Bee Hives - Town Wide

The Town of Palm Beach, Florida is issuing an Invitation to Bid (ITB) for beehive installation, maintenance, and honey harvesting and packaging services at the Par 3 Golf Course located at 2345 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, Florida. The procurement includes management of the Town's existing four hives with monthly maintenance services per hive (including swarm prevention, honey pulling, and colony health maintenance), honey harvesting on a per-pound basis, and packaging services using 6-ounce and 2-ounce glass jars with gold lids and custom labels. Optional services include installation of up to ten additional frame hives with bees and components, queen bee procurement, mite treatments, and bee removal services on Town properties. Qualified contractors must possess a minimum of two years of managed apiary operations experience, hold certification as a food facility for jar packing and resale, maintain kosher certification, and comply with all applicable Florida apiary and environmental regulations, with all hive management required to be chemical-free and antibiotic-free. Contractors must submit bids electronically through the Town's Euna Procurement (Bonfire) eProcurement platform by the deadline of February 24, 2026; a non-mandatory pre-bid meeting will be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams prior to bid closure to allow vendors to seek clarification from the project manager and Town staff. Award will be made to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder meeting all stated requirements, with the Town reserving the right to award on an all-or-none or line-by-line basis, and the resulting contract will be for a five-year term with pricing quotes required to remain valid for ninety days from bid closure. Contractors must provide monthly maintenance reports documenting date, observations, actions taken, and hive health status; maintain inventory logs of pounds harvested and jars packaged by size; and respond to urgent hive issues within 24 hours. Evaluation criteria include contractor qualifications, experience with comparable municipal or commercial contracts, financial stability, project execution capabilities, and compliance with all mandatory requirements including E-Verify registration, drug-free workplace certification, and insurance coverage requirements.

No specific set-aside designations for disadvantaged enterprises are identified in this solicitation, though all vendors must comply with Florida Statutes Section 287.05701, which prohibits the Town from considering a vendor's social, political, or ideological factors in the vendor determination process. All contractors and subcontractors must be registered with the E-Verify System to verify employment eligibility of newly hired workers, maintain current County and/or Municipal Tax Receipts (Occupational Licenses), and comply with mandatory insurance requirements including General Liability coverage of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, Business Auto Liability of $1,000,000 combined single limit, Workers' Compensation at statutory Florida limits, and Employers Liability coverage of $100,000 per accident. Additional compliance requirements include drug-free workplace certification, certification that the company is not participating in boycotts of Israel or appearing on scrutinized company lists with activities in Sudan, Iran, Cuba, or Syria, and compliance with Florida anti-human trafficking statutes and foreign entity restrictions. The Town does not identify any incumbent vendors or existing contractors in the solicitation materials; however, the Town currently owns four hives at the Par 3 Golf Course that will require continuity of management under the new contract. No specific award value or budget range is published in the solicitation; pricing must be submitted as per-hive per-month rates for maintenance, per-pound rates for honey harvesting, and per-jar rates for packaging services in specified sizes, with the contract awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder meeting all requirements and criteria.