Sample Contracts
Our Contract: We feel that many contracts have a fatal flaw as regards pesticide usage. It is the applicators responsibility, clearly defined on the pesticide labels to protect the bees, whether or not the beekeeper can assist. Label directions protect the bee at the flower; the hive will then also be protected. Pesticide label directions for bee protection are good enough that following them will give adequate protection to all bees, whether domestic or wild, whether physically on the property or on a neighboring property. Any grower who kills bees has committed a pesticide misuse. A good example is the fruit grower who "jumps the gun" on petal fall insecticide application. Not only is this illegal; it is stupid.
Growers who kill pollinators any time, anywhere, are biting the hand that feeds them. Contracts need only to require that applicators follow the pesticide laws, as found on pesticide label directions. Any contract that makes provision for growers to demand that beekeepers move or "protect" bees should require that the grower pays the cost of this, and it should be clear that any action taken does not absolve the grower of compliance with pesticide label directions.
A grower once wiped out my colonies when he sprayed an orchard adjacent to the orchard where my bees were kept. He had removed the bees from his orchard, but made the application at about 1/2 petal fall. My bees were only a couple hundred feet from the property line and were foraging on his trees as well. This kind of exercise in folly still happens, but today's FIFRA law would open such a grower to arrest for wilful criminal misuse.
Dr. Sanford's Pollination Contract
Dr. Keith Delaplane's contract