Pollination fees

[King bee apiary]

Hello everyone, I am interested in providing some pollination services for a local berry farm and am wondering how to charge for this service. I did a search on here of about twenty pages and didn't seem to find the right answer I was looking for.
Would you charge by the hive or acre ? Maybe just a yearly fee, or no fee? I don't want to over charge anyone as this berry farm is a mom & pop type and with the economy the way it is I would not want to do that.
Tell me what you think.
Thanks

[JohnK and Sheri]

I will bump this for you, maybe someone can give you specifics on berry pollination fees in a similar situation.
It would be helpful if you would define the situation a bit more. Will this be a permanent out yard which you could use anyway? If so the location might be worth not to charge them anything. How far is it? You need to consider time and gas spent for the drive, both ways. If you move them in for the bloom, then out again, gas, time and convenience would be greater than if they stay there all year and you need to determine what it is worth to you.
Sheri

[KQ6AR]

I was watching a discovery channel show on ccd yesterday. The beekeeper was pollinating blueberry in the new england states. He charged $90 per hive.
The hives would stay until the bloom was finished.

Interesting The farmer would watch a 3'x3' square. If he saw 2.5 bees in one minute it was considered adequate pollination.

Dan

[hankdog1]

I guess it more or less depends on what you can get per hive which down here in Virginia it ranges from 45 to 100 bucks a hive. Just sit down and talk to the person about it draw up a contract you both can agree on. Keep in mind even if you have always known this person contracts are a good idea business is business and a contract states what both parties are suppost to do in clear terms. Saves fighting and sometimes a lost friendship.

[Dan Williamson]

I don't want to over charge anyone as this berry farm is a mom & pop type and with the economy the way it is I would not want to do that.
Tell me what you think.
Thanks

With the economy the way it is, you need to ensure you are covering your time and expense as well. Keep in mind that they are in it to make money. You should be in it to make $$ as well. If you have a quality product quote a quality price. I charge more than anyone else I know in my immediate area for pollination but I also provide stronger colonies than anyone else I know in this area. My customers have dropped some of their longer term beekeepers after they tried some of my colonies. Its not because I'm a great beekeeper. It's because I put alot of $$, labor, and time into the process. It doesn't happen by accident.

I'm not a big pollinator. My biggest farm takes 48 hives. But word gets around when you have a quality product. Guess what. They don't bat an eye at my price when they've seen the clouds of bees that pour out of the colonies.

When you compete against guys that use nucs/packages to pollinate they don't stand a chance. Most of my colonies are double deeps full of bees when I bring them to the pollination job. Make sure you don't short change yourself and make sure that your grower get's what they pay for.

[Michael Bush]

If it's a good location and you can leave them year round (and want to) free is fine. If you have to move them in and out, I would not do so for less than $50 and then only if it's a convenient distance. You won't make any more honey and probably less because of the stress of moving. Any less than $50 a hive isn't worth loading and unloading them, let alone the gas and trip. More might actually be worth it.

[Tom G. Laury]

Never pollinate for free. They won't appreciate it.

[arjay]

i have some hives on a small farm; he wanted pollination and i wanted room to expand. i'm keeping the hives there year-round, and charging $20 per hive for pollination. he was absolutely fine with it.

[sqkcrk]

Charge as much as the market will bear. You can always come down from a high price. But it's hard to get a grower to pay much more next year.

Find out what other growers, in your area, are paying and/or what other beekeepers are getting.

If the grower you wish to provide bees to doesn't know how many colonies they need, check w/ your local Co. Extension Office. They may not know, but they might know someone who does. The USDA put out a publication a number of years back that should still be accurate as to the number of colonies per acre needed on most fruit and vegetable crops. I'm not at home, so I can't grab it off the shelf, but I think the name of it is is something like "Pollination Needs of Fruit and Vegetable Crops". It lists and describes all sorts of fruits and vegetables and tells how many honeybee colonies per acre to use or even if honeybees are the right pollinator for that crop.

Have fun.

[shoefly]

1 cent per foraging bee sounds about right.
Just my 2 cents

[Tom G. Laury]

Yeah that sounds more than fair!

[Cacklewack]

Charge as much as the market will bear. You can always come down from a high price. But it's hard to get a grower to pay much more next year.

Find out what other growers, in your area, are paying and/or what other beekeepers are getting.

If the grower you wish to provide bees to doesn't know how many colonies they need, check w/ your local Co. Extension Office. They may not know, but they might know someone who does. The USDA put out a publication a number of years back that should still be accurate as to the number of colonies per acre needed on most fruit and vegetable crops. I'm not at home, so I can't grab it off the shelf, but I think the name of it is is something like "Pollination Needs of Fruit and Vegetable Crops". It lists and describes all sorts of fruits and vegetables and tells how many honeybee colonies per acre to use or even if honeybees are the right pollinator for that crop.

Have fun.

Here's a chart from Ontario:

http://www.ontariobee.com/5_pollination/default.htm

Matt