Terms of service

Effective date. 22 April 2026 Last updated. 22 April 2026

About these terms

These terms apply to your use of the 1000 Hives website at 1000hives.com.au and to any sponsorship, purchase, registration, application, or other interaction you have with us through the website. By using the website or buying from us, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the website.

Who we are

1000 Hives is a community-funded bee conservation initiative operating across Australia. The legal entity behind 1000 Hives is 1000 Hives Pty Ltd, ABN [ABN]. You can reach us at hello@1000hives.com.au.

The 1000 Hives program

1000 Hives is building a national network of permanently managed beehives placed on working farms, orchards, lifestyle blocks, and rural properties at no cost to the landowner. Sponsors fund the placement of hives. Honey revenue funds the ongoing care. Land partners host the hives. Certified beekeepers manage them. Sponsors follow the journey through updates and the Sponsor Hub.

The 1,000-hive figure and the fifty-million-bee figure represent the program's national goal. They are not a fixed delivery target on any given date.

Hive sponsorships

When you sponsor a hive, you are making a one-off contribution to fund a managed hive in our network. You are not buying ownership of the hive, the bees, the honey, or the land they sit on. The hive remains the property of 1000 Hives and is managed by our team.

A sponsorship is final once the hive your contribution has been allocated to has been built or placed. Sponsorships made before allocation can be refunded on request. Refunds are explained further below.

Sponsorship is not a tax-deductible charitable donation. We are not a registered charity for the purposes of the Income Tax Assessment Act unless we say so explicitly on the website.

Sponsorship amounts start at ten dollars. A full hive sponsorship is two thousand two hundred dollars. Pricing on the website at the time of purchase applies.

Full hive sponsorships and star sponsors

A full hive sponsorship of two thousand two hundred dollars makes you a Star Sponsor for that hive. With your consent, your name (or business name) appears on the 1000 Hives sponsor wall and on the journal page of the hive you have sponsored. You can opt out of public recognition at any time by contacting us.

Star Sponsors receive priority hive updates and a selection of honey from the hive they have sponsored each season where production allows.

Gift sponsorships

You can sponsor a hive as a gift for someone else. When you do, we collect the recipient's name, email, an optional message, and an optional delivery date. The gift recipient receives the hive updates and Sponsor Hub access tied to that hive. The buyer does not receive ongoing updates unless they sponsor a hive of their own. Recipients can opt out of communications at any time.

Refunds and cancellations

Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to all purchases and we do not exclude them.

For sponsorships, refunds work as follows.

If you change your mind and your contribution has not yet been allocated to a specific hive, contact us and we will refund you in full. After the hive your contribution funds has been built or placed, the contribution is treated as committed and is not refundable, because the funds have already been spent on equipment, bees, beekeeper labour, and site preparation.

If you believe there has been a problem with your sponsorship or you have not received the updates you were promised, contact us and we will work with you to fix it.

For honey, merchandise, and other physical products purchased through the website, our standard returns policy and Australian Consumer Law apply. Faulty, damaged, or incorrectly described items can be returned for a refund or replacement. Change-of-mind returns are at our discretion.

Honey, merchandise, and other purchases

When you buy honey, merch, or other products through the website, the sale is processed by our e-commerce platform. Pricing, postage, and stock availability shown at checkout apply. We do our best to keep stock and pricing accurate but we reserve the right to cancel an order if a product is unavailable or has been priced incorrectly. If we cancel an order for either reason, we will refund any payment in full.

Delivery times are estimates. We are not liable for delivery delays caused by Australia Post, freight providers, weather, or other circumstances outside our control.

Farm partner terms

When you register your property as a farm partner, you join our waitlist. Registration is free. It does not guarantee that we will place hives on your property. Placement depends on site assessment, our network capacity, beekeeper availability, and biosecurity considerations.

If we proceed with placement, we will work with you on a separate written land access agreement that covers site requirements, hive movements, pesticide management, liability, and how either side can end the arrangement.

Land partners do not pay for the hives, the bees, the equipment, or the management. Land partners receive free pollination, regular hive updates, optional public recognition, and a selection of honey from their property each season where production allows.

