At least for some, it is a growth industry. Uniform advice from these panels was that a quality pollination service takes commitment. The beekeeper must always be ready to get bees in and move them out of fields with very short notice, and some kind of a backup plan should be in place in the very real case that things go wrong. One must develop a long-term personal relationship based on trust with the customer. A key to this is communication.
Successful pollinators are regularly in contact with customers, even during the off season.
They send out reminders and make phone calls in advance of the coming season to try to assess their capabilities and the growers' needs. One outfit writes a newsletter that includes information on a wide variety of topics. I was happy to hear that at least one commercial pollinator has used information I published about pollination in his marketing efforts. I wrote for commercial grower conventions, are both available from County Extension Offices on CD ROM 7 and 8. In addition, I continue to have a supply of ENY 110 Sample Pollination Agreement , available on request.