Pollination for the Beekeeper

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Introduction:

Many plants require insect pollination to set fruit.  This plays right into the hands of anyone who can provide honey bees for growers of these fruits.  First, the demand for insect pollination has never been greater in our history.  Many things contribute to the success of a crop.  Among these are the following:

1. Weather conditions

2. Growing Days

3. Fertilizer

4. Labor

5. Equipment

6. Healthy trees or plants

7. Pollination services

8. others

Growers have special needs and they look for individuals or companies that can provide these needs at reasonable cost.  The beekeeper getting into pollination needs to understand the seriousness of this business.  When a grower contracts for pollination services, the provider of those services (a beekeeper) has an obligation to provide hives with sufficient bees to do a good job of pollinating.  A grower can not succeed with a beekeeper:

•  that doesn't show up with bees

•  that has weak hives

•  shows up late with bees

Many recommend that a beekeeper have a contract with a grower to make sure they get compensated for their bees including any damage including insecticide poison .   While this is good for the beekeeper, many contracts also obligate the beekeeper to provide hives of sufficient strength to do the job of pollination.  This is a two edge sword.   Yes, it protects the beekeeper, but on the other hand, the beekeeper is obligated to provide bees.  This could become a major problem for the beekeeper.

 Exploring  the possibility of getting into the pollination business

     The first thing anyone thinking about getting into pollination is income - but we will consider that last..   I think the first thing you should think about is becoming vary familiar with crops that need pollination by honey bees.

Gathering information about pollination:

It is easy to think that moving a few hives of bees into an apple orchard is quick easy money.  However, before you even think about it you should understand the needs of the grower and the crop your bees are going to pollinate.

Things you need to know:

• What crops are grown that you might be interested in renting bees out for pollination?

• As much about the plant's growing habits as possible.

• As much about the current research on that particular plants pollination requirements.

• As much about growers expectations for placement, timing, etc. for that crop.

• As much about pesticide applications used on that crop as possible.

• As much about farm practices connect with that crop.

Things you need to consider:

• What kind of time commitment are you willing to make to make a go of a pollination business?

• What kind of investment are you willing to make?

One bit of advice I can give is to go slow.   If you want to work into this type of beekeeping income it is much better to start small and grow into the business rather than thinking large and jumping into an agreement that you can not fulfill.   If you do a good job, word will get around.  Growers get together just like beekeepers and share information.  You will be learning on the job and gaining valuable experience in the process.

You can not pollinate crops without having bees.

Honey bees have an advantage over other pollinating insects.  They live in colonies with large populations, can be managed, and can be moved from place to place with little trouble.   Growers also realize that the honey bee in many cases is the only option for their pollination needs.

Important facts about bees for pollination:

• You need strong hives  -- weak hives are next to worthless.

• Hives used for pollination need constant management.

• Equipment and condition of equipment used for the bees reflects back on the beekeeper.

Getting Started

Almost anyone with a few hives of bees can move them for pollination.    This might be for a small grower with a need for only a few hives of bees.   These growers have a harder time finding beekeepers willing to rent hives because they need so few.   Many of the large pollination beekeepers have skid loaders and heavy trucks to move bees.  It takes just as much effort to move an entire load as it does 1/2 a load or even 1/4 of a load.   This is exactly where the new pollinator can find a place to start.   It is important to follow up the pollination season with visits to see how the bees accomplished their job.  And by doing a good job, this grower will help introduce you to other growers.

As in any business enterprise failure is a constant threat.   Much failure can be prevent with knowledge, experience, and luck.  Don't count on luck!

I would like to share several stories of real people (no names) who are succeeding and why!  If you are not willing to work as hard as these two, then maybe you might consider not getting into the pollination business.

