In a message dated 9/9/00 10:59:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Greetings !!!   I am also a new beekeeper and wondered how much beekeepers
 typically get paid for positioning a nuc temporarily on someone's lands for
 pollination purposes.  Is there a standard amount?  How much per nuc?

 Having fun in beekeeping .........   Jeanne Lee from Streamwood, Il >>


   Pollination is not generally done with nucs, though there are specialized
situations where they have been used, such as in greenhouse settings.
Cucumber reps tell me that a lot of the pickle crop in southern Mexico is
done with africanized bees in nucs. By deliberately keeping the colonies
small, they reduce the temper of the bees. But they also encourage a lot of
swarming.  Usually the guys who provide the nucs also provide more bait nuc
boxes to catch swarms.

   There have been times when nucs were used, because nothing else was
available. And there are dishonest beekeepers who provide nucs that are
misrepresented as full strength hives.  On a couple occasions where no full
strength hives were available I have rented nucs at reduced prices, but the
growers are fully informed as to what they are getting.  I sometimes stick a
few extra nucs into a pollination at no charge, again with the grower being
informed as to what they are.  Then I use them for later requeening for
colonies that aren't up to par from a poor queen.

   There have been some experiments with using "disposable" nucs in apple
pollination. This does not seem to have become a widespread practice though;
my impression is that it was not cost effective.

   Most crop pollination is done with full strength hives, and in many areas,
there are minimum standards for these. If you cut a full strength hive in
half to make two nucs, you will not get as much pollination from these two
nucs as you would have from the full strength hive.  There are exceptions to
this, of course, but it is a general principle.

   One exception would be if the full strength hive is preparing to swarm;
bees do not work well during swarm preparations.

   Once key to pollination service is to keep a hive on the upswing, which is
the opposite of management for honey production.  For honey production you
want maximum field workers, and a queen that is shutting down, in other words
it has already done its buildup and is actually now on the downswing.
Emerging brood is being replaced by nectar, not more brood.

   But pollination is best accomplished when you have a lot of open brood.
Pollen provides the necessary protein for brood rearing. This induces the
field bees to gather pollen deliberately, as opposed to gathering pollen as
an accidental by product of nectar gathering.  A bee that is gathering pollen
deliberately is about ten times as effective for pollination purposes as a
bee whose intent is to gather pollen.  So we must keep open brood and a high
rate of egg laying as long as possible into the pollination period. Whenever
the queen starts shutting down, you are reducing the pollination
effectiveness.

    Pollination service is best accomplished by beekeepers who take
pollination seriously.  A pollination contract is not a way-station between
honey crops. Nor is a chance to get "free" honey, or find locations for bees.
 Management for pollination is quite different from management for honey
production.

    If you convince a grower than you can do good pollination with nucs, you
may be doing him a disservice, unless there are special reasons why nucs
would be more appropriate.  You are on your own as to pricing.....

   For full strength colony pollination, the prices range from around $25 to
$75 US.  You can find a monthly pollination index by region in Bee Culture
magazine.  It tends to be cheaper where there is a lot of competition, such
as winter veggies in Florida, where some beekeepers are looking for sites for
wintering, as much as they are looking for income.  In areas where demand is
high and bees are not in sufficient supply, the price is higher.  In the
Northeast, and in California almonds, the price will almost certainly have
upward movement next spring, unless winter losses are dramatically reduced.

    Some of the low end prices also represent new beekeepers trying to get
into a market by undercutting established ones (though there are not as many
new beekeepers as there used to be), beekeepers who don't bargain well,
because they desperately need cash inflow, or big beekeepers who need a place
to "drop" a tractor trailer load for a few weeks.  Growers tend to get what
they pay for, though there are exceptions.

    A good resource for anyone considering pollination is The Pollination
Home Page,  http://pollinator.com    Spend some serious time there, then come
back with your questions.

Dave Green