Advice on what to charge

[Brian Bush]

I have been approached by someone in my village who wants me to place a hive in his garden. He is prepared to pay for the initial hive and set up and wants to pay me a yearly retainer to manage the hive.
Has anyone any advice on what I should charge for the retainer and any terms and conditions I should impose, please?

 

[Poly Hive]

How well do you know this person is my first thought.

Promptly followed by well there are lost of potential issues here so...

I would suggest placing one of your hives in the garden for a trial period and work it as normal and so see how this person gets on with what is happening in their space. And only if that is a success consider what you mentioned in the post.

PH

 

[Hachi]

Remember, a contract is a set of rules of how you get out of it [the contract] when things go wrong. Choose your terms carefully.


There is a guy [I think a professional Beefarmer] recently offering £200 pa for someone to look after a hive of his bees.


Who owns the honey? If you manage to get any?

Knowing of some horror stories of similar circumstances to what you've been offered my advice would be to pull a list of eqpt, including spares etc together, give it to him/her and get them to buy it therefore mitigating your financial exposure. Don't forget the bee's too.

Most I have found, think its a cheap thing beekeeping and soon change their minds when they see the initial cost outlay.

 

[eltalia]

We have tried this concept a number of times, sufficient to not go there again.

Between rent defaulters/diviorce disputes/maryJ growfarms - all related to
access - and just plain ignorance in what not to do around a beehive, such is
just not worth it even at "favour" level.
Then again society may well operate quite differently in your part of the World.

Bill

 

[enrico]

25% of a years honey!
E

 

[Hachi]

We have tried this concept a number of times, sufficient to not go there again.

Between rent defaulters/diviorce disputes/maryJ growfarms - all related to
access - and just plain ignorance in what not to do around a beehive, such is
just not worth it even at "favour" level.
Then again society may well operate quite differently in your part of the World.

Bill

No discernible difference Bill I can assure you....

 

[MartinL]

You should ask, why they want the hive in their garden?

I'd get them to pay for a nuc, Full sized hive+ frames/foundation.
Then set them up as a bait boxes for now.

See how that goes before committing to anything else.


How far would you need to travel to get to the hive?

 

[Walrus]

I have been approached by someone in my village who wants me to place a hive in his garden. He is prepared to pay for the initial hive and set up and wants to pay me a yearly retainer to manage the hive.
Has anyone any advice on what I should charge for the retainer and any terms and conditions I should impose, please?

If you charged £200pa and assume maybe £20pa of that goes towards syrup/varroa treatment/the odd frame then you are getting £180pa for your time. If you make around 26 visits per year, and travel time there and back is 10 mins, and inspection time is 10 mins, then total time = 520 mins (8.67 hours). You will be earning £20.76 per hour for your time and travel.

I had a hive in two separate people's gardens (for free) and in both cases I had to bring the bees back. One was because the person became allergic to stings and had to go to hospital twice. The other was because the bees got cross and chased gardeners/workmen. In both cases when I collected them (and since) they are nice bees. I don't think keeping bees in gardens is a great idea unless they are about 30 metres+ away from neighbours/people. People will get stung and cutting the grass, being investigated by the dog etc. will sometimes annoy bees.

It's easy enough to install a nuc in their new hive but a different story removing a double brood hive with a couple of supers! And when they want them gone, they want them gone pronto. They will expect a few jars of honey too!

 

[Murox]

I have been approached by someone in my village who wants me to place a hive in his garden. He is prepared to pay for the initial hive and set up and wants to pay me a yearly retainer to manage the hive....edit...

So they will own the hive+bees and honey and you will simply be doing all the work for them.
Charge a realistic retainer - how many hours do you spend tending one hive in a month/year? Maybe use the minimum wage as an hourly figure? Fuel costs? If they expect you to also extract using your gear then an additional charge might apply, say a percentage of they honey extracted plus the wax capping etc.

As Poly Hive and others point out it can be fraught with grey areas and potential pitfalls, sit down with them and go through everything. Wait a couple of weeks and then have another talk about some form of "contract" - and do you need public liability insurance?

 

[B+.]

Has anyone any advice on what I should charge for the retainer and any terms and conditions I should impose, please?

You should probably consider the inconvenience factor. How much will this impact on your ability to look after your own hives.
I look after 2 hives in a Ladies garden. I charge her nothing because I get access to the estates farms - so it's symbiotic. Going there to look after two hives takes as long as I can spend on 20 of my own. Inevitably, I end up spending more time talking to the staff and explaining what I am doing.

