Sometimes beginner and experienced beekeepers need a little extra hand with some on-site advice. Beekeeping can be difficult at times, as you try to make sense of what your bees are doing. We were beginner beekeepers once, and we remember wondering if everything was going terribly or if everything is going well.
For local customers within 20 miles of our store, we will visit your hives and consult for $125 for the first hour and $18.75 every 15 minutes after that. We will schedule a time in the next ten days after booking the consult.
Book your time with us through this page and send us an email with more details about how we can help you with beekeeping.
For non-local customers, we can schedule a virtual chat and consult for $75 for the first hour and $18.75 every 15 minutes after that.
It is just hard to know sometimes, so we want to help you be a better beekeeper.
If you live locally, we can come out to your apiary or future apiary and suit up with you and your bees. Giving you a hands-on, one-on-one class where you can get all your questions answered.
We can also mentor and help you with your bees virtually via zoom or google meet. These meetings can take place in our retail store where we can walk through supplies as well as share videos and images to help show as well as teach. These are popular for beekeepers getting started and wanting to get a good understanding of the supplies that work best for them.
Some of the ways we can help you with our mentoring service include:
HIVE INSPECTION
A routine hive inspection is essential to every good beekeeper. During a hive inspection, a beekeeper can find out how well the bees are doing and if any action is needed. We can help with your inspection and advise on the next steps and show you how to do your own inspection.
HIVE SPLITTING
If you have a particularly strong hive that you would like help splitting, we can help you find the queen and the right frames for the job. If you need to mark the queen before splitting or have queen cells that you would like transferred, we can help make that job easier for you. Splitting hives is a great way to keep your bees healthy and prosperous; as well as increase your apiary.
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.
HONEY HARVESTING
If all goes well with your bees, you may be able to harvest a little honey for your friends and family. Not all frames are ripe for harvesting, so we can help go through your hive and pull frames that will do the job. And also help you uncap and spin out your honey. It's quite a process, but helpful to have an experienced beekeeper alongside to help.
POST MORTEM
After a colony dies, it is helpful to look at the frames and make a diagnosis as to why they died. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell, but we can help diagnose the situation to hopefully keep it from happening again. What do you do with the equipment? We can help you find a plan for that too. Losing colonies is part of beekeeping, but we can help reduce the pain from that sting.
BEE INSTALLATION
When your bees arrive, it can be an intimidating process "installing" them. We can help demystify this process and coach you through the steps or you can watch us. 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
It can be difficult planning the right spot for your bees, as there are so many variables to take into account. Choosing your apiary location takes careful planning and prep to ensure you and your bees do well. If you need your hives moved to a new apiary, we can help with that too.
VARROA COUNTING
Varroa mites can wreak havoc on a beehive, often going unnoticed until it is too late. 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. There are certain tricks we can share with you to ensure your new (old) bees stay in their new hive, turning lemons into lemonade.
HIVE SITTING
Sometimes our 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 that is feeding your bees are adding equipment to reduce the chances of swarming.
SO WHAT DOES IT COST?
There is not an extra charge for locations within 20 miles of our retail store. This covers much of the Birmingham area. For locations further than 20 miles, we charge for $2 each mile over 20 miles to the apiary.
For example, if your apiary is 30 miles from our store, we would charge $125 for the first hour and $2 for each additional mile beyond 20. If we spent another 30 minutes with you and your bees, it would be only an additional 37.50. We don't charge mileage for the return trip.
Our hourly consulting rate for virtual video chats and time on site is $75 per hour for the first hour and then 15-minute increments at $18.75 after that. We calculate our time from the point we start talking bees to when we stop.
If you would like to book a time with us, please purchase the applicable consult and we will be in contact with you.
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
