame of capped honey as a extra treat. Even if they don't get any hands on bee keeping just talking about bees and other pollinators will generate interest. But if you are running out of time then a simple "no I don't give tours" should suffice.
I invited my neighbor over with his two sons to look at my hives, they all showed up in shorts and tee shirts. I had enough veils for them and ended up opening a small nuc just so they could see what it was all about. We all had a good time but since then I only let experienced beeks near my hives, it just isn't worth the risk.