Pollination contract?

fermentedhiker · April 12, 2009, 10:56:26 AM

This is mostly directed to Bjorn, but anyone else who's doing long term/year round contracts should chime in as well.

I'm just searching for a way to make expansion of this hobby at least affordable if not profitable. The thought is to get year round pollination contracts to make outyards that would at the very least pay for themselves. I'm really more interested in queen rearing, but a breeding program requires some isolation of the yards. So back to my original question. In searching the forum I've seen numbers vary from 50-100$ per hive per bloom. Is there a consensus of what the average is in the Northeast? For those of you doing year round contracts, what are the differences in how the deal is structured. Do they pay you the same, just spread out over the year or do they pay a little more to have the bees already there and on the go?

justgojumpit · April 12, 2009, 01:37:15 PM

I was thinking of doing $125 - $150 per hive for people's home gardens. That would be just one hive per site, however.

justgojumpit

hankdog1 · April 12, 2009, 02:40:48 PM

I'd do 75 to 100 per hive if it was me. You can give them the option of stringing it out but i'd give them a discount for paying up frount. If you start out at 100 bucks per hive it will give you a little bit of money to work with to make it look like your giveing that discount. Remember that your bees will provide them a superior agricultural product so they make more money you need to make the most out of it without them feeling like they are getting cheated.

justgojumpit · April 12, 2009, 03:44:34 PM

yes but in most contracts, $50-$100 only covers a few weeks of bloom time, then the hives are gone. If someone has multiple blooms, then they are getting the benefit of the bees all year long. That is definitely worth more than just one bloom. What I don't understand is why people paying pollination fees don't just buy a load of packages, install them in triple deep hives, leave them bee, and let them swarm their pants off to cover winter losses? This definitely seems cheaper than paying the beekeepers, plus they wouldn't have to put any effort into the hives either. They would also be benefiting anyone who does cutouts for pay :evil:

justgojumpit

fermentedhiker · April 12, 2009, 06:09:45 PM

I'm not too interested in 1 hive locations. Too much running around, although that's probably a niche that isn't being served well currently. There are a couple large diversified farms in the area, but I don't know if they have contracts or maybe even keep their own bees already. I'll just have to go ask I guess. I'm really hoping to find places that are big enough to keep a couple queen lines isolated from each other.

dhood · April 12, 2009, 06:41:27 PM

Quote from: fermentedhiker on April 12, 2009, 10:56:26 AM
This is mostly directed to Bjorn, but anyone else who's doing long term/year round contracts should chime in as well.

I'm just searching for a way to make expansion of this hobby at least affordable if not profitable. The thought is to get year round pollination contracts to make outyards that would at the very least pay for themselves. I'm really more interested in queen rearing, but a breeding program requires some isolation of the yards. So back to my original question. In searching the forum I've seen numbers vary from 50-100$ per hive per bloom. Is there a consensus of what the average is in the Northeast? For those of you doing year round contracts, what are the differences in how the deal is structured. Do they pay you the same, just spread out over the year or do they pay a little more to have the bees already there and on the go?

I'm not Bjorn, but pollination yards are not suitable to raise bees mustless to isolate queens. You'll be doing good if they stick to your pesticide agreement 100% for the few weeks you leave them there. If you have a location that is year around, pesticide free, ect., then I don't see how you would want to charge them. Because it would be a mutual arangment that benifits both the beekeeper and grower. Anyone that doesn't see why the farmers don't just raise there own bees just ask, alot of them have tried and will tell you stories about how they died out, (while explaning the symptoms of pesticide killing). If your looking for ways to make a little money. This is not where it's at unless you become a big operation. Daniel,

BjornBee · May 24, 2009, 11:11:00 PM

Fermented,
When I sat down and figured out a business model, I calculated how much would I, or could I, make per hive.
The model I settled into was one that had the hives year-round at one location. I charge a one time fee. Most farmers today, who were multi-generation apple growers (as example) are now diversified full farm operations with anything from strawberries to apples to pumpkins and watermelons. I was very selective in going after these type operations.
It fit two requirements that I wanted...1)I would not be moving hives 2) I could use the locations for queen breeding and/or nuc building. (which is two different things.)
Most of the places I have bees also then turn around and buy my bottled honey.

My breeding yards are a separate model, based on need. I had to aggressively seek locations that did not need bees and build drone yards around the main queen yards. I do not charge for these locations as the property owners did not need the bees. I have two main breeding yards (75 nucs each) that are surrounded by up to 7 other yards for drone saturation. These support sites are used as honey locations or nuc building colonies. I also have some isolated yards for testing, queen evaluations, keeping genetics apart, etc.

When I sat down and figured out what I wanted (or needed) to make per hive, I took into account such things as pollination fees, nucs per hive per year, honey, etc.

I'm not going to tell everything. But as example, what can you make off of each hive coming out of winter? Can you make $150 per hive? If you charge $50 per hive for pollination, and make two nucs per hive (85 each)...your already at $220.00 per hive. There are always hives you don't make that much on, such as grafting hives, duds, etc. If you have 300 hives, and make 220 per hive, that is 66,000 before expenses.

The farms I deal with are not, and have never, paid a pollination fee for every crop they have. So the trade off was a one time fee, and I'm happy not moving hives around all year from one crop to the next, or to different farms.

My operation is very specific to the location and farming opportunities it provides. I realize that in other parts of the country my model would be limited or not work at all.