1. Who owns the beehive When you adopt a beehive from us, the bees, the hive including the frames and any other associated equipment used to manage your adopted hive remain the property of Market Harborough Honey Co. Limited at all times.
2. No right to purchase
There is no option to purchase the adopted hive. Once the adoption term comes to an end, you will have the option to either renew or give the hive adoption up making it available for someone else to adopt.
3. Existing or new adopted hive We have a good number of beehives that are un-adopted, these are established strong colonies. These bees are in existing hives. The funds from your adoption will go to towards new hives where possible, however, depending on the time of year, you will either end up adopting an existing established colony, or you will get a brand new hive with new bees. Either way you are still adopting a colony of bees in either new or very well looked after used hive. The bees are not fussy!
4. Apiary / Hive Location At no point during the adoption period will you have access to visit the hive(s). We can video call from your hive if you wish and show you photos, but for security reasons we do not give out any apiary location details. All our apiaries are in concealed locations on private land, all well out the way of prying eyes and general public. Not just this, but it opens up issues of insurance, liability and the potential of people getting stung which usually causes lots of pain and swelling can cause anaphylactic shock. Each colony in the summer can contain up to around 50,000 bees and it can be very scary and daunting to be around them as they like to invade your personal space.
5. If your adopted bees die / abscond In the very unlikely event that the bees in your adopted beehive all die (the entire colony), abscond, or get wiped out by a disease, we would immediately move your adoption sign onto another active hive. We do have a very good success rate with all of our hives, as they are all well looked after and cared for. This statement is also true should your hive be compromised to the point your bees no longer exist.
6. The honey that you receive If you wish to accept the honey from us as detailed in the adoption package, we will do our best to ensure that the honey you receive is only from the beehive you have adopted. In the unlikely event that the hive doesn’t produce sufficient honey, we will provide you with honey from other hives in the same apiary which will be of equal quality. You will receive the honey at the point we harvest it, which is typically between May and August. We will let you know before we send it.
7. Social media and your adopted beehive updates We will provide regular social media updates of your beehive(s) and tag your company in the post where possible on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube. The updates will include photos or videos of your hive and bees. There is not a fixed schedule for these updates, but generally we try to post an update of each hive every 8 to 12 weeks during the winter, and in the summer, around every 6 – 8 weeks.
8. Adopted Beehive Page Upon adoption of a beehive, we will request some information from you to be made publicly available on our website. This is a bit about your business and a statement as to why you have adopted a beehive. This page will remain on our website for the period of adoption. Adopted beehives page: https://www.harborough-honey.co.uk/adopted-beehives/
9. Adoption Certificates Once your adoption package has been confirmed, we will provide you with an adoption certificate with the hive ID’s on, you will receive a digital PDF version along with a printed on sent to you in the post. We do not print these ourselves; typically this takes 7 – 10 days to arrive.
10. Metal Adoption Sign Once you have agreed to adopt a beehive, we will request artwork from you to go on the aluminium sign that will be secured to your adopted beehive. This usually takes up to 1 week to have produced and attached to the hive. This is a very durable sign and will hold up to the sunshine, rain and snow!
11. Payment
Payment is to be made in full before your adoption package can start, you will be invoiced and payment needs to be sent to us by bank transfer / BACS only. If you wish to renew your beehive adoption, you will need to ensure it is paid for before the expiry date.
12. Refund Policy Once your adopted hive has your company branding on it, unfortunately we cannot offer any refunds. We will stick to our end of the deal and provide you with the agreed items in the adoption package throughout the year as laid out.
Terms & Conditions last updated: 17th September 2021
