The Guild seeks to provide good information on beekeeping and bees in Philadelphia and to support beekeepers who are trying to make some part of their living from it. In addition to access to our content and the 10% discount on Guild purchases that is offered to Bee Lover members the programs below are available to Hobbyist and Beekeeper Level members.
Hobbyist Benefits
Speakers List
The Guild frequently gets requests from schools and other organizations to speak about bees or appear at events. If these events are not for honey sales we consider them speaking events. Hobbyist and Professional members who are approved by the Speakers Committee are eligible for these opportunities and will be listed on our speakers page.
We suggest a $50 honorarium for speakers but you can set your own prices and negotiate with anyone who contacts you. We won’t enforce anything but if you can we request that you share some part of any income you get from these engagements as a donation to the Guild.
Teaching
Beekeeper and Hobbyist Members can qualify to teach Guild classes and workshops. We generally teach a beginning beekeeping class every year and are launching an intermediate program. Guild Beekeepers can design and list their own classes on our site with Education Committee approval.
Beekeeping
The Guild has a program of supporting non-profits and other public spaces by setting up and maintaining small apiaries on their sites. Hobbyist and Beekeeper members who are approved by the Apiary Committee are eligible to manage these apiaries working with the Apiary manager. These are paid roles, currently $1,500/season per apiary. Apiaries are 2 – 4 colonies and management includes keeping the bees alive, not allowing swarming, and extracting honey for the partner. Bottling will be worked out between the Guild, beekeepers, and partners. Beekeepers are encouraged to work with the partner to set up community access and events which can involve additional income at the beekeeper’s discretion. The guild provides bees, equipment, treatments, and feed as needed.
If you manage two or more of these apiaries we ask you to upgrade your membership to Beekeeper or Lifetime Beekeeper.
Beekeeper Benefits
Advertising on our site
If you sell honey, bees, other hive products and/or provide beekeeping services we will list you on the appropriate pages that we provide to the public, promote your services through our social media channels, and let you post to our our Facebook Group.
Anything that you sell must comply with relevant laws and regulations. If you’re selling bees you have to be registered with PaPlants.gov. If you’re selling honey it has to be bottled in accordance with local regulations.
Our web site is generally at the top of search results for Philadelphia Beekeeping and we want to leverage that for your benefit.
Services Listings
Our swarm page is the first place most people go when they see a swarm of bees. If you want swarm calls we list your contact information and any other criteria that you have for catching swarms on this page. The same will apply to Cut-outs, local honey, nucs, packages, queens, beekeeping services, etc. If you do something that we don’t support yet let us know and we will add it. Anyone who requests these types of services will be referred to these listings and you can link to your own site if you want. If you don’t want to set up your own site, being listed on ours should work pretty well.
Better terms on Consignment and Tabling
Honey Fest is our annual celebration of bees and beekeeping. We’ve been holding it since 2009 and it draws thousands of visitors from all over the region. Beekeeper members get a 25% discount on tabling at Honey Fest.
We have also expanded our consignment sales reach by participating in events, festivals, and celebrations throughout the year with our partners and other organizations. We are seeking to increase sales significantly over the next few years. Beekeeper members pay a 15% consignment fee for any of our honey sales through these events instead of the standard 20%.
Other Programs
We really want to provide valuable services to our members.
Let us know if you want to organize a organize group purchases of equipment, feed, irradiation services (usually with other clubs), and other things as they come up. We are happy to work with you to get the best prices we can.
The Guild has a policy of hiring members first for any work, service, or other business that we do, assuming that pricing is competitive. This policy favors Board Members, Professional Members, Hobbyist Members, and Supporters in that order.
We’re always open to new ideas for offerings and benefits. If you have any ideas Contact Us.