what did you sell your honey for in 2010?

[Bucks_Boy]

Frankly, I think a lot of beeks do not appreciate what a unique and sought after product genuine local honey is and under-price as a result! Next time you go to a National Trust shop have a look at their prices and have a sit down afterwards!

I agree.
I had a very good year so when people asked if I sold it I said yes.
£3.50 for a 12oz Hex jar

Sold 300 jars so far just by word of mouth to collegues at work/allotment holders/friends and kids friends ( school gate mothers are best customers !)
Many are return customers buying 2 or 3 at a time.

One regular says her 97 year old mother has insisted on Manuka for the last 5 years @ £10 a pot each month --- she tried her with my Ivy and the old dear prefers it ( pays me £5 a pot for "speciality" honey)

So if I have enough to sell next year, probably £4 for 12oz

 

[Rosti]

If you can get it then great and I guess they can afford to pick it up in the Range Rover as well! There may still be some border / cricket / rugby league skirmishes between Lancs and Yorks but I suspect the inhabitants are united on this. As John summarised ...

People around here are careful with their brass ! John W.

Someone else has already said that local wealth, supply and perceived value is everything on this one.

 

[Friar Tuck]

£4.50 / £4.75 / £5 depends how much i like them

I do give away a free wooden honey dipper as well, i brought 100s on epay for like 5p each bargin..

 

[Vergilius]

When I sell, I sell 1lb for 3.80.


Ben P

 

[pandtpoultry]

You all sound very cheap, is it because it is a hobby? Sorry was born into a business family but are you allowing for jars, labour repairs and renewals, medications etc? I am only doing it as a hobby but so my extended family will devour mine but I would have suggested along the lines of £6.50 to £7.50 over a 3 year period would cover costs but as a hobby I am sure any thing is a good end of year bonus. Maybe I am claculating it wrong, what do you pay for jars I would love to know as they seem very expensive?

 

[Gardenbees]

£3.99 for a 12-oz no-frills jar, £4.50 for a 12oz jar with honeycomb chunk, £5 for a plastic box of comb with clear lid, £5 for a pound jar and £5.50 for a pound jar with comb.

Yes, people still seem to want to pay more for the pretty hexagons! I use the foundationless/top bar comb for that - the totally bee-made comb has a really nice texture and the slightly varying cell size looks especially beautiful in the jar.

Or so I like to think...

Having said all that, I got my current colonies late-ish last year and only took two combs off them as they didn't have a chance to build up very much spare honey. Still, two 14x12 combs is still a few jarfuls of honey!

 

[Somerford]

hmmm

I sell for £4.50 a lb at the garden gate, but £3.50lb bottled to the 4 outlets I supply

I have used 1lb jars for years but, depending on the PRICE this year am seriously considering moving to 12 oz and hex jars. I like the idea of a pro-rata price of £6 a lb, but you need to factor in the price of one 1 jar to do this.

I was just doing sums and seem to have cleared around 350lb this year, with about 100lb remaining. Luckily I have a source of local bulk honey in case I run out to keep my best customers happy....but I can't wait until the OSR to boost the supplies !

I am also looking for a good location near chestnuts and no OSR this year as the dark honey I have produced this way in the past is in big demand.

Ho Hum. I think we definitely need to pursue the bulk jar purchase this year !

S

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

"Ho Hum. I think we definitely need to pursue the bulk jar purchase this year" !

You mean like the bulk foundation purchase we didn't have?

Brian

 

[Hombre]

The secret of success in such matters Bee-key-pur is to hit the price breaks and the free delivery, without trying to get the whole world in on the act. Also, listen to who first kicks the ball and who tries to run the show.

If it's one and the same then the chances of success are probably much greater.

I can understand your disappointment, but try not to generalise too much.

 

[Baggyone]

Sold my surplus at the butchers I work at for £5.00 a squat 454g jar. I get 4 quid if that.

As for the business model. It takes at least 3 years to break even if you buy / make all your kit. That's including a extractor and building of a warming cabinet. I have not yet bought anything to deal with my biggest problem which is wax.

I buy my jars with my association which is going to be roughly £37 for a gross this year.

Baggy (almost out of honey)

Sent from my ZTE-U V880 using Tapatalk

 

[Silly Bee]

If I get a swarm in July I'll overwinter it. In fact, If i get a swarm later I'll try.

I think that rhyme is out of date.

 

[Hombre]

I think that the rhyme dates back to the time of skeps and relates to the value that season, probably honey production potential.

I stand to be corrected however, I'm just guessing.

 

[oliver90owner]

I think that rhyme is out of date.

Going back 30 posts with no reference or so is not the best.... but let me answer your thoughts by saying that rhyme refered to the value9as in worth) of the bees to the beekeeper in that particular year.

In those days swarms were readily available and were appreciated by beekeepers - as long as they were captured early enough to gain a harvest in that year, hence the early swarm was valuable and the late swarm, which gave no harvest, was worth rushing around to capture it.

So, in the correct context, the rhyme is just as good today as it ever was, back then.

Your wishing to get the swarm through the winter is your choice, but the gain from it this year will be zilch, or less than that.

RAB

 

[Silly Bee]

No honey from a late swarm I agree, but with good fortune, a colony for the following year.

I'd save a colony anytime, just so they have a chance of reproducing, I'm not driven by revenue.

 

[For want of a better word]

A swarm of bees in May
Be worth a load of hay;
A swarm of of bees in June
Be worth a silver spoon;
Swarming in July
Let the buggers fly',
Anon​

In I presume my Grandfather's handwriting in the frontpiece of "The ways of the Countryman" Otford press Ca 1910...............
He would have then been 9 years of age living in the valleys of South Wales ? Tradegar?? or possibly Cardiff???

 

[For want of a better word]

Absolutely no reference to bees or beekeeping in the book... but then a few pages are burned, and missing, possibly due to a fire that destroyed his house in South London during the "Blitz" when my family lost almost everything!

 

[bignikki]

I always thought that rhym must have been written before sugar was available to feed your bees in the autumn. So a swarm in july wouldn't have time to even get enough stores to overwinter. Therefore it was a lost cause?
I sell my honey for £4/lb garden gate, bulk or single jars.I think I'd be lucky for people about here to pay more. Mabe I'm just daft?