Matters of concern.

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5,764
6,323
canterbury
Experience
Commercial
so lets take this back to the beginning.
James wants to sell his crop and get the bees moved on. No honey buyers, or well low honey buyers = no business buyer.
Maybe dig a big hole aye.. sad but true. Besides, even if you slog yourself for that 100 ton, is that sustainable??

There are too many hives here. Canada has a similar number but there's a lot of land there (tho lots north and not accessible). They do run honey cops. And they do get better prices for their no manuka than we do. But they have also been through some pretty rough prices in recent history, and I think the coop has positively developed and evolved over time.

I think that quite a few bigger beekeepers are trying to break into overseas markets themselves, and in effect competing with each other for market share. So many labels with Unique Our Story/about Us rhetoric, much of it tentative. Imagine combining all that energy!! Divide and die we do.
Anyway, this forum is so frustrating. Who's really reading this? There are some contributors... but who else?? Show yourself! Or there is no one really. Like the vacuum of space.
Some say "share what your are offered/paid" and you get 3! yes three people open enough to share the numbers. Frazz it was your idea to share, but you either don't want to/have not sold/or have no offer to share with us. Frustrating.

James, I thought about that refrigerated container idea. I don't think you can export bees in hiveware?? Reefers can work, as they do have a reticulated air supply and the chill needed. Maybe you should have shaken every last bee, store all that gear for selling (or burning..) later. If onto it, requeen in spring, and sell her with a package??
Has a buyer turned up for that 100 ton?
Yeah Nah .... we did'nt quite crack the 100 tonne ..... and price .... best offer so far is $5.75.
Shaking bees ..... I.m tempted to, but to be honest , the hives look too nce after a late flow and then I 've got to extract more honey, and to be honest, I just want to stradlle my legs over Black Beauty and ride !!
 
8,944
5,377
maungaturoto
Experience
Commercial
If you have to treat more than 2 times a year it means whatever you are doing isn't working.
but it depends on why its not working. sometimes its just the length of the season, or varroa ping pong because everyone treats differently.
at the moment plenty of hives are being left to die, not sure how long that will continue.
so doing more treatments can be a really good idea to keep mite numbers down, which lowers the risk of you being caught out. it also means you can extend your treatments out.
my home hives will be the last to get strips because they had OAE mid season. that way i can kill off any mite drift especially from any nearby failing hives as we go into winter.
 
351
451
Bay of Plenty
Experience
Commercial
Yeah Nah .... we did'nt quite crack the 100 tonne ..... and price .... best offer so far is $5.75.
Shaking bees ..... I.m tempted to, but to be honest , the hives look too nce after a late flow and then I 've got to extract more honey, and to be honest, I just want to stradlle my legs over Black Beauty and ride !!
You better straddle black beauty soon, or soon enough, you'll be opening lids.
 
72
42
Katikati
Experience
Commercial
when we sell some I will post the price we get on this thread :)
Prices offered or paid was initially discussed. Not just sold. Besides it's easy to reply and say that you haven't sold... But instead left it hanging.. even when I bumped it. Hence my angst, I liked your idea of sharing, it's positive.
So no one is getting any offers for that manuka aye. It must be moving.... Because mpi say so.
More likely, offers and sold but keeping very quiet. I get it, why share that information... But it does highlight the lack of contributors and lack of honest discourse. Bunch of tight folk.
 

frazzledfozzle

Founder Member
9,131
7,990
Nelson/Tasman District
Experience
Commercial
Prices offered or paid was initially discussed. Not just sold. Besides it's easy to reply and say that you haven't sold... But instead left it hanging.. even when I bumped it. Hence my angst, I liked your idea of sharing, it's positive.

im not on here as much as I used to be so if I don’t reply it’s because I haven’t seen the question.
Last year we were offered $14kg for 5+ mono payment terms were a third paid before it left the shed then third and a third over 6 months.
never sold to this particular packer before.

A few days out from transporting the payment terms changed with 5% up front then payment spread over a year. We got nervous so pulled out of the deal.

so not current but best I can do.

certainly heard of more than one or two beekeepers not being paid for their honey and being ghosted by the packer so that’s very scary.
 
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5,764
6,323
canterbury
Experience
Commercial
Honest Jim here ....🙈..... we have'nt sold, but then we don't have any Manuka to sell. The white honey from pollination and the bush blend from the coast has three people interested, just waiting on sample results ..... but we only just finished extracting on friday.

I do have an offer on 8 tonnes of "manufacturing grade" from a stock feed company .....65c/kg.
 

Alastair

Founder Member
Platinum
8,854
10,048
Auckland
Experience
Semi Commercial
Just what is manufacturing grade? Floor scrapings? Slumgum wash?

The fact they would actually offer that shows they understand the current plight of the beekeeping industry.
 
5,764
6,323
canterbury
Experience
Commercial
What I forgot to say re pricing ..... was that I am reading a book called 'Liquid Gold - Bees and the persuit of midlife honey' by Roger MorganGrenville.
He's English and decided he needed a bee hive in his back yard. He kept a little notebook of costs and before installing the spring nuc had spent 525 GBP on his commercial ooperation of one .
The comment of his that I like is ...." It seems like in Beekeeping you need a large fortune to make a small fortune !"
 

Alastair

Founder Member
Platinum
8,854
10,048
Auckland
Experience
Semi Commercial
It's like backyard egg production. Costs 10 times what you could buy it for but it's a hobby, you get the enjoyment.
 
5,764
6,323
canterbury
Experience
Commercial
OK .... Been a big day today .... 4.30am start at this time of year .... it is what it is .... but ended up meeting a man on the coast to look through a few beehives who might give them a bit of loving over the next year or two.
As, of course, I have a ticket out of God'Z'own to meet up with and get my leg over Black beauty way up north and have some adventures up in the tundra country.
Enough of Black Beauty.
Most years we are done and dusted at this time of year. Strips are in, hives heavy ..... catch up with you in the spring girls.

Something went wrong this year.

Apivar went in the back in March and April as we took honey off.
A few weeks later we shook bees and sent the advance party north to Canada with mite counts of 3 and 4 and 5.
So it took me by surprise today when we did mite counts of high 20's plus some.
What the f......

Most days my lunch consists of two cheese sammies and a honey sammy.
Today I had a big feed of Humble Pie

36 hours outta jumping into the back seat of that Waka Dreamliner I have cancelled the seat and sent Girl to my old mates warehouse down south for more drugs to sort the problem.

Looks like me and Black Beauty are gonna be going through a dry June and July on the Adigan Pass into Prudhoe Bay
I dunno what the heck happens if we run outta Gas.
 
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