Beekeeping & Pollination Services

Beekeepers maintain honeybee colonies for pollination services, honey production, and bee products like wax, propolis, and pollen.

Pollination services for crops like almonds, apples, blueberries, and cucurbits pay premium fees, while honey and products provide additional revenue.

Success requires beekeeping knowledge and skills, understanding bee health and colony management, potentially commercial-scale beekeeping for pollination services, marketing abilities, and possibly honey production and extraction.

Pricing includes pollination fees $150-250 per hive depending on crop and location, honey $6-12 per pound retail or $3-6 wholesale, beeswax $8-15 per pound, nucleus colonies $100-200, and potentially bee removal services.

Commercial beekeepers with pollination can generate $150-400 per hive annually.

Startup costs include beehives and equipment (hives, frames, protective gear, $200-400 per hive), bees (packages or nucleus colonies, $100-200 per colony), extraction equipment for honey ($500-5,000 depending on scale), truck for transporting hives, business licenses and potentially permits, liability insurance, and learning and certifications totaling $3,000-20,000 for starting scale (10-50 hives).

Building client base involves contracting with farmers needing pollination (often done annually), farmers markets and retail for honey sales, wholesale to stores and co-ops, potentially niche markets (varietal honey, creamed honey, chunk honey), bee products (beeswax candles, propolis, pollen), selling nucleus colonies to beginning beekeepers, bee removal services for unwanted swarms, or teaching beekeeping classes.

Revenue comes from pollination service fees (largest revenue for commercial beekeepers), honey sales (retail and wholesale), beeswax and bee products, selling bees and equipment, potentially queen breeding, bee removal fees, or educational workshops.

Operating costs include bee feed (sugar syrup when needed), treatments for mites and diseases, equipment maintenance and replacement, vehicle and fuel for transporting hives, extraction and bottling supplies, insurance, potentially land rental for bee yards, and significant beekeeper time.

Challenges include colony losses from mites, diseases, pesticides (can lose 20-40% annually), regulations on beekeeping and moving bees across states, weather affects honey production, pollination timing windows tight, bee stings and allergic reactions (liability), and initial learning curve with bee management.

Success requires strong bee management skills maintaining healthy colonies, diversifying income (pollination AND honey/products), potentially pollination contracts with farmers (most reliable income), building local market for honey, value-added bee products, possibly queen breeding or selling bees, treating for mites and diseases proactively, and scale (50+ hives for significant pollination income).

Beekeeping combines agriculture with service business.