Comb Honey Production cost comparison

[Patrick Scannell]

-------------------BOP------CC-------RR
Foundation/U
-------------------0.00----0.09----0.06
Package/U
-------------------0.34----0.75----0.78
Label/U
-------------------0.07----0.03----0.09
Cost/unit
-------------------0.41----0.87----0.92
Units/super
-------------------128.----40.0----32.0
% Salable
-------------------90.0----90.0----100
Sales/super
-------------------115.----36.0----32
Cost/super
-------------------51.9----34.7----29.55
Gross/unit
-------------------2.00----5.00----4.00
Gross/super
-------------------230.----180.----128
Net/super
-------------------178.----145.----98.45


What do you think folks?

Prices are from Betterbee's 2006 catalog.

The gross/unit was a guess at wholesale price. Can anyone provide actual numbers for BOP or CC?

What was your salable yield with BOP or CC? Is 90% too high? I figured that unsalable RRs could be overwintered and used to bait supers the next spring. Any problem with that?

Anyone have numbers for Hogg Half Comb Cassette, or other comb honey systems?

Is there an easy way to put a table in a post?

[Michael Bush]

>Is there an easy way to put a table in a post?

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=ubb_code_page

Do a UBB code in square brackets. Start the table off with CODE in square brackets and end it with /CODE in square brackets.

[Jim Fischer]

The "Gross Per Unit" shows a price of only
$4.00 per Ross Round. The December Bee Culture
shows prices ranging as high as $6.50 each.

Sorry, it does not mention the other comb
honey systems, as there is not enough of either
sold to show up in the reports.

So, if we take $6 each as the price, one
has a gross per super of $192, and a net
per super of $162 using the cost figures
provided... not bad considering that the
prices shown indicate that only small
quantities of supplies were purchased at
retail.

...and yeah, what about the basic issue
of what percentage is "waste" versus
what percentage is sales quality? smile.gif

Maybe there's a reason that Ross Rounds
are listed by name in the various honey
price reports, and the other systems are
not mentioned.

[swarm_trapper]

looks about like what i figured out but i did fing out that the RR are much easy to harvest than the BOP. But people do like buying the BOP much better than the RR i would guess cause they are smaller. Nick

[JWG]

You could probably get $6 for cut comb in clam shell boxes, which are cheaper than the usual polystyrene cut comb boxes, and comparable to the bee-o-pac plastic. There is/was also a smaller 3x3" version of the usual cut comb box which would allow for many more cuts from a frame. I had good results with these, people loved them, but they require 10 frames per super so the combs aren't too thick.

Producing cut comb in regular frames gives you some flexibility; the frames are more eagerly worked by the bees, and later any discolored or unfinished portions/combs can be run through the extractor.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

For the easiest to produce and easiest to sell comb honey system look at the Drapers comb honey system.

It is a special medium box that holds thirty wood mini frames. Each frame holds about one pound of honey each. You move them about a little while the flow is on, but when they are filled all you have to do is pull them out of the box and put them into a clear plastic clam-shell.

Mine went flying off the shelf at $7.50, I probably could have charged more.

[Patrick Scannell]

Another way to look at this is the percent of total sales that is packaging.

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">
BOP CC RR

%Pkg Cost/Sales 20.29 17.35 23.08</pre>[/QUOTE](Thanks Michael for the table tip)

So even using Betterbee's 75 cent Styrene boxes, CC has the lowest cost packaging.

Feb 07 BC reports a RR avg retail of $4.74, but Lloyd reports wholesaling thousands at $4 ea. so that is the price I used.

Bullseye, DSB comb honey units look good to me except for shipping. Wish they were available closer to home

[lloyd@rossrounds.com]

Nice job, Pat. Let me see if I can help some.

Call Shane grauber at Betterbee and ask him what yield to expect on BOP. They have sold as much as everyone else put together. Shane tells me he tells those who ask to expect 65%. Yield on Hogg is the same.

Yield on CC and RR should be 85%. But unrecovered cost on the 15% is limited to the foundation cost...as I think you show.

Your $4 on RR is ok. However, I know of no one getting $5 (wholesale) for CC. The largest producers (In Michigan, featured last year in ABJ) got $2.50 last year (2006). Same $2.50 for the thousands produced in FLA last year.

Apples to Apples...use retail. $6 for RR is conservative, and perhaps $.50 less for CC. Same for Hogg. $2.50 for BOP?

Poor yields and high costs mean that BOP and Hogg cannot compete with RR or CC. Basically the difference between using natural foundation or coated plastic.

Hope this is helpful.

Lloyd

[Patrick Scannell]

Thanks for the info Lloyd.

My primary dislike of BOP is the waste. What to do with the half-filled sections you can't eat or give to friends and family.

What do you do with half-filled RRs? Is it OK to let them freeze over winter and have the bees finish them next year? Or could they be used in a "crushed comb" product; the honey equivalent of crunchy-peanutbutter.

Also, is there a trick to wrapping the labels around a RR so they come out wrinkle free, or am I just a klutz.

Thanks for the encouragement. I don't know the first thing about business management or how to create a meaningful comparison of the equipment and labor costs of different products.

[Jim Fischer]

&gt; What do you do with half-filled RRs?

People will buy them!
Once you get people addicted to them, they will
be calling you in April, and every week until
you show up with some comb honey. If you have
some less-than perfect, or partial combs, they
will be happy to buy them if your pro-rating
of the price is fair.

But we live up to our label:
"We eat all we can, and sell what's left"

[lloyd@rossrounds.com]

what do you do with partially finished RR's?

Early in the season, but them back on a strong hive. With care, each partially finished section can be lifted out and put in a different frame. Of course, if one has a full frame partially finished it can also be put back on.

Later in the season I separate them. Those not first class but weighing 6 ounces or more I sell (at $2.50 each) by having an opaque cover on both sides, and no label. My demand for these far exceeds my supply, as people know I have them. Those weighing less than 6 ounces get put in a bucket and eventually ends up as the comb in "Raw Honey with Cappings". This stuff sells for $1.50 a pound more than my extracted honey.

A one-pound jar of raw honey has about 1.5" of comb floating on top. Much less than Chunk Honey (price as well as comb), and hugely popular.

The rings from these (weighing less than 6 ounces) get reused.

I HAVE saved drawn sections with no honey for the next year. It works just fine as bait sections. I'd be afraid that partially drawn sections (uncapped) would ferment and have not tried saving these.