payment for taking care of bees

theBeeLord · July 20, 2015, 09:44:36 PM

I have a 'new friend" that is starting a blueberry venture (20 acres) and would like bees for pollination and honey. I've only taken care of my hives, and helped friends by including them in my co-op (you buy the equipment, i take care of the bees, we split the honey).
what should i charge to take care of his hives (he's starting with 4 buckfast hives in a few weeks) - and how do i charge for extracting honey?

any suggestions would be great. correction: any serious suggestions :)

Maggiesdad · July 20, 2015, 10:17:38 PM

I'm a 1st year newbie, and don't have any experience in what you're asking. I did look into blueberries, though, for similar reasons, and from what I've read there are a lot of ins and outs to getting a blueberry crop pollinated. You might want to look into that before settling on a price.

GSF · July 20, 2015, 10:39:40 PM

All of it's a lot of work - so don't sell your self short. Can honeybees pollinate blueberries? I didn't know of the blooms were the right size for a honey bee.

theBeeLord · July 20, 2015, 10:56:10 PM

from what i've read you can have up to 5 hives per acres of blueberries, raising output by up to 1200 lbs more per acre.
they say bumblebees are better pollinators for blueberries, but honeybees do pretty well too.

iddee · July 20, 2015, 11:35:52 PM

You might not think this is serious, but it is.........................

Whatever you charge, it will be too much for him to have to pay, and not near enough to pay you for what you will have to do

theBeeLord · July 21, 2015, 12:02:20 AM

i agree. i enjoy taking care of bees.
i want it to be a help for him, and a help for me.
i was hoping there were people on the forum that do this - take care of other people's bees - that could offer up some numbers.

sc-bee · July 21, 2015, 12:13:51 AM

Really don't know if you are going to find folks that will give a number for taking care of someone else hives. It opens up a lot of doors.... what happens when they die (devils advocate), whose fault is it, who replaces them. Etc.

As far as pollination fee for your hives, easier obtainable. As far as extracting I have a friend who charge 1 per frame but he is set up with a chain uncapper and a 34 frame extractor. Some take a percentage of the honey yield instead.

GSF · July 21, 2015, 09:50:12 PM

Somewhere in the cobb webs of my mind I remember something about a "blueberry bee". Not a bumble bee or a honey bee but actually a bee that's almost blueberry specific.

divemaster1963 · July 21, 2015, 11:12:24 PM

I have one of my out yards on a orchard . I worked out with the owner to let place upto 100 hives on his property. When I have built the numbers. I worked it out that I get 3/4 of the honey yeald and a few bushels of fruits and veggiesthat he hharvest's. I did it this way because I needed a place to put my hives and not over crowd them in one area. It has made for a great relationship. I get honey and aton of fruit and veggies. Plus he keeps a eye on them and lets me know if anything is out of the ordinary going on with the hives. Win win alaround.

John.

sc-bee · July 22, 2015, 01:52:08 AM

I thought I heard someone mention blueberries being a poor nectar producer? Are they good producers?

Seabee8 · July 22, 2015, 06:04:53 PM

In these parts the hive rental rate is around $185. per hive.

deknow · July 22, 2015, 06:12:58 PM

I would trade for frozen (or ready to freeze) blueberries.

GSF · July 22, 2015, 10:12:46 PM

We have about 21 bushes anywhere from a year to 6 or 7 years old. 17 bore berries this year. I got to post the blueberry smoothie recipe my wife has. awesome! I'm not sure what this has to do with "payment for taking care of bees".

BeeMaster2 · July 23, 2015, 06:49:42 AM

I put my hives at my farm every year just before the blueberries go into bloom. I did not watch the blueberries this year but in past years, I would never see my honey bees on the blueberries. I did see a lot of carpenter bees and native bees but no honey bees.
The honey bees are too busy working the gallberry, black gum and palmetto.
I do know that in other areas that they put a lot more hives per acre that they do for any other crop to flood the area with bees to force some of the bees on the blueberries.
Jim

Seabee8 · July 23, 2015, 08:51:20 AM

Things are different where I live. Wild blueberries are the only commercial crop in the area. So most of the beekeepers around here rent out their hives. In addition the growers truck in hundreds of hives plus buy boxes of bumblebees.