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From: Edward D Heinlein <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:45:45 -0600
Subject: Re: [BEE-L] start up cost

I get numerous people approaching me, asking if I "would like" to put A
(singular) beehive on their property to pollinate their crops. I guess
they feel that they are doing me a big favor with their offer, or are
expecting an unlimited supply of honey. But after a quick education on
the cost of doing business (expense of equipment, travel, labor, etc.),
the fact that beekeeping is my profession, and NOT just something to kill
time with, they sheepishly change their minds about their offer! Keep in
mind, they are not doing us a favor with their offer to place a hive on
their property, we are providing a HUGE SERVICE if we agree to place a
hive on their property. I think it is paramount to get people's way of
thinking to come into alignment with this fact!

There are any number of ways you could calculate what you should charge
for placing bees on others properties. You could set an annual income for
yourself, and then calculate what your hourly wage would be to cover all
the time you spend managing the hives for them. Use that as a labor
factor when TRAVELING TO, and working the bees on their properties each
week. You could also calculate what each of your hives would generate in
income from honey production for a year, and add that to your labor
costs, especially if the landowner wants the honey produced in the hive
that is on their property.

I find that pollination locations are rarely the best honey producing
areas. If one of my colonies generates "X" amount of honey per year (on
avg.), and I am moving it for pollination, where I may even have to feed
it to keep in alive, then what I will charge for pollination will at
least cover what I would have made on the honey missed, plus my labor
working the colony all summer.

When other beeks place colonies for pollination, do they leave them at
that location all year??? That would not seem like a sound business
decision, especially if the area was not heavily infested with honey
producing plants!

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