Pollination price.

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Joined
Jul 6, 2011
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Location
folkestone
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National
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Hi, Was wondering what the going price is for pollinating orchards or crops,
Was speaking to a orchard owner it Kent a couple of weeks ago who gets his crops pollinated by someone from norfolk as he cant find local bee keepers locally to do it..
Is there a going rate that everyone follows or an average that is charged?
:xmas-smiley-010:
 
For orchards it's somewhere in the region of £50 a colony.
For that you must ship them in and out at a moment's notice and they must be above a minimum strength (which I can't remember).
I only did it once, a lot of hard work, disruptive to bees and beekeeper alike. But close to home it could be a good thing to do.

Tip: find a reliable method of finding your bees. You can lose your bearings in a big orchard easily especially as all the leaf appears while your bees are there. It took me about 4 hours to find 20 hives in failing light.
 
Cheers Chris, The guy was paying more than double that but I think most of that was to cover the traveling costs.
Even at £50 it still sounds reasonable for a days work getting them in and out if 10 or 20 hives were needed.
Many thanks..
 
How long do the colonies need to stay in the orchard to get the pollination job done?
 
"How long do the colonies need to stay in the orchard to get the pollination job done?"

until the inevitable frost takes out all the remaining blossom?
 
having colonies ready for pollination usually involves early feeding, to get the numbers up sufficiently to be of service to the orchard owner. also, there ain't a lot of nectar in apple flowers, so you may need to supply extra stores, I believe.
 
I did a bee farmers theory course 2 weeks ago by a member on this forum it was very interesting the prices were as follows (spring flowering fruit) £50 (specialist crops) £95 (late flowering fruit) £50 (seed crops,beans etc) £40 (other field crops grown for oil,feed etc) £25 it takes a lot of time in short notice if cant leave bees on site .
 
Thanks for the answers, much appreciated !
 

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