UK growers hire commercial beekeepers to place honeybee hives in orchards during bloom under a written placement agreement — setting hive numbers, the dates hives arrive and leave, access, indemnity and a fee, usually per hive per week. This scene models a simplified orchard so you can see how those negotiated terms translate into coverage on the ground and cost on paper.
UK placement agreements typically run to a fixed stocking rate of roughly 2–5 hives per hectare for top fruit like apples and pears — too few hives under-pollinate the bloom window, while too many create local competition for forage without improving set.
A 3D orchard where the hives you place, the radius they forage over, the duration of the placement agreement and the fee per hive-week combine to project pollination coverage and the total contract value.
Trees within a hive's foraging radius turn green (covered); trees left outside every hive's reach stay amber (under-pollinated). Contract value is simply hives × weeks × fee, the standard structure of a UK placement agreement.
Set the number of hives, their foraging radius, placement duration and fee per hive-week. Watch orchard coverage, pollinated tree count, stocking density and contract value update live, then reshuffle the layout to see coverage shift.
Most UK top-fruit placement agreements target roughly 2–5 hives per hectare during bloom — too sparse and blossom goes unvisited, too dense and colonies simply compete for the same forage without lifting fruit set.