How much to charge for honey?

[jackbee]

Not doubting you at all -- it just seems to me to be a standardised bit of twaddle that they are churning out.

I wouldn't expect them to give a go-ahead to re-use jars (way too general, way to open to difficulty), but if a jar is indistinguishable from new, then its, errr, indistinguishable from new?

That was my thought - how could they tell it wasn't new??? And lets be honest, most of us are too small fry for them to bother with anyway

 

[Davelin]

Going back to the price of honey, just been to Cornwall and in the Roskilly ice cream farm shop they had Cornish honey at £6.25 for a half pound jar.

Is this a record?

 

[tonybloke]

Going back to the price of honey, just been to Cornwall and in the Roskilly ice cream farm shop they had Cornish honey at £6.25 for a half pound jar.

Is this a record?

nope, a record is a circle of vinyl with a groove on each side

 

[Ely]

nope, a record is a circle of vinyl with a groove on each side

Nice one. Anything happening around here on weekends Tony? I'm bored rigid. Might pay UEA beekeepers a visit

 

[REDWOOD]

As much as you can get, slag off the supermarket stuff to potential customers, come up with the old chestnut that its properties cures all and you defiantly got to tell them they will live longer if they eat enough of it

 

[tonybloke]

??

 

[Davea]

Just to get this thread back on track, how much to charge for honey should be related to how much it cost to run a hive, see other thread, then add in the costs of your labours.
Then you will arrive at a sensible price.

 

[Der Alte Fritz]

Not doubting you at all -- it just seems to me to be a standardised bit of twaddle that they are churning out.

I wouldn't expect them to give a go-ahead to re-use jars (way too general, way to open to difficulty), but if a jar is indistinguishable from new, then its, errr, indistinguishable from new?

The reason (twaddle) they all say that you cannot re-use jars has nothing to do with safety. It is to do with the law.

If you supply food these days (whether packaged or a pasty served hot in a restuarant) you have to be able to trace and document every aspect/ingredient from cradle to grave.

For instance when I take a delivery from a van driver, I am supposed to inspect his temperature sheet so that I can prove that the goods were delivered at the correct temperature before they are transfered to my properly recorded fridge before they are taken out and cooked and place on the plate before the customer (and probed along the way about three times). This same paper trail has gone on from the farmer to the producer to the packager to the wholesaler to me.

Of course in real life the van driver is running late so runs into the kitchen and just throws the food onto the counter and runs out the door, while the kitchen is in uproar and filled with smoke and flames as we have just burnt the toast for the umpteenth time, so the d####### delivery gets forgotten about for 10 minutes and ends up in the fridge after the uproar has ceased. Is it at the right temperature. Of course it is - it is deep frozen! It will take me all day to de-frost the bacon for tomorrows breakfast. Can I prove and document it. NO. "Chain of custody" is broken.

You can only use honey jars that have been manufacturered, recorded, shipped to Thornes/Maisemores/whoever, who recorded proper storage, handling and then passed to a recognised courier so that the paper trail is maintained. If you use re-cycled jars and clean them and fit new lids, you have no paper trail. Ergo you cannot prove that they have been safely handled and the legal case is wide open. Buy them from Th##### and they arrived half smashed with tiny fragements of glass in the remainder which you do your best to clean out. No problem, you are legally covered, you have a paper trail.

It is the same reasoning that sends EHOs round to old ladies kitchens to inspect them when they bake cakes for the Womens Institute coffee mornings. How many people died of food poisoning from a WI cake. None I would imagine. How many people died from food poisoning from properly documented butchers - quite a few in Scotland a couple of years ago. They did everything wrong but had the right paperwork.

 

[alanf]

Just to get this thread back on track, how much to charge for honey should be related to how much it cost to run a hive, see other thread, then add in the costs of your labours.
Then you will arrive at a sensible price.

Nobody would pay as much as that!!!!

 

[hedgerow pete]

i have only read the op and then this reply as the rest of the thread does not intrest me,

a starting price for home produced honey in one pound jars is a fiver,
out of that you are going to lose about £1.50 for the jar and label, selling it for £3 is a foolish thing and you really need to change!

where to go after that, well i personally start at a fiver for a full pound jar, unless i am facing a townie or a complete moron in which case its £7, if i add a stupid ribbon and make it up as a high value product i can sell it or rather did sell it to moronicly stupid townies with more money than brains or bmw's for £9 a jar without a box or gift wrapping and with wrapping and a box or inside a small basket with wrapping i will easily start at £14 for three 150ml jars of flavoured honeys

 

[itma]

... If you use re-cycled jars and clean them and fit new lids, you have no paper trail. Ergo you cannot prove that they have been safely handled and the legal case is wide open. Buy them from Th##### and they arrived half smashed with tiny fragements of glass in the remainder which you do your best to clean out. No problem, you are legally covered, you have a paper trail.
...

I bought jars from the association.
I don't have any paperwork whatsoever.

The problem comes if you sell honey with bits of broken glass in it.
An invoice saying where you bought the jar from is not going to help at that point.

Solution is not to use any jar that is in any way chipped, cracked or even scratched, so that no glass fragments can occur.
A 100% visual inspection test before filling. And noted on the batch filling record.
Which is going to be better QA than in any automated plant.




And incidentally, over the weekend I drove past a sign outside a school. For a fund-raising jam-making project, they are appealing for (did you guess?) used jamjars ... Bold as brass. They can't deny it, not a leg to stand on ...

 

[countryman]

i saw some in a farm shop in selbourne 7.50 per 8 oz jar last year nearly fell over when i saw it i asked them whether they sold much to which they replyed we have tourists here on dau trips and they buy loads

 

[honeybee71]

I charge £4.50 for a llb jar and £2.80 for half llb jar. People are willing to pay that price as they know its local honey!!.

 

[REDWOOD]

£5 but that depends who the customer is

 

[Tom Bick]

Does anyone sell their honey through local shops?

 

[victor meldrew]

How much for 1 oz blocks of bees wax?
VM

 

[kevrhcfag]

We are selling it at £4.00 per half pound, doing OK must of sold about 80 or so jars so far. Easier to come down in price than go up, we'll see how it goes.

 

[Polyanwood]

This year I'm selling to the shops at £4 for 8oz and £5 at the door. 75pence for 1oz beeswax.

 

[For want of a better word]

M8 bought a pound jar of " Devon local flower honey" for £6,50 in Tavistock deli..... to compare to mine !

I think the bees had been on a mix of OSR and solidago ( golden rod ) distinct aroma of cats P...........

I have so little it is all going into 8oz jars...... and going up country... H wants the lot ! ( not a lot but has real fresh wildflower flavour only Tamar Valley Cornish bees can produce !)



not that I am biased!!!!!!!

 

[Tom Bick]

This year I'm selling to the shops at £4 for 8oz and £5 at the door. 75pence for 1oz beeswax.

That’s interesting p&w I have a local shop close to me that I want to ask if they are interested in my honey at £4 per 12oz I know it sells for £5 without any arguments at a farmers market so I hope they will go for the £4.