Success story One

I am often asked how many bees or hives does it take for a person to make a living by keeping bees.  The following example is of a small Georgia beekeeper with 300 to 400 hives.  All 300 to 400 hives are rented out to cucumber and watermelon growers during the summer growing season.   Bees are not on permanent locations and moved a number of times during the year.   But the pollination income is just one source of income for this beekeeper.  He bottles and sells his own honey -- built a fairly good honey trade with local stores and sells honey to local customers from his home.  He also sells nuc's and packages in the early spring (April).  Because of his location (Georgia) all of this is possible.  

Why is he successful?

 First, he devotes his full attention to his bees and has a wife that works with him.  He lives in a modest home and has a pick-up truck most likely 10 years old or more.  All bees are moved on a 16 foot trailer using a  hand truck to get the hives on and off the trailer..  He moves 32 hives at a time and sometimes can make two or three trips per night to drop off bees or pick up bees.    His vacations are taken to the various national meeting if they are held within a days driving distance.  His equipment is well maintained and his bees are regularly checked for diseases, poor queens, etc.  He has the good old boy approach with each of his growers.  He is a native Georgian pollinating crops in his own state and always willing to visit and take calls from his growers.  One of the few luxuries he allows himself is a cell phone.

Success story Two

This second story is not about a beekeeper who moves bees from Texas to California and then to the Dakotas or from Florida northward to Maine.   Some commercial beekeeping operations over winter in the South and then move bees for pollination to those areas requiring pollination.  Operations of this sort are usually family operations of several generations of beekeepers.  It is not the goal or plan of this article on pollination to explain their operations because only they can do that.

This second story is about an instate beekeeper with 2000 hives of bees more or less.  His income is derived from two major sources.  One is the honey crop produced by the bees and the other is the pollination contracts he has with Apple growers and pickle producers.  The beekeeping operation is managed by two men and  a sometimes part time helper.  

The owner of this business is very particular about his bees and spends considerable time keeping them in top notch condition.  Some bees are kept in permanent locations and some are moved from holding yards into the pollination fields or orchards as needed.   All honey is extracted and sold in barrels to a local honey packer.  Because honey crops are not consistent from year to year  and the price of honey varies from year to year, this operation has its good years and its bad years.  The one consistent income is the pollination work they do.  Much of the income from this business is directly spent on improving equipment, buildings, and hives.  (Reinvested back into the business -- as a result the business continues to grow) 

Why is he still in business?

What is so hard for me to understand is why people think they are going to make a fortune.  The more they are told it is risky and not all that profitable, the more they desire to get into the business -- maybe they think we don't want them in the business and they are sure we are lying to keep them out or trying to discourage them because we don't want competition..

So you are still with me.  Good!

What follows are some facts and hints on being successful.  The requirements in bee hives, strength of hives, management of hive, and growth of your business.   The first thing I am going to ask you to do, it take a short self evaluation question session.  This will not take long and any time you answer the question with a no, you should really stop and reconsider the pollination business.

Things you need to do to start a pollination business

Are you ready to answer some really hard question?

Evaluate yourself

1. How much time do you have available for your beekeeping operation?    (some)  (a lot)  (unlimited)

2. How energetic are you?  (some) (very)

3. How healthy are you?     (fair)  (good)  (excellent)

4. How many hives of bees do you own?  (none)   (1 - 10)  (11-25)  (26 - 50)  (51 - 100)  (100+)

5. How much of your own money do you have to invest in the business? (none)  (some) (a lot)

6. How much knowledge about pollination do you have?   (none)   (some)  (a lot)

Your answers many tell you the follow:

1. You have no business thinking about pollination

2. You need to spend more time studying and thinking about a pollination business

3. You are sure you have a basic ability to get into the business.

If you have evaluated yourself and you can honestly say that you are sure you have a basic ability to get into the business, then what follows is for you!

Setting up for pollination

The first criteria of any pollination business is to have strong hives of bees to rent to the growers (customer).  Thus the pollination season really begins the previous fall.  

Many commercial pollinators take their bees south for the winter.  The favorite states for spring build-up seem to be Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana as well as Texas.  Alabama has strict laws governing the transportation of bees on comb into their state -- you can not legally do it.

