Bee colony rental for apple orchard pollination

This business keeps boxes of honeybees and rents them to apple growers while their trees are in flower. The boxes stay in the orchards through the spring bloom. For the rest of the year the bees are moved to other flowering areas, and the honey they make there is a second income.

The Shimla belt, from Kotgarh and Narkanda to Kotkhai, Jubbal and Theog, is one of India's most important apple-growing areas. Apple flowers need insects to set fruit, and wild bees have become scarce, so renting colonies for the bloom is now common in the district.

You need beekeeping training, strong colonies of Italian honeybees, spare boxes, and a hired pickup for night moves on hill roads. Register your colonies with the National Bee Board, and get an FSSAI food licence before you sell honey. The hard part is keeping bees alive: cold snaps, rain or late snow during bloom can kill colonies, and growers who spray during flowering can poison them, so agree spray-free days in writing. Beekeepers from the plains also bring colonies up each spring, so your edge is healthy boxes that arrive on time.

Find growers through village fruit growers' associations and pesticide shops, and book them before winter ends. Sell your honey in jars to tourist shops in Shimla.