Pollination Management System: How SunnyBee Tracks Commercial Pollination Contracts

Pollination as a Business — and Why It Needs Its Own System

Commercial pollination is one of the fastest-growing revenue streams for professional beekeepers. Almond, apple, cherry, sunflower, and rapeseed growers routinely pay to have hives placed on their land during bloom — and the economics are strong: a typical pollination contract in Albania pays per hive per deployment, with professional operations managing dozens of simultaneous contracts across multiple farms and crop types each season.

The operational complexity is significant. A beekeeper running five pollination contracts at the same time needs to track: which farms are contracted this season, how many hives each contract requires, which of their apiaries are contributing hives, whether the colonies are strong enough to meet contract terms, when hives must be placed and when they return, and whether the logistics are aligned with the bloom window.

SunnyBee's pollination module — available on PREMIUM and PRO plans — manages this entire workflow in one place. This guide walks through each component.

Step 1: Register Your Farms

The starting point is a farm registry. Every farm or agricultural client you work with gets a dedicated record containing:

• Farm name and farmer contact: Name, phone, email for direct communication with the client
• Crop type: What is being pollinated — apple, cherry, sunflower, rapeseed, etc. This determines the relevant bloom window and the number of hives typically required per hectare
• Acreage (hectares): Total area being pollinated. Standard recommendation is 2–4 hives per hectare for most fruit crops, up to 8 for intensive production
• GPS coordinates: Precise location for route planning and to verify the farm is within a viable foraging distance from your apiaries
• Address and notes: Access instructions, gate codes, any site-specific information your team needs

The farm registry persists across seasons — once you register a farm, it is available for contracts year after year. This builds an accurate client base over time and avoids re-entering the same farm details for each new season.

Step 2: Create a Pollination Contract

A contract links a farm to a specific season and defines the commercial terms of the deployment. Each contract includes:

• Season year: The year the contract applies to — one farm can have multiple contracts across different seasons
• Hives contracted: The total number of hives agreed with the farmer
• Price per hive: The commercial rate in Lek per hive for this contract
• Bloom start and end: The expected flowering window. This is the period hives must be on site to deliver effective pollination service
• Placement by date: Deadline for having hives on-site before bloom starts
• Return by date: When hives must be removed after bloom ends
• Contract terms: Additional conditions — payment schedule, liability clauses, minimum colony strength requirements

Contract status progresses through defined states as the season unfolds: PENDING (contract agreed, logistics not yet arranged), ACTIVE (hives on site), COMPLETED (hives returned, season closed), or CANCELLED. Status transitions are logged with timestamps for dispute resolution.

Step 3: Create Hive Batches

Within each contract, you organise hives into batches. A batch represents a physical delivery — a specific number of hives that will move together from your apiaries to the farm on a single transport run.

For example: a contract for 60 hives might be fulfilled in two batches of 30, delivered on consecutive days from two different apiaries. Or a single batch of 60 from one apiary if the logistics allow.

Each batch records the hive count and any notes relevant to that delivery (transport schedule, loading time, driver, special handling instructions).

Step 4: Assign Apiaries as Sources

Each batch draws hives from one or more of your apiaries. The source assignment specifies exactly which apiaries contribute how many hives to a given batch:

• Batch 1 (30 hives): 20 from Apiary A + 10 from Apiary B
• Batch 2 (30 hives): 30 from Apiary C

This source tracking does more than just logistics planning — it updates each apiary's live status. Once sources are assigned and approved, the apiary list shows deployed hives count and the farm name they are deployed to. At a glance, you can see that "Bletishtja Macukull — 25 hives at Ferma Shpendi" without opening any contract detail.

This bidirectional link between the pollination contract and the apiary record is what makes the system operationally useful rather than just an administrative ledger.

Step 5: Colony Readiness Check Before Deployment

Commercial pollination contracts often include minimum colony strength requirements. A farmer paying for 60 hives expects 60 genuinely productive colonies — not weak nucs or disease-stressed hives that will not deliver effective pollination.

SunnyBee's readiness check for each batch records:

• Colony strength: Frame coverage rating at time of pre-deployment inspection
• Varroa count: Mite load at time of check — contracts may specify maximum acceptable levels
• Disease flags: Any active disease conditions present across the batch
• Dead-out count: Number of colonies that did not survive to deployment in this batch
• Notes: Inspector's assessment and any remedial action taken

Once a readiness check is logged, the batch can be reviewed and approved. The approval step creates a clear audit trail: the batch was formally assessed as fit for deployment on a specific date, by a specific person. If a farmer later disputes colony quality, you have the pre-deployment inspection record to reference.

Step 6: Deployment and Return Tracking

Movement records log the physical transport of hives: from which apiary, to which farm, on which date, for which contract batch. Return movements are logged the same way when hives come back.

This creates a complete chain of custody for every hive in a pollination operation: where they started, where they went, when they left, when they returned. For operations managing multiple simultaneous contracts, this is the difference between controlled logistics and chaotic guesswork.

How the Numbers Work: A Practical Example

Suppose you run a 200-hive operation across four apiaries and have three active pollination contracts in May:

• Farm A (cherry): 40 hives, bloom window May 1–20, 2,000L per hive
• Farm B (apple): 30 hives, bloom window May 5–25, 1,800L per hive
• Farm C (rapeseed): 60 hives, bloom window May 10–June 5, 1,500L per hive

Total pollination revenue for May: 80,000L + 54,000L + 90,000L = 224,000L — contracted before the season starts. SunnyBee tracks which batches are placed, which apiaries are contributing, and which contracts have reached their return-by date, so nothing slips through without action.

The expense module records transport costs, labour, and any replacement colonies purchased for the season. The net margin per contract — revenue minus direct deployment costs — is calculable at the end of the season.

Why Pollination Management Is a PRO and PREMIUM Feature

Pollination contract management is available on PREMIUM (up to 3 apiaries, 100 hives) and PRO (up to 5 apiaries, 380 hives) plans. Free accounts do not have access to the pollination module.

This reflects the operational reality: hobby beekeepers with one apiary and nine hives are not running commercial pollination contracts. The module is designed for beekeepers who are already operating at scale — who have multiple apiaries, team members, and recurring client relationships that need proper documentation.

If you are at the point where pollination income is a meaningful part of your operation, the PREMIUM or PRO plan pays for itself in the administrative time it saves per contract season.

Integration with the Rest of SunnyBee

The pollination module does not operate in isolation. Because source apiaries are linked to contracts, the following happens automatically:

• Apiary list shows deployed hive count and farm name in real time
• Hive inspection history for deployed hives remains accessible — you can still track what happened to those colonies during deployment
• Treatment records for the season include the deployment period, giving a complete pharmaceutical timeline
• Team members assigned to a PRO apiary can see the deployment status and know which colonies are currently off-site

This integration means your pollination operations are not kept separate from your apiary management — they are part of the same operational picture. A hive that went to a cherry orchard in May, returned in late May, and is now building up for the linden flow in June is all visible in one place.

Getting Started with the Pollination Module

If you are already a SunnyBee PREMIUM or PRO user:

1. Open the Pollination tab and add your first farm — farmer contact, crop type, acreage, and GPS location
2. Create a contract for the current season — set the hive count, price, placement and return dates, and bloom window
3. Add one or more batches under the contract, specifying how many hives in each delivery
4. Assign your apiaries as sources for each batch
5. Run the readiness check before deployment and record the assessment
6. Approve the batch and log the movement when hives go out
7. Log the return movement when hives come back after bloom

The system builds a complete record of each contract from agreement through delivery, assessment, deployment, and return — giving you the documentation foundation that professional pollination service requires.