I do all this but in an area where people turn each dollar twice before they spend it, price
does come into it. We have been doing this market since it started and are not complaining.
Just wish I was closer to Noosa:)
The Witta market is a monthly event - not a once a year opportunity
Your touching on part - a large part - of why it is I never ventured
too far into honey. It boils down to;
you can have bees or you can have honey Pretty much anywhere in Aussie one can keep bees, it's just a matter
of scale. But there are specific regions you can sell honey into,
logistics/freight costs being the prime elements in decision making.
So it is again a matter of those who can, do... and those who cannot
keep bees.
Pollination services as I ran allow high density small footprint colonies,
colonies easily "held over" between jobs. The honey blokes however had to
stay on the move, and did so (do so?) at far greater cash outlays than I ever
experienced. And whilst their return per annum was bigger business than
mine (scaled) they had to stay in the market to stay in the bees, small scale
colonys do not honey money make.
Do the math?
Back-0-Matchbox scratchings, a semi takes 720 pollinators at 15kg for a
return of maybe $100K in two weeks, same semi takes 120 honey badgers
at 100kg to return 4.5tonne @$4:00/kg, or maybe $15K in two weeks.
So, effectively, their operation could return around $180K a year, when
"working bees", whereas my outfit had to be content with that $100K.
Point being I guess.. those with a market and bees (forage), go for it... sell
your honey at premium. Those without a satisfactory market would be better
off just keeping bees, forget the marketing. In my view all the effort is going
into beating your mindset up (cutting the price) and maybe also demanding
of bees something your bees in your location just cannot do.
Tis how I see it... others might not.
Bill
