Cut comb honey

[sharonh]

Hi ,
Does anyone sell the 8oz trays with cut comb honey? Just wondering how much I charge for it.
Sharon

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Six pounds

 

[ratcatcher]

yup, I charge £6

 

[sharonh]

Thanks guys, perfect, so 7 euro would be ok.
Cheers
Sharon

 

[Dishmop]

Thanks guys, perfect, so 7 euro would be ok.
Cheers
Sharon

Too complicated....

 

[burren]

I would charge more than 7 euros. Depends on how much you charge for your 1/2 or 1 lb jars of honey also.

 

[burren]

Looks great Ratcatcher. Could not get mine to look at the wireless foundation... so no cut comb for the second year! I even mixed it in with the wired foundation, still no luck. Is it true that the sections are easier to get the bees to work on?

 

[ratcatcher]

I only give them 1" starter strips on each frame, that way a pkt of 10 foundation does around 9 supers )commercial and rose) and it's then easier to cut comb with no foundation sheet in the middle

 

[peterbees]

Cut comb looks great in the new Thoornes crystal clear boxes, and it looks even better if the cut comb is drained overnight on a grill pan before putting it in the boxes.

 

[ratcatcher]

Cut comb looks great in the new Thoornes crystal clear boxes, and it looks even better if the cut comb is drained overnight on a grill pan before putting it in the boxes.

Im currently having this argument over on the facebook bbka page too, as all the comb I have seen for sale includes runny honey, using the new 8oz packaging, along with the 8oz cutter, if you were to let it drain, the weight would not be 8oz, and as we have labels with min 8oz stamped on them, customers would get the hump,lol
someone else who commented said they then weigh each item and price it per gramme, I'm sorry, but that is too much faffing about for my liking, when your manning a stall at a country fair you want easy round numbers,

my main reason for preference to produce cut comb over jars of honey was a simple time and motion test,

extracting honey took me around a day and was as messy as hell,
doing a super of cut comb, 1 hour

so lets say a commercial super holds 30lb honey??
you'll produce 30 x 1lb jars at £6 per jar?
total £180, less your outlay on jars/labels/extractor/etc etc

same super will give, 54 lumps of comb @£6 = £324, less packaging/labels (1 sheet foundation) etc
as production time is reduced, I could therefore sell at £5 or even £4.50 and still be making a decent profit

however, cutting each piece then leaving to drain overnight, then re weighing and pricing accordingly is to much faffing about for me thank you

 

[biglongdarren]

There is plenty of room in the containers to cut the comb a little bigger so that they are over the 8oz weight without having runny honey in the container if you wish.
And with manley frames i never have to cut that much more over the size to get the correct weight.
Darren

 

[Swarm]

I didn't use a cutter, I just used a knife and cut the comb to the dimension of the carton. They turned out a little over 8oz and filled the container nicely.

 

[ratcatcher]

well, I'll see how it sells at the forthcoming show

 

[Swarm]

Good luck with it.
I had mixed response from customers. Some liked it, some didn't like the wax and for one lady the honey was too intense, she preferred the same honey in a jar. These were regular customers though, I'm sure you'll do well on a stall.
It's nice looking honey too, quite dark.

 

[Polyanwood]

So do you sell 8oz of cut comb at a higher or lower price than an 8oz jar of honey? I find people are happy to pay more for cut comb.

I cut it and leave it on a cake cooling rack for an hour or so, so it looks tidier. Then I put it in the cardboard sleeve so it looks a bit fancier. I find it more stressful, messy and time consuming than extracting honey though.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I sell 8oz for £6.00 whereas I sell a 12 oz jar for £5.00
I still use the old fashioned white 'margarine carton' type cut comb containers - never had an issue with them, apart from the occasional ill fitting lid - frames the comb beautifully and if there is any honey seepage in the carton, as long as you fit the comb snugly in the box, it's not much and doesn't get seen anyway.
And thanks to the fact everyone raves on about the new containers I have stacks tucked away up in the attic which I paid next to nothing for

 

[psafloyd]

I agree, Ratcatcher, but not everyone likes cut comb, alas.

However, I always package straight away to maximise the honey (though for showing I've been told to let it drain so the adjudicator can see the cells!).

However, I weigh each one and put the net weight on the box. I charge £5.50 for 227g, so I then multiply the weight by 2.4 to get the price (before any discount I might offer).

Im currently having this argument over on the facebook bbka page too, as all the comb I have seen for sale includes runny honey, using the new 8oz packaging, along with the 8oz cutter, if you were to let it drain, the weight would not be 8oz, and as we have labels with min 8oz stamped on them, customers would get the hump,lol
someone else who commented said they then weigh each item and price it per gramme, I'm sorry, but that is too much faffing about for my liking, when your manning a stall at a country fair you want easy round numbers,

my main reason for preference to produce cut comb over jars of honey was a simple time and motion test,

extracting honey took me around a day and was as messy as hell,
doing a super of cut comb, 1 hour

so lets say a commercial super holds 30lb honey??
you'll produce 30 x 1lb jars at £6 per jar?
total £180, less your outlay on jars/labels/extractor/etc etc

same super will give, 54 lumps of comb @£6 = £324, less packaging/labels (1 sheet foundation) etc
as production time is reduced, I could therefore sell at £5 or even £4.50 and still be making a decent profit

however, cutting each piece then leaving to drain overnight, then re weighing and pricing accordingly is to much faffing about for me thank you

 

[psafloyd]

So do you sell 8oz of cut comb at a higher or lower price than an 8oz jar of honey? I find people are happy to pay more for cut comb.

And so they should, given they take the comb as well and it takes eight times as much honey to replace the wax.

 

[psafloyd]

however, cutting each piece then leaving to drain overnight, then re weighing and pricing accordingly is to much faffing about for me thank you

Again, I'm with you. When processing, I want my kitchen back, so I use a cutter and put it into the boxes, seal them and freeze them.

 

[ratcatcher]

So do you sell 8oz of cut comb at a higher or lower price than an 8oz jar of honey? I find people are happy to pay more for cut comb.

I cut it and leave it on a cake cooling rack for an hour or so, so it looks tidier. Then I put it in the cardboard sleeve so it looks a bit fancier. I find it more stressful, messy and time consuming than extracting honey though.

If it has comb in it, then I expect to get a higher price for the same size jar

I have just honey in 8oz hexananol jars that I sell at £3.50
I then have chunky honey (same jars) and sell at £6
and the comb at £6 for a min of 227g, although I do tend to try making it around 260g for the £6
having seen a few examples of the honey left to drain over night, I may spend the winter months making a stackable draining rack gizmo, as it does look quite nice once in the packaging

as for the colour, the dark is from our back garden hives in essex, the lighter from our hives in the kent woodland