Value of Hives I Lost and Lost Honey??

[Rebel Rose Apiary]

As most of you already know, I lost some good string hives to spraying. I need to figure out the total of my losses, for the bees and for the honey that I cannot sell this year because the bees were killed.

What is the value of good strong hives in Illinois?

Also, how should I figure the amount of honey that I lost? Value of honey?

These were very strong hives and I had taken a few supers of honey from some of them already...comb honey.

Brenda

[wayne]

  From what I've seen replacement bees will run somewhere about $120 per package.
  What's your average honey production per established hive?
  What's your annual costs per hive for upkeep?
  What's your labor worth to clean up the mess?
  How much wax, foundation, etc will it take to restore the hives?
  All this times the number of hives lost. 

  That's where I would start.

[Pond Creek Farm]

I hate that your bees were killed.  I would hate it if an adjoining landowner's operation killed my bee yard.  I am curious, however, how it is that you will seek recompense for your bees being killed due to exposure on another's property.  What can you do to the potato farmer who sprayed his own fields?  Was there overspray onto your land, or were your bees on his fields? 

[Michael Bush]

You can price the equipment that may be contaminated.  A package is $75 here and would take a year to build up to a full sized hive.  So I'd say the bees for a full sized hive are worth $200 or so considering that three pounds sells for $75.

[Brian D. Bray]

Hive, if total loss, is $150-200.
Lost production should be calculated on average hive produce per hive over the last 3 years.  So if you lost 12 hives and your average production per hive is 90 lbs then 12X90 + 1080 lbs at current selling price per pound.  To determine average honey production is to divide total honey production poundage by total number of production hives.

The total loss is the cost of the hives plus the lost production.

[Bee Happy]

I hate that your bees were killed.  I would hate it if an adjoining landowner's operation killed my bee yard.  I am curious, however, how it is that you will seek recompense for your bees being killed due to exposure on another's property.  What can you do to the potato farmer who sprayed his own fields?  Was there overspray onto your land, or were your bees on his fields? 

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/board,2.0.html this is her other post describing the event.

EDIT:  Brenda, I don't know if they've offered to pay you for the bees and honey- or if you're preparing a bill for them? if all you want is direct compensation -ok but if they try to jack you around I really think you have a case where they may have been WILLFULLY NEGLIGENT. You can punish them for 'forgetting' to notify you as you asked in writing by making them pay a lot more than the actual value of the direct loss. I'm not a lawyer, but you may want to see one.

[Rebel Rose Apiary]

I hate that your bees were killed.  I would hate it if an adjoining landowner's operation killed my bee yard.  I am curious, however, how it is that you will seek recompense for your bees being killed due to exposure on another's property.  What can you do to the potato farmer who sprayed his own fields?  Was there overspray onto your land, or were your bees on his fields? 

It is common for the planes to overspray, as well as they ALWAYS fly over my property when doing a turn around. I get a lot of drift from the ends of the rows and when they do not shut down the spray in time. They are supposed to NOTIFY ME when they spray so I can cover up my hives...which they did not. They were notified by LETTER that I would have hives on my property at planting time. The hives are highly visable from air or by a state highway.

Brenda

[Rebel Rose Apiary]

Thank you all for the great advise. I am going to speak to the farm owner/grower and see what we can come to an agreement on. At least now I have a figure to put down on paper before him where he can see my total losses.

Brenda

[Kathyp]

it does not matter that you sent a letter unless you know that they got it.  unless you required a signature for the letter, you did nothing that will stand in court.