How much honey to give?

[rmdial]

Is there a consensus on how much honey to give people who let a beekeeper place hives on their property. I know there are pollination contracts where a beekeeper is paid but I remember hearing about people giving a quart for every hive allowed on a property. Is it one quart total? One for each hive? is there a max? Your thoughts please.

[billybwf]

If your bees are providing the land owner a service such as pollinating crops, I would think one quart would be good.

[mike haney]

there is no consensus,and the amount would likely be contingent on an actual harvest if it were I.

[Tom B]

I have hives in 8 different locations, none of them on my land. I give each landowner a percentage of their hive's production. In that way, it is like a CSA share, if the crop is good, all parties benefit. If not so good, then all are interested in making changes to improve the outcome in the future. However, every landowner gets some honey, even if it has to come from some other hive location.

I also visit each landowner long before the hive is placed to agree on a location for the hive and to gauge their reasons for wanting to host a honey bee colony. If their principle interest is the amount of honey they will get, I become much less interested in this location.

[Joes_bees]

I give them a good sized jar and tell them to let me know when it's empty.

Don't underestimate how much honey and pollination are worth or you're doing a disservice to the bees and their keepers.

[jmgi]

I just give them honey whenever they need it, usually I see the landowners every couple weeks during the active season when I go out to maintain the hives and I ask them if they need more. John

[ken rice]

Jmgi is right on target for what I do.

[rwurster]

I have 3 yards, never given anyone anything, not for pollination or bee yards and never will.

[dixiebooks]

I give a quart to each landowner. There is one exception: one landowner lets me use a small barn (a corn crib, actually) for storage of some of my supplies and equipment. I give him some extra honey. But for most locations, a quart is enough, I think. If I were a commercial operator and had several dozen hives in one location, I would probably go with a gallon but I'm not anywhere near that size. -js

[dixie1]

I'm just ending my second year as a beek. I have two bee yards and have 9 hives in one yard and 19 hives in the other....first year had only 4 hives producing enough to extract, so I gave each owner a half gallon....this year we did well and I have each one gallon.....we're planning on expanding next year again, but I set the limit at 1 gallon each....

dixie