Honey Stick Pricing... all opinions welcome and needed!!

[Chef Isaac]

Ok guys, I am in the process of purchasing a honey straw machine. For the past month, I have been making them by hand which is interesting and takes a while.

The machine is somewhat costly and I am looking to expand to selling them to other beekeepers.

Here is the current problem... the only place to get them really is Glory Bee. The advantage of buying it from there is that it is not your honey and for me, that is important. That is why I am making my own honey sticks, Glory bee sells them for cheaper then I would be able to.

Here is my thoughts...

The honey stray costs 1 penny.
The flavoring costs 1 penny
and the coloring costs 1 penny.

Another beekeeper and I were talking last night and I orginally thought that selling them to other beekeepers for .17 cents. If you wanted color and flavoring, it would be a penny charge for each.

Taking into respectful consideration of another beekeepers opinion earlier, he mentioned it was sorta high in price. Maybe I am still reminded of how long this process takes by hand and maybe it will speed up with the machine.

So, I would have about .03 cents invested in each honey straw if I was using another beekeepers honey. So I would at least need to sell them to the beekeeper for .10 as labor is an issue.

What do you all think? Do you all think that .17 is too much? Do you think .10 is too much?

i would love for everyone to weight in on this as I am trying to find ways to recoup my investment into the machine.

Thank you all!

[Shapleigh's Bees]

A quarter is a good price break for these at retail, it's the biggest coin most folks have in their pocket. Better Bee's work out to be like .12 delivered. You going to do something to differentiate your sticks?

[AstroBee]

I've been selling Glory Bee (GB) sticks for 25 cents too. I find the kids absolutely love them and that bring parents over who will sometimes buy a jar of honey.

The GB straws are nice and they have a great assortment of flavors, and yes they run about 12 cent per straw with shipping. Personally I believe that quality matters and if I can be assurred high quality chem-free honey used in the sticks then I would pay extra. GB does offer some organic sticks, which sold very well for me last fall. Will your sticks contain the same volume of honey as those from GB? My guess is that you'll need to be close to the GB price structure to have a good demand. I know I certainly will buy from you!!

[ducky]

Chef Isaac if you are willing where did you get your Honey stick filling machine--Ducky

[Chef Isaac]

The thing with Glory Bees honey sticks is that the honey is not from YOU... THE BEEKEEPER. So you are buying someone elses honey.

For us, we us no chemicals in our hives so therefor we feel somewhat safer eating our honey in the long run. But when you buy honey from someone else... in this case the honey in the honey sticks, you can not guaranetee the honey. Think about it... if some parent walks over to you and asks you if the honey in the honey sticks is really from your bees, it is gonna feel weird saying "no, we buy those".

For me, I want to make honey sticks that I sell... made with my honey.

As for being different from Glory Bee, we have decided that if we use colorants, we are going to use trasparant colorant. I have used these a lot when I make hard candy.

We will, in time, offer different flavors. Right now, the two that stand out the most is chocolate chip mint and vanilla butternut.

I want beekeepers to think they have more options with there honey sticks. For example, someone wants honey sticks made with there honey, they can send me a pound or two of honey and I can make sticks with it.

To me, it is better then buying massed produced honey sticks made with someone elses honey.

[Chef Isaac]

I would like to hear some more feedback from people. From 85 people who have viewed this, there has only been three responses.

[joekurm]

I think that I bought mine from Kelley. It cost about .11 cents ea. I sold them for .25 e or 5 for !.00. I bought 100 and sold about 3/4 of them when I sold my honey at a fle market. I only sold honey once, but It sounded like a good price to me. I got them for those who didn't wnt to buy a pund of honey, but like it was mentioned the only problem is that it wasn't my honey in the sticks.

[Brandy]

I think we're waiting to hear where and what machine your getting??!!

[Swobee]

We sell the straws retail for $0.25 each, but almost always in 5-packs for $1.00. We only sell our own honey for all the fine reasons Chef does. At this time, we don't color them, but after talking with Chef earlier this week makes me think it's not a bad idea. My wife was a Psychology major and she agrees.

