Residential Backyard Hive Hosting
Enjoy honey bees in your backyard. Let local expert beekeepers do the work.
Rainy Day Bees has been tending residential beehives in backyards in Seattle and Shoreline since 2011.
We started keeping hives in different neighborhoods out of necessity, and quickly fell in love with the unique flavor profile of raw honey from different backyards.
Since that time, we have become experts in local urban beekeeping, spreading the joy of urban bees through our backyard hive hosting program, as well as classes and backyard beekeeping experiences.
Interested in being a hive host? Read the details below and then fill out our Hive Host Interest form.
Interested in learning more about becoming a corporate client? Visit our Commercial Apiary Management page.
Why Become a Hive Host?
- Watching the bees in your backyard! This is the #1 reason our hive hosts love their bees.
- Support honey bees, local beekeepers, and your local food systems while learning about pollinators.
- Concentrated pollination for your backyard and your neighborhood.
- Exclusive access to raw honey from your backyard.
- Be part of a community of hive hosts who care about honey bees.
What's Included
- Two beehives: all equipment and two honey bee colonies.
- 35 expert beekeeping visits a year (average/expected number. Can vary some depending on the needs of the bees).
- Intensive swarm prevention, including weekly hive inspections during swarm season.
- Exclusive access to ultra local raw honey from your backyard and a gift card for raw local honey and beeswax candles.
- Invitation to our annual Honey Harvest Party.
- Optional Upgrade: Hive monitoring system (includes scale), and detailed monthly updates.
Why Choose Us?
We are the local experts at backyard beekeeping! All beekeeping is local. Management practices that work in New England will not work here.
Rainy Day Bees premium management plan. We love our bees (and you will too), but sometimes their natural inclinations can interfere with our hosts' or their neighbors' lifestyles. To mitigate any negative interactions, we go above and beyond other hosting services and provide:
- Intensive management to prevent swarming. Weather
permitting, we inspect our hosts' hives once a week throughout the primary swarm season for signs of future swarming, and perform any necessary mitigation. If we do miss a swarm, we will come out to get it immediately. - Ongoing management throughout the year for health and swarm prevention. All hives are inspected every other week during the active season to make sure that the bees are healthy. Hives are checked once a month during the cold months to make sure that they have sufficient food to make it through to spring.
Minimum two beehives per location. Two hives is the minimum size for a healthy, sustainable apiary, and will also fit in any host yard. Many other hosting services charge extra for a second hive.
Your Benefits
- 12 lbs (1 gallon) of honey from YOUR backyard (or the closest backyard to you, if your hives don't produce)
- $100 gift card for anything in the RDB store, also usable in person at farmers markets
- Expert beekeepers on call to handle any questions from you or your neighbors
- Annual Harvest Party to celebrate the year with your fellow hive hosts and our community
- Two additional private hive host events per year
- All the benefits of responsible urban beekeeping with none of the work!
Hosting Requirements
- We recommend a minimum of an 8x12 foot area with very low to no daily pedestrian traffic. The hives themselves will take up roughly 2x2 feet each, and it is best to give the bees a 10 foot "runway" in front of the hives to reach cruising altitude above people's heads. If you don't quite have that space, there are ways to reduce the needed space in front of the hive.
- Most local municipalities require a setback between bee hives and your property line. This setback is often waived if there is a 6 foot tall solid fence or hedge extending in both directions from the hive that separates the hive from any neighboring properties. If you are uncertain, feel free to email us and we can help you look up the setback requirements for your area.
In and around Seattle, honey bees like as much heat/sun as they can get, because it allows them to start foraging earlier and stay out later. Sunlight and heat also help prevent diseases. Less than half-day sun isn't a total deal breaker, but the more sun we can get the bees, the better it is for everyone.
Beehives take regular maintenance and we want to be able to service them without disturbing you or your family.
Honey bees don’t like to sting, and severe honey bee allergies are actually relatively rare. Still, if you or your family are allergic to honey bees, you are probably not a good candidate for being a hive host unless you have a very large property where the bees can be placed in a completely unused area.
We work primarily in backyards all over Seattle, Shoreline, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Lake Forest Park, Mountlake Terrace, Bothell, Redmond, Bellevue, and Kirkland. If you are outside of these areas, we may still be able to manage hives for you, but additional travel fees may apply.
Pricing
After doing this for many years, we've found that it is very expensive to run a responsible full service urban hive hosting program, and honey sales don't come close to paying for it. Our beekeepers spend an average of 35 hours per year driving to/from and managing each individual host yard. This is combined with offsite support and prep work and the actual physical costs of keeping bees, such as replacement bees when a hive dies, equipment maintenance, feed, and mite control. Our pricing is highly competitive with the national companies operating in our area, yet we provide far superior service in every respect.