check these prices out at yalding beekeepers auction

[blackie]

went to yalding beekeepers fair today to maybe grab a bargain ther was 9 1kg package bees the highest sold for £170 plus 10% £187 and the lowest was around £150 they could of sold dozens is this around the right money or what ?
other than that was a good day but never exspected that i treated my self to 6 lang mediums and a antiqe german hive.

 

[overandunder2012]

i nearly went to that where there any other bargains?

 

[blackie]

some brand new nationals sold for £40 some bits were high and some were ok but the pakage bee price .why make honey wen u can make that sort of money?

 

[mbc]

some brand new nationals sold for £40 some bits were high and some were ok but the pakage bee price .why make honey wen u can make that sort of money?

2.2 lb of bees attached to a good colony will easily collect £50 worth of honey a day if near a good nectar source and the weather is accommodating, and that value is recurring if the management and weather allow.

 

[pargyle]

2.2 lb of bees attached to a good colony will easily collect £50 worth of honey a day if near a good nectar source and the weather is accommodating, and that value is recurring if the management and weather allow.

Yes .... but I think it's more about supply and demand at present - too many people who have lost bees they want to replace and not enough colonies growing sufficiently in the UK at present to provide Nucs. The prices are only a bit higher than last year really ....

 

[Into the lions den]

2.2 lb of bees attached to a good colony will easily collect £50 worth of honey a day if near a good nectar source and the weather is accommodating, and that value is recurring if the management and weather allow.

2.2lb of bees is actually only about 6 bars in a BS deep. Its a small package, but with a young queen will be needing supered about the time its first brood hatches.

Package bees are normally sold with queen to establish new colonies. Booster packages (as before but with no queen) are commonly used in Europe to help small colonies recover. Never heard of them being added to already strong colonies, but even then no way can I see them gather a super of honey a day (which is what £50 equates to). At 20lbs per super this is actually above market right now for a pound of bulk honey, and the higher prices at retail or market stall re often quoted but without taking a penny off for jars, lids, labels, labour, energy consumption, fuel to market, stall costs etc etc.

The prices quoted are quite extraordinarily high, but if that's what people were wiling to pay then that's the price.

ps.......yes, you can get lot more than 20lb from a very full BS shallow, but if you have a stack of 'full' supers in the extracting room and add it all up at the end of the day it generally works out at 20 to 23lb per box on average. Done that calculation many many times.

 

[mbc]

2.2lb of bees is actually only about 6 bars in a BS deep. Its a small package, but with a young queen will be needing supered about the time its first brood hatches.

Package bees are normally sold with queen to establish new colonies. Booster packages (as before but with no queen) are commonly used in Europe to help small colonies recover. Never heard of them being added to already strong colonies, but even then no way can I see them gather a super of honey a day (which is what £50 equates to). At 20lbs per super this is actually above market right now for a pound of bulk honey, and the higher prices at retail or market stall re often quoted but without taking a penny off for jars, lids, labels, labour, energy consumption, fuel to market, stall costs etc etc.

The prices quoted are quite extraordinarily high, but if that's what people were wiling to pay then that's the price.

ps.......yes, you can get lot more than 20lb from a very full BS shallow, but if you have a stack of 'full' supers in the extracting room and add it all up at the end of the day it generally works out at 20 to 23lb per box on average. Done that calculation many many times.

I see now my post wasnt clear.
A good colony can, does and will collect, ripen and cap ~20lb of honey a day in ideal conditions, which it wont do immediately after shaking a couple of pounds of bees from it.
Its all about relative value.

 

[itma]

i nearly went to that where there any other bargains?

There were fewer lots than last year.
But there was even more firewood.

The used poly langstroth (Paradise Bee Box) seemed cheap at £35+10% (brood with 2 supers and feeder).

Amusing thing was the boxes of 60 12oz hex honey jars, still sealed from last week's special offer!
They were selling at £20+commission (each box) as far as I could tell.

 

[blackie]

your right the jars made more money than you can buy them for

 

[Skyhook]

some brand new nationals sold for £40 some bits were high and some were ok but the pakage bee price .why make honey wen u can make that sort of money?

I've often thought that- with the rubbish weather we're getting, does it make more sense to produce nucs than honey?

Still got to get the queens mated though.

 

[alanf]

your right the jars made more money than you can buy them for

Perhaps more than you bought them for on offer. Not far off the current list price though. Cost of sorting out lids, transport, labour and other incidentals needs to be added before jar trading is a real business prospect.

It's clear where they came from in this case, an established glassware merchant. A lot of the recent packaging regulation emphasises traceability. I'd be wary of buying a pack of jars and lids/seals if I didn't know the origin and storage.

 

[o.stjohn]

Kent Honey was £6/lb or £3 for 8ox hexagonal - all of it went by the time of the Auction...

ps. Don't forge the Heathfield Bee Market next Saturday for more of the same - there will be bees on frames for sale! ;-)

 

[Bescherman]

Hmm, I work in Yalding occasionally. Must check this out in future. Thanks for the info.

 

[Beauhawk]

I did the maths on the jars on the day. Four boxes of 60 jars (240 in total) went for £76. Which was about £20 more than the offer price mentioned on the forum for 300 jars.

Sounds like there is a box sitting somewhere and the beek is £22 up!

 

[o.stjohn]

500 cost me less than 18p each so the buyer(s) spent nearly twice that...

 

[itma]

The jar seller had had them packed by Pattesons as 60 jars and lids in each box. (As revealed on the contents label.)
Smart move to minimise the work in reselling!

 

[Barbarian]

Question.

In the packages offered, were the Qs imported ?