Maybe strawberry flavored honey should be a pretty red color, raspberry a darker reddish color and so on. But, what color do I make the Rum flavored ones? They sell pretty well, probably due to a sound of decadence with the 'Rum'. It's only a flavoring, but people will think what they will and if it sounds dangerous, or thrilling they're on it! We sold a lot of mint at Christmas season- the chocolate chip mint sounds fabulous... can't wait to try some.

[bee crazy]

I think your price is in line, but for me it's the shipping. To send you a pound of honey it would cost $4.80 flat rate. Then for you to ship back it's $4.80 flate rate USPS. I'm not sure how many sticks I could get from a pound but Now add the .15 to .17 per stick I I believe I'm getting close to .20 to .25 / stick.

[Chef Isaac]

The chocolate chip mint is awesome.

For the rum, I would color it a light brown. Add brown food coloring and a little white food coloring and you will be there.

bee crazy: Good thought on that. I think I might be able to sell them maybe for cheaper if it is someone elses honey to off set shipping. May .10 or something. I think a pound of honey might make 50-75 sticks.

I have been looking at what people charge for honey sticks this last year and I am seeing them go for .25 to .50 cents.

Bee Crazy: What do you think would be a fair price to sell them to other beekeepers at using THEIR honey? total cost to me if I use a straw, flavoring and colorant, would be .03 each without any money for time and labor. What do you suggest?

As for the machine, I would like to use it a few times first before I vouch for the quality of it. I will give a full report later on.

[Shapleigh's Bees]

Think about it... if some parent walks over to you and asks you if the honey in the honey sticks is really from your bees, it is gonna feel weird saying "no, we buy those".

For me, I want to make honey sticks that I sell... made with my honey.

I didn't pick up that it'd be my honey in the stick. That would be different. I'd probably pay up to a quarter in my hand, shipping, your charge and value of the honey per stick. There's no real profit to be made a dime at a time anyway. It's a loss leader that gets kids dragging mom to the booth. If she has to bite the stick for the kid, she's buying honey.

[Chef Isaac]

Yes, it would be your honey. We also can do our honey but the real point of the machine is to provide beekeepers with honey sticks from THEIR honey. Then, I think, they can be more proud to sell their honey that is theirs.

[bee crazy]

Hi Chef, I don't know, I know your labor is worth a lot and I don't want to minimze that. I think what you need is a machine that you load honey (my honey I shipped to you) and straws into and turn it on and go. Your real labor is package and shipping back. If You couild charge $.12 per stick in 1000 lot, charge say $2.50 or so handling and then the postage. As a price point .12 is good and your labor is paid in the bulk handling charge. In this senorio volume is where your money is.
Does this make sence?
I wonder who loads Glory Bee's straws? They surely don't!

[Chef Isaac]

I think you are right Bee. Even I think a min. of 500 straws would be good.

What do you all think? 500 straws... .12 cent a piece, your honey?

[Chef Isaac]

Do you think there needs to be an upcharge for flavorings and colorants?

[Radar]

<Chef Isaac... Yes, it would be your honey. We also can do our honey but the real point of the machine is to provide beekeepers with honey sticks from THEIR honey. Then, I think, they can be more proud to sell their honey that is theirs>

Yes Chef you are certainly right in your insistence that the honey be from your own bees. I am shocked at the discussions on “Diseases and Pests” concerning the use of Tactic and Amatraz, and I feel that it does not do any favours for US honey. I would be afraid to lick the spoon unless I knew where it came from.

[James Henderson]

I sell my honeystix from Glorybee at 15 cents per stick and so does my beekeeping partner, Roy Wilson of Southwest Bee Supply here in Tucson.

I have seen them sell for as much as 39 cents plus tax per stix at the hippy produce/health stores here in Tucson.

[Chef Isaac]

James:

with all do respect, I think you are undercutting your profit margin. I took 400 sticks with me to an event yesterday and came come with 25 of them and I sold them for .25 cents each.

[bee crazy]

Do you think there needs to be an upcharge for flavorings and colorants?

Well you could charge for the flavorings,but I would calculate in the flavoring charges and then that would be my base charge, if no flavoring was needed just pocket the money. Less hassel and confusion, just have one price. As far as minimums I was thinking like 2500 pieces, 1000 pieces per flavor. But I myself couldn't afford the shipping of five gallon buckets of honey to Washington state. But you have all those Starbuck types out there that could afford to, we just have Folgers and corn fields here.