Wow, price of sugar.

[DorsetB]

I went to buy another 25kg bag of sugar today at Bookers: just over £20.00, ouch.
I double checked prices elsewhere, all worked out about the same in terms of £/kg.

Got home and checked my receipt from February's purchase of 25kg bags: £13.00 per bag, that's a 50% increase give or take.

Time to take less honey off the hive methinks...

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Bad winter for beet probably contributed

 

[beren]

Saw sugar at 67p - Kilo in B&M bargains last week

 

[Somerford]

ouch.....not great news for the Autumn feeding !

 

[madasafish]

ASDA
134p for 2kg.

This site is v useful...
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

 

[Winker]

ASDA
134p for 2kg.

This site is v useful...
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

My wife works in ASDA and we get all the burst bags of sugar for 10p a bag. Most of them just have a little split in them. Some are burst wide open and my wife just bags it up, and brings it home...10p cant be bad!

 

[drstitson]

was about to add myself that supermarkets like Tesco do 2kg for less than £1.50 - where had you double checked?

 

[DorsetB]

Did check Tesco, was 75p/kilo, so not far off the 80p/kilo I paid. Add on the extra 5 miles I would have had to travel to get there, and the exercise becomes marginal! There are also regional differences to take into account: my sister lives in Scotland and swears by Morrisons, but we don't have any near us.

However the fact still remains that wherever you buy it, sugar is considerably higher than a few months ago, nonwithstanding the difference between stores/shops.Wheat and flour seem to have gone the same way.

As the price of food is directly linked to the price of fuel, this looks like a one-way ride.

Winker, can I go to your wife's Asda store and puncture some of the bags and get them for 10p?

 

[drstitson]

tesco.com:

Miscellaneous Granulated Sugar 2Kg Parcels: £1.34

 

[DorsetB]

tesco.com:

Miscellaneous Granulated Sugar 2Kg Parcels: £1.34

Yes, thanks. I was trying to illustrate the bigger picture...I will see if I can post a CSCE or Nybot chart up later on.

 

[Black Comb]

Another thing to think about is that they deliver to you for (I think) £5.
(Asda)

 

[Winker]

Winker, can I go to your wife's Asda store and puncture some of the bags and get them for 10p?

If you go into any food store like Asda, tesco, Morrisons etc. Tell them you are looking to buy burst bags of Sugar you will get it at the same price, or around 25p a bag.

Some may not do it due to health and safety, but they will give you a nod and a wink thats its left outside by the bins...free & bagged up waiting for you.


If you explain its for the Bees they will bend over backward to help. They love to help wild life, they have people come and collect all the old apples/pears/bread/carrots etc for horses and they give it away free to them

 

[Tom Bick]

A question this thread of beekeepers that it appears on the face of it complaining about the price of sugar or where to get cheap sugar and I suspect one eye on the winter feeding to come with the potential outlay to come!

So my question as bee nutrition has to be something we must think about is sugar just sugar or is it the case that you can get better quality sugar? Thinking whats not on the label something supermarkets are good at.

So is sugar just sugar? how is sugar tested for quality?

 

[steve1958]

I guess if winter feed doubles in price
Honey needs to double in price

 

[Black Comb]

No Tom, it's not for winter. I've been feeding mine for over 2 weeks.
You know the weather up here.

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes I do peter and please send it south for a week please.

The sugar question to me is interesting.

To most, and me the packet has sugar on the packet, so then it must be sugar.

With the same angle the jar has honey on it so it must be honey!!

The fact is to the un educated the jar of 99p honey is honey but we know better so is it the same with sugar? And we are the un educated?

 

[Dishmop]

Some are burst wide open and my wife just bags it up, and brings it home.

A poke with a pointed object works quite well.........

 

[Flatters]

The club I am in have set up an arrangement with Sainsburys; Sinsbury staff collect the sewpt up sugar off the floor and save it in buckets. The sugar is then collected by a branch member who then distributes it about the club for free. The sugar is not fit for human consumption and does have some dry floor dirt in it. Since the sugar is dry and then mixed with boiling water I am certain that this has no effect on the bees.

A double win. Sainsbuy don't have wasp attractive sugar in their bins and the club gets sugar for nothing. I was given 10kg last autumn.

 

[DorsetB]

Been feeding mine for nearly 2 weeks too, partly because I s/s 3 hives into new hives earlier this spring, so they had no stores at all. Gave them a good first feed, then they started bringing their own stores in, then stores recently started going down again. Local OSR looks truly shrivelled up. Sat by the hives last Sunday for a half hour and less than 1 in 6 were bringing anything in, so kept feeding.

Anyhoo, here's the weekly chart for sugar:from 12c in April 2010 to 36c in Feb. 2011, settling at 22c for now.

"A poke with a pointed object works quite well........."

Must remember to take pointy stick when I go shopping!

 

[Flatters]

I think the overall sugar price may also be affected by the floods in Queensland. The land from Bundaberg, through Rockhamption and right up to Cairns in Australia are major sugar producing areas which were severely affected by the floods a number of months ago. It is all cane sugar but it will still have an effect on overall sugar prices.