A land partner can withdraw their property from the program at any time by giving us reasonable notice. We will remove our hives at our cost.

Beekeeper, volunteer, and corporate partner applications

When you apply to become a beekeeper, volunteer, or corporate partner, we use the information you provide to assess your application. Applying does not guarantee acceptance. Successful applicants will be issued a separate agreement that covers the specific terms of their role or partnership.

Sponsor Hub access

The Sponsor Hub is a private dashboard where sponsors can view updates and data tied to their hive. To log in, you enter your email address and we send a one-time verification code. You are responsible for keeping your email account secure. Please do not share your verification codes with anyone.

We may suspend or restrict Sponsor Hub access if we reasonably believe an account is being misused.

Updates, photos, and data

Hive updates, photos, and sensor data are produced by our beekeeping and operations team. We aim to provide regular updates but the frequency depends on weather, the time of year, beekeeper schedules, and the specific hive.

Sensor data shown in the Sponsor Hub is provided for interest and transparency. It is not a guarantee of hive performance, honey yield, colony survival, or any other outcome.

Hives are living systems. Colonies can swarm, supersede their queen, succumb to disease, or fail despite professional management. We will tell you if something significant happens to the colony in the hive you sponsor. If the colony fails, we will install a new colony in the same hive at no extra cost to you. Your sponsorship stays with the same hive. A failed colony does not entitle you to a refund of a placed sponsorship.

Communications

We will send you operational emails about your sponsorship, Sponsor Hub login, or order even if you have not opted in to marketing. These emails are part of the service you have purchased.

We will only send you marketing or newsletter emails if you opt in. You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time using the link in the footer of any marketing email.

Acceptable use of the website

You agree not to use the website to break the law, to interfere with how the website works, to scrape it, to attempt to access accounts that are not yours, to upload malicious code, or to harass anyone. We may suspend access for misuse.

Intellectual property

All content on the 1000 Hives website (text, photos, video, branding, code, sensor data, and design) belongs to 1000 Hives or to its licensors. You may view, link to, and share the content for personal and non-commercial purposes. You may not copy, republish, or commercialise any part of the content without our written permission.

The 1000 Hives name, logo, and branding are trademarks of 1000 Hives. You may not use them without our permission.

Content you give us

If you submit a photo, testimonial, comment, or other content to us through the website, by email, or by social media, you grant 1000 Hives a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use that content in our communications, marketing, and reporting. We will credit you where reasonable. You can ask us to stop using your content at any time and we will do so within a reasonable period.

You confirm that any content you give us is your own to share and that it does not infringe anyone else's rights.

Third-party links and services

The website may link to or embed third-party websites and services (for example videos hosted on YouTube). We are not responsible for the content or practices of those third parties. Their own terms and privacy policies apply.

Disclaimers

The website and the program are provided on a best-effort basis. We do our best to keep information accurate and current but we do not warrant that everything on the website is free of errors or that the website will always be available.

We do not promise that any specific hive will produce honey, survive a season, swarm at a given time, or perform in any specific way. Bees are wild creatures operating in real Australian conditions including weather, fire, drought, disease, and pesticide pressure. We work hard to manage all of these factors but we cannot eliminate them.

We do not guarantee any specific yield, environmental impact, or carbon outcome from any sponsored hive.

Limitation of liability and Australian Consumer Law

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any consumer right under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), the Australian Consumer Law, or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our liability for any loss or damage arising from your use of the website or the program is limited to either supplying the relevant service again or refunding the price paid, at our option.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including loss of profit, loss of opportunity, or business interruption, arising out of your use of the website or the program.

Force majeure

We are not liable for failure to perform under these terms where the failure is caused by something outside our reasonable control, including fire, flood, drought, storm, pandemic, biosecurity incident, government action, or supply chain disruption.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the most recent version. The version that applies to a sponsorship or purchase is the one published on the website at the time the sponsorship or purchase was made.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of South Australia, Australia. You and 1000 Hives both submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts for any disputes that cannot be resolved directly between us.