Considering placing honeybees on your property? Have questions about your hives?
Sometimes beginner and experienced beekeepers need a little extra hand with their hives.
HOW IT WORKS
Beekeeping can be challenging and we love to share the knowledge we have. We were all beginner beekeepers once and we want to help you become a better one. We enjoy teaching and want you to be successful as a beekeeper and our mentoring service gives you the opportunity to work with an experienced beekeeper with YOUR bees. We come to your home or farm.
SO WHAT DOES IT COST?
• $120 per hour with a 1hr minimum up to 20 miles from downtown Franklin.
• $60 per additional hour if required
We will schedule a time within 48 hours of contact. Available times and dates are dependent on availability and weather.
On checkout you will be purchasing a 1-hour minimum Consultation, additional hours can be discussed in advance or onsite if required. A signed waiver is required for services.
SERVICES WE CAN PROVIDE:
PRE-BEEKEEPING HELP
Need help figuring out what you need to get started? Meet with us early to see the equipment options and get a personalized consultation so you can get the equipment that works best for you. There is a lot to consider before getting your bees and get you started off on the right foot. These are great for our virtual consult.
HIVE INSPECTION
A routine hive inspection is essential to any good beekeeping program. During hive inspections, we can find out how well the bees are doing and if any action is needed. We show you how to do a hive inspection and advise on the next steps.
HIVE SPLITTING
If you have a particularly strong hive that you need help splitting, no problem. We can help you find and mark the queen got through the options you have for splitting. Looking to increase your apiary? Maybe you just want to maintain what you have? Splitting offers a number of benefits. Seeing queen cells? We can help. Splitting hives is a great way to keep your bees healthy and vigorous; as well as increase your apiary.
HONEY HARVESTING
If all goes well with your bees and the weather complies, you may be able to harvest a little honey for your friends and family. If all your frames arent ready for harvesting, we can help you go through your hives and pull the right ones. Uncapping and spinning the honey is quite a process, and always helpful to have an experienced beekeeper alongside to help.
DEAD OUT
It happens and hurts the hear of every beekeeper. Varroa? Starvation? Absconding. After a colony dies, it’s always a good idea to do a post mortem inspection and make a diagnosis as to why they died. Sometimes it can be difficult to determine, bu the sooner, you reach out, the better we can help diagnose the situation and help prevent it from happening. What do you do with the equipment? We can help you build a plan for that too. Losing colonies is a part of beekeeping, don’t give up.
BEE INSTALLATION
When your bees arrive, it can be an intimidating process to install them into your nucleus or boxes. We can help you or coach you with this process and show you how easy it is. Different techniques are used for packages and nucleus hives and we can help you and your bees get started on the right foot.
SPACE PLANNING
Picking a good spot for placing hives is a series of choices. Wind direction, sunlight, accessibility, weather, animal pressure and elevation can all play roles in making your apiary successful. Choosing your apiary location takes careful planning and prep to ensure you and your bees do well.
VARROA COUNTING
Varroa mites are the honeybees number one killer. Since introduced it spreads aggressively from hive to hive and and can wreak havoc on an apiary. Even lower populations of varroa mite can cause viruses and ultimately kill your colony. It is practically impossible to just look for varroa mites on the bees, so we can offer a definitive count of the varroa mite population in your hive and give advice based on what is found.
SWARM CATCHING
Have your bees swarmed and you want to get them back? We can help you get your own bees back and transfer them into a new hive. Visit this link here.
HIVE SITTING
Sometimes schedules don’t mesh well with our hobbies. If you aren’t able to take care of your hives for a period of time, we can step in and help your bees while you are away. Whether it’s feeding, doing an inspection, adding equipment or preventing swarms, we can help.
