🐝 The Economics of Commercial Pollination Contracts

About this simulation

UK beekeepers who rent hives to growers are selling a service, not honey: adequate, well-timed pollination. Growers pay per hive (or per colony strength), but the beekeeper's real cost includes haulage, labour, night-time moves, and the risk of weak or lost colonies. This scene models a rented apiary dropped into a crop field — the greener the patch, the better pollinated it is, based on how many hives are present and how strong each colony is.

How it works

• Coverage map — each field patch is coloured by distance to the nearest hive and the colony strength; different crops need denser hive placement (soft fruit polytunnels > orchards > field beans).
• Required hives — the crop-specific stocking density recommendation for full coverage of this field.
• Cost per hive — rises for weak colonies, reflecting the higher risk of replacement, supplementary feeding and grower complaints.
• Net profit — contract revenue (hives × rental rate) minus total haulage/labour/risk cost.

Controls

• Crop contract — switches between soft fruit, top fruit orchard and field bean contracts, each with a different stocking density and value.
• Hives supplied — how many hives the beekeeper delivers to this field.
• Rental rate per hive — the agreed £ price per hive for the contract period.
• Colony strength — average frames of bees per colony; stronger colonies pollinate a wider radius and cost less in replacement risk.
• Coverage map toggle — show or hide the field colour overlay. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom.

Did you know?

UK soft-fruit growers typically ask for 4–6 strong hives per acre under polytunnels, roughly double the density used for top-fruit orchards, because polytunnel bees fly shorter, more repetitive routes and flowering is compressed into a few intense weeks.