There are a number of food crops in Canada and the US that are so reliant on bees that bee hives are trucked around the country moving from crop to crop, pollinating the plants and then being moved on when the job is done.

This constant upheaval of the bees is overly stressful and detrimental to their health. How would you feel after working in one place for a month or so, then being loaded on a truck and moved to the next job. Not to mention a mono-crop diet and then fed a high sugar substitute. Constantly. Repeat.

You’d get sick and die, too.

While we do provide pollination services, we don’t parachute the hives in and then remove them a few weeks or months later as in the “standard” model. A pollination contract with us will mean hives moving in to your farm or orchard for the long term. A year at minimum. You’ll have healthier, stonger bees helping your crop which means better pollination. And we’ll have healthier bees.

This is how it works: we figure out the number of hives required (generally, a minimum of one per acre) and we move the hives into place early in the spring. Empty hives will be populated as soon as the temperature allows. We tend the bees throughout the year, leaving the hive permanently placed, and using only sustainable beekeeping methods. They live on your property, pollinating not only your crops, but your garden and flowers as well!  What do you get? Near-guaranteed increases in production: we’ve heard reports of 40%+ boosts in yield.

What does this service cost? Standard migratory beekeeping rates vary from $75-$125 per hive (depending on numbers required) and we’ll certainly be competitive with that. Contact us for details. Not all crops can benefit from bees: corn, for instance, is wind-pollinated and the bees don’t go near GM buckwheat.

Who owns the hive and the bees? Seldom Fools Apiculture both owns and licenses the hive and the bees. The charge is for the pollination beekeeping service. You’re “hiring” the bees to work your fields.