Hello All,
I am a new beekeep (less that 1 year) that has been lurking around here for about 2years. Really cool community here. Love that there are 10 ways to do everything. I have 6 colonies currently and am looking to expand. Currently have some Langstroth 10 frame and some Layen 12 frame super deeps.
I am really interested in pollination much more than honey. I would like to get to 150ish colonies, 100 of which would make the 8ish hour drive to Almonds. I suspect this will take a few years to get to that scale. I was hoping to get some advice as I maybe be in the somewhat enviable position of getting to basically start from scratch as I ramp up my equipment.
1. First off, is 100ish colonies even worth it to a grower/broker or will these be hard to place?
2. Equipment. I know standard seems to be 10 frame deeps with either a medium or another deep on top. Is it preferable to just run deeps or are people ok with the mediums?
3. Are 8 Frame deeps acceptable or looked at as a lesser or more annoying system to have to deal with?
4. Anyone use only mediums? Just more of a curiosity.
5. What about something totally different…like Layens hives that were palletized so they can still be inspected. Is that a major headache for the grower/inspector/etc? Obviously the frame calculations would be different. So far the Layens hives have actually seems to be easier to manage and seem to be growing stronger given my low sample size.
6. I have read a few pollination contracts. Do most contacts pay any portion on delivery or is it all at the end of the contract?
7. Do any of your do any kind of impact analysis on your bees pre and post almond deployment? Like getting lab results about *cides/varroa/etc present before vs after visiting the almonds?
8. What about any metrics about hive health comparisons of hives left at home vs hives taken to the almonds?
I am sure I will have more questions but are the questions I keep wondering about so thought instead of wondering I would ask.
Thank you so much!
I am a new beekeep (less that 1 year) that has been lurking around here for about 2years. Really cool community here. Love that there are 10 ways to do everything. I have 6 colonies currently and am looking to expand. Currently have some Langstroth 10 frame and some Layen 12 frame super deeps.
I am really interested in pollination much more than honey. I would like to get to 150ish colonies, 100 of which would make the 8ish hour drive to Almonds. I suspect this will take a few years to get to that scale. I was hoping to get some advice as I maybe be in the somewhat enviable position of getting to basically start from scratch as I ramp up my equipment.
1. First off, is 100ish colonies even worth it to a grower/broker or will these be hard to place?
2. Equipment. I know standard seems to be 10 frame deeps with either a medium or another deep on top. Is it preferable to just run deeps or are people ok with the mediums?
3. Are 8 Frame deeps acceptable or looked at as a lesser or more annoying system to have to deal with?
4. Anyone use only mediums? Just more of a curiosity.
5. What about something totally different…like Layens hives that were palletized so they can still be inspected. Is that a major headache for the grower/inspector/etc? Obviously the frame calculations would be different. So far the Layens hives have actually seems to be easier to manage and seem to be growing stronger given my low sample size.
6. I have read a few pollination contracts. Do most contacts pay any portion on delivery or is it all at the end of the contract?
7. Do any of your do any kind of impact analysis on your bees pre and post almond deployment? Like getting lab results about *cides/varroa/etc present before vs after visiting the almonds?
8. What about any metrics about hive health comparisons of hives left at home vs hives taken to the almonds?
I am sure I will have more questions but are the questions I keep wondering about so thought instead of wondering I would ask.
Thank you so much!