 

[Anduril]

If you charged £200pa and assume maybe £20pa of that goes towards syrup/varroa treatment/the odd frame then you are getting £180pa for your time. If you make around 26 visits per year, and travel time there and back is 10 mins, and inspection time is 10 mins, then total time = 520 mins (8.67 hours). You will be earning £20.76 per hour for your time and travel.

I had a hive in two separate people's gardens (for free) and in both cases I had to bring the bees back. One was because the person became allergic to stings and had to go to hospital twice. The other was because the bees got cross and chased gardeners/workmen. In both cases when I collected them (and since) they are nice bees. I don't think keeping bees in gardens is a great idea unless they are about 30 metres+ away from neighbours/people. People will get stung and cutting the grass, being investigated by the dog etc. will sometimes annoy bees.

It's easy enough to install a nuc in their new hive but a different story removing a double brood hive with a couple of supers! And when they want them gone, they want them gone pronto. They will expect a few jars of honey too!

Similar to me, I had 2 hives, in a garden 1 1/2 acres, they wanted the experience to have hives on their property, with the idea of taking up beekeeping later on. After 2 years I was asked to remove them as they couldn't get to one part of their garden which was on the bees flightpath.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I don't claim to be an expert on this but I have been managing hives for a large company in the HQ grounds (10 acres plus) for over 2 years now. I also have 2 private clients who have gardens in excess of 5 acres.
I would agree that having calm bees is very important although I am lucky that both my private clients are/want to be beekeepers who want to be involved but spend a lot of time travelling the world so don't have the time to look after hives properly.
The hives are placed in areas that are not generally used by the families/staff to avoid potential conflict.

Labour costs
As far as pricing is concerned I worked out what hourly rate I would be happy with looking after bees - £15/hr.
I then worked out how many visits I would need to make - say 26 during the main season and say another 14 out of season for hefting, treatments etc.
I worked out the time per hive say 20mins in season 10mins during winter.
Worked out how long driving took.
With this information you can work out labour cost of inspection per hive.
Cost for additional hives can be calculated without the travelling time.

Transport cost.
I charge travelling at 45p/mile as per the taxman!

I allow an amount for feeding and treatments per hive.

Honey
My corporate client wants all the honey so I charge them for the use of my equipment and a charge of £1 per jar I fill.
The private clients want honey so I do the extraction and jarring and we split it 50/50. I see that as an incentive to ensure I get them adecent crop.

This works for me. I hope it helps.

 

[sipa]

Consider :
1 Traveling time
2 Travel costs
3 Consumables and Disposables
4 Insurance and liabilities
5 Feed and Treatments
6 On-going equipment replacement and maintenance costs
7 Your standard HOURLY rate
8 Your Emergency Callout and support rate

(7) Suggest an hourly rate of £50 min
(8) Suggest an hourly rate of £75 min

Anyone who wants bees without the work should pay a decent rate.... it's a business transaction.

Consider the rates you pay for say a mechanic, electrician, plumber, decorator etc

 

[For want of a better word]

You should probably consider the inconvenience factor. How much will this impact on your ability to look after your own hives.
I look after 2 hives in a Ladies garden. I charge her nothing because I get access to the estates farms - so it's symbiotic. Going there to look after two hives takes as long as I can spend on 20 of my own. Inevitably, I end up spending more time talking to the staff and explaining what I am doing.

Depends upon how long you can spare to talk about how the bees are doing and how much lemon drizzel cake and Pims No1 you can enjoy!

I know one beekeeper who will not entertain any colonies within sight of the land owners house... and with free and easy access... mind you he is a bit of an unsociable ol' drone!!
Me... I can eat as much lemon drizzel cake as the owners can supply!!!

Chons da

 

[Newbeeneil]

Depends upon how long you can spare to talk about how the bees are doing and how much lemon drizzel cake and Pims No1 you can enjoy!

I know one beekeeper who will not entertain any colonies within sight of the land owners house... and with free and easy access... mind you he is a bit of an unsociable ol' drone!!
Me... I can eat as much lemon drizzel cake as the owners can supply!!!

Yes it's amazing how the private clients seem to be the last visit of my day
A nice G & T on the patio overlooking a view from Surrey down to the South Downs whist having a chat with very pleasant people........ nice!