A commercial pollinator will take strong hives of bees to over winter and then begin the process of splitting them either one or two times before heading North or West for pollination contracts.  These individuals all have their own methods of making increases but many will make up single deep hives as splits and introduce queen cells rather than mated queens into the new splits.  There are many variations of this.   Keep in mind that time is money so many of these beekeepers find short cuts to accomplish this increase in colony numbers.   One method is to split a full hive three ways each into a single deep super.  All equipment is prepared well in advance of the actual job of making the splits.  This equipment is carried to the make-up yard before the splits are made up.

Queens or queen cells are raised well in advance of the split time and scheduled to be ready when the splits are to be made up.   Some do not bother to look for queens when dividing colonies!   Frames of bees and brood are moved from strong hives into the boxes prepared for them.  Each box getting at least five frames of good strong brood and bees.   Queen cells are then placed in all colonies regardless of whether they might have the queen or not.   From the build-up yard, many of these single hives on four way pallets are loaded onto a truck to be taken to a feeding/developing yard.  Many beekeepers do not even bother to move these new splits to other yards but keep them in the same location.

All splits are well fed and the queens progress in each is checked in about 20 days after the split.  By that time the new queen should be laying well.  Between 80 and 90 percent of the queen cells introduced to these new splits will mate successfully.  The 10 to 20 percent that fail to raise a queen are combined with the weaker splits and new splits are made up to fill the holes in the pallets.  These new splits are usually given a queen.  When using pallets for moving or keeping hives of bees, all hives must be kept equal in size and the beekeepers major task is to see that (dead out) are replaced with live colonies of bees.  The goal is to have four hives/colonies of bee of equal strength on each pallet.  (Believe me, this is difficult to do and may be almost impossible with a large number of pallets).

The bees are then prepared for transport to the crops.  This may involve moving them long distances to either the locations for pollination or holding yards.  If placed in holding yards, a second move is required to get them to the crops.   Once a crop has been pollinated, the bees are moved again.  This process takes coordination and good planning.  An operation described is not a one man operation.  It requires a great deal of labor, equipment (skid loaders and trucks), and established contracts.  You just don't head out cross country with a semi load of bee hives without knowing where you are going to set them down.

This information has been provided to give you a little insight into the commercial pollinators routine.

Starting with a few hives of bees

Individual getting started in pollination will not be moving hives to the South, will not have the heavy equipment to move pallets around, and most likely will not have many pollination contracts.  

To be realistic, lets start with the idea that a beekeeper has 20 hives of bees.  They started out the winter in good shape and as well know, about 30% of these bees may not make it thru the winter.  In a very hard winter, losses may amount to 50%.  So in the spring the beekeeper may have 10 to 14 hives of bees to work with.  If you promise a grower that you will put 20 hives on his property for early apple pollination, you will have to be very creative to come up with 20 colonies.  However, all is not lost but it will take a bite out of pollination profits.

A person living in the North does not have the advantage of an early start in making up splits.  Usually splits can not be made up until early April.  What is to be done?

Feeding bees is one way of stimulating the bees to build up fast.  Feeding can begin in February and once feeding is started, it should be continued until nectar begins to be gathered naturally by the bees.  The use of pollen patties is highly recommended but over wintered colonies should have adequate supplies of pollen stored in frames.   If the bees are stimulated, the beekeeper will be able to begin to make up splits by the first of April in many Northern states but not all.  

If pollinating an early crop, the job begins to get more difficult.  If pollinating a summer crop, the beekeeper has plenty of time to make increases.

Making increases in the North is considerably different that the methods used in the South.  First, time is critical. A Northern beekeeper must have mated queens to put into splits made up for any crop requiring bees by mid to late April.  A split will require more frames of brood and bees to do an adequate job of pollination.

