Grants for Raising Honey Bees – Are you considering raising honey bees? Great! There are several financial help for raising honey bees available in the United States that you should try to apply to. As you know, honeybees are wonderful creatures, they produce nutritious honey while promoting agriculture in the area that they are bred. Therefore, beekeeping has always been one of the areas that the government pays attention to.
Below are some of the financial assistance opportunities available for honey bees’ farmer:
Federal Grants
As we have mentioned earlier, honeybees play a vital role in the United States crops. In fact, last year the bees have pollinated more than 130 kinds of fruits and vegetables across the country which worth more than US$ 15 billion. Therefore, the Federal government promotes and encourages honey bee farms through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The department has multiple grant programs that can be used to promote bee apiary, covering the education and training for sustainable beekeeping. For example, they have the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-raised Fish Program (ELAP), Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) and Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) that can help people or businesses raising honeybees to cover the loss of their honey bee hives. Needless to say, the grants are aimed for managed bee hives that are used for honey production. Wild, feral honey bees are not eligible.
There are many more programs offered by the USDA to promote the declining honeybees’ population. We highly recommend you to communicate with your local USDA Farm Service Agency office to learn more about the opportunity available in your state.
States Grants for Raising Honey Bees
Aside from the Federal grants offered through USDA, there are also some grants offered by the State government. Each state may offer a different kind of financial assistance and they may also have a different policy, but usually, there’s always some kind of assistance available. For example, honey bee apiary in Tennessee can apply for a grant that is aimed to ensure the health of the bees by examination and inspection.
Other states such as Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and New York provide financial help in the form of grants to promote education about beekeeping and also to help new beekeepers to buy basic start-up supplies. To be eligible for the grant, the person has to complete the training given by the government. This type of assistance can also be found in South Carolina, West Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Colorado. Other states also provide some kind of assistance, because beekeeping offers many benefits for both the environment and also the agriculture.
Others
There are different nongovernment sources of funding available, of course. After all, the government is not the only one concern about the honey bees. You can contact the universities in your local area (usually the state’s universities) to see if there’s some kind of financial assistance available to start your apiary. Other opportunities come from corporations such as Burts Bees, Haagen-Dazs, etc. These companies offer thousands of dollars every year in the form of government subsidies for honey bees because honey plays an important role in these companies’ products.
References:
- USDA Farm Service Agency
- Natural Resource Conservation Service
- Help Save Pollinators with Conservaton
- Image: adoptabeehive.co
