Production Insurance for bee health covers colony losses caused by an insured peril that occur during the overwinter period.
Production Insurance covers you for losses due to adverse weather, disease, pests, wildlife, or other uncontrollable natural perils, except for perils excluded in your Contract of Insurance – General Terms and the Commodity-Specific Terms: Bee Health on the Publications page.
Calculating your coverage and claims
Guaranteed colonies
To calculate your guaranteed colonies, multiply your insured colonies by the level of coverage you choose.
Guaranteed colonies = insured colonies × chosen coverage level
Insurable value
Each year, Agricorp determines a choice of insurable values based on the average cost of a replacement nucleus colony. You choose an insurable value when you apply or renew.
How claims are determined
A claim payment is calculated by subtracting your surviving colonies in the spring from your guaranteed colonies, multiplied by your chosen insurable value. If the number of surviving colonies is less than your guaranteed colonies (after adjustment for any uninsured perils), a colony-loss claim may be paid.
Claims are calculated using this formula:
Claims = (Guaranteed colonies – surviving colonies) × insurable value
Dead colonies
To calculate your total dead colonies, add 67% of your weak colonies to your dead colonies. A weak colony consists of three or four eligible frames; 67% of weak colonies will be considered dead for claim calculation purposes.
Surviving colonies
To calculate the number of surviving colonies, subtract the number of total dead colonies from your insured colonies.
Surviving colonies = insured colonies – total dead colonies
Example calculation
A beekeeper insures 100 colonies and chooses:
- 70% coverage
- $210 insurable value
When overwintered hives are unwrapped:
- 50 colonies are dead
- 9 colonies are weak
In this example, the claim would be calculated as follows:
= insured colonies × chosen coverage level
= 100 × 70%
= 70 colonies
Total dead colonies
= dead colonies + (67% of weak colonies)
= 50 + (67% × 9)
= 56 total dead colonies
Surviving colonies
= insured colonies – total dead colonies
= 100 – 56
= 44 surviving colonies
Claim payment
= (guaranteed colonies – surviving colonies) × chosen insurable value
= (70 – 44) × $210
= $5,460