A pollinator is definitely short changing a grower (Assuming the grower is paying top dollar for renting bees) if a hive containing only 5 frames of bees and brood are placed on a crop for pollination.  If the grower is paying for five frames of brood and bees, that is one thing but if the grower is paying a completive price for the bees that some one else is getting for a full double deep full of bees, then the grower has every right to feel cheated.  It might take three small units to do the same job a full double deep full of bees can do.

A beekeeper who is in the pollination business must know as early as possible how many hives had made it through the winter and what condition the hives are in regarding honey stores and queen laying ability.  Poor queens need to be replaced as quickly as possible and the hives stimulated with sugar syrup or corn syrup and maybe pollen patties.  

Lets assume in the above example that the beekeeper lost only 6 hives of the 20.  This means that 6 splits will need to be made up as soon as possible to replace the hives that died out.  Lets also assume that 4 of the hives that are alive are weak.  So the beekeeper is left with just 10 hives to make splits from.  You would never - never take bees and brood from the weak hives.  You might consider two things that might help their conditions: 

• Replace the queens.  The queen is the heart and soul of the hive.  A good queen will more than pay for what is spent buying her.  A good queen can lay several thousand eggs a day if there are enough bees in the hive to care for them.  Do the math -- 2000 eggs a day x 20 days = 40,000 bees.

• Buy package bees to supplement the bees in the weak hive (give the hive a good population of bees as well as a new queen to help the older bees in the hive reestablish themselves.).

So much for the weak hives, lets move on to the dead hives.

These dead hives can be made up from the remaining strong 10 hives.  It should be done as early as possible.  Again feeding is extremely important.   The first thing to do is relocate six of the 10 hives to new hive stands when the splits are to be done.   On the old locations the beekeeper needs to set up the six boxes that splits are to made into.  Remember that field bees will return to the old locations so many of the older bees will repopulate the new split.   Remove at least two frames of honey stores to put into each split as well as three of four frames of bee and brood depending on what each of the six selected hives can give without taking too much from them.  You will need to replace any frames removed from the strong hives with comb frames from the hives that died out. From each of the four other hives remove two frames with some brood to add to the splits.  You must guard against chilled brood which results when there are not enough bees in a new split to cover all the brood. Equalize these frames so that the new splits are about equal in strength. 

You can take approximately one frame each week from each of the  four hives that splits were not made up and give them to the splits.  It is better to do this than make up 10 weak splits.  Equalize the strength of these new splits so they develop almost equally.  Do not use any new foundation -- this requires the bees to work much harder and slows down progress.  Use all the drawn foundation in older combs if you have available. You will also need 6 new queens for these 6 new splits.   These queens need to be installed at the time the splits are made up.

If one starts on April 1st, it is possible to have some pretty strong splits by the 21st of April if the above plan is followed and the 10 over wintered hives are strong enough.   Lets assume each split gets a good start -- the new queen is accepted and released from her cage in a day or so.  She then will have gone to work and it is quite possible that she will fill available frame space with her own brood within 17 days or so.  It all depends on the number of worker bees available to keep brood warm and care for the young larva.  Providing the necessary food at this time is critical.

Unfortunately, things can be worse.   The pollinator must be prepared for the worst case scenario.  Only you can answer the question of what do you do if more than 6 hives die out.  And this is on a small scale.

Many Northern Pollinators who do not move South for the winter, usually buy package bees to supplement hives that may be lost over winter.  This is just the cost of doing business.

I hope you are not a person easily discouraged, but there is more to pollination than taking in the money for hive rental.

My recommendation:

• Go slow

• Don't take on more pollination than you can handle.

• Be prepared to share problems with your growers -- The last thing they want to hear is you do not have bees for them.

• You may have to discount the price to them for weaker hives.  Some pollination is better than none at all.

• Don't lie to your growers!!!   If you can not take care of the growers needs, let them know immediately so they might have a chance to do something before it is too late.

And don't:

• Put out hives with only a few frames of bees in them.  You will give all beekeepers a bad rap.

• Over charge for your bees -- you will not be in business very long -- you are entitled to a fair wage/profit. Many growers talk to each other  and it is impossible to keep secrets.