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Thread: Third party services

  1. #1
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    Default Third party services

    Mulling things over as much as anything.

    I'm considering setting up shop, quite literally, selling both honey/bee related products to "the public" and also offering products and services to Beekeepers.

    There's no point trying to compete with the likes of Thorne and maisemore, fully accept that, I was thinking more along the lines of offering honey extraction, frame cleaning (I hesitate to use the word sterilisation), wax processing and perhaps bottling.

    In terms of cost to use those services I was thinking that asking a % of the harvest might be preferable to charging a set fee. That, hopefully, makes it attractive to the 1-2 hive beekeeper while ensuring that raw materials keep coming in.

    So the questions are, assuming I opened this close enough to make it interesting, and assuming you haven't already got all the kit:

    1) would a DIY extraction facility in a commercial grade food preparation area, with motorised extractors be of interest to people?

    2) likewise a facility where you could drop off brood boxes and supers full of old frames and get them back cleaned up with processed wax?

    3) in terms of paying for service like that is a flat fee of cold hard cash preferable or would giving over a % of the total be easier?

    4) if a % is preferable is a simple flat % than a sliding scale?

    4a) if a flat rate is preferable, how much, for half a day, would you consider a fair rate? Lets pick, for arguments sake £20 on the assumption you bring the buckets etc and have to clean the gear at the end.

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    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    £20 per hour (but you clean the kit) might be fairer to you. Ultimately I imagine that you'd prefer to do the cleaning yourself or through a subcontractor who's then responsible.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Hi Neil.
    It would never work here as many people wont pay for anything, even their bees or queens.
    The expectation is that other beekeepers will sort them out when they run into problems no matter how many hours of your time it involves.
    I have gone over some of the same issues as you and done back of the envelope calculations but I can't see a way to make it worthwhile as a business.

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    I've done back of fag pack calculations for a while now and there is more to this than purely just doing "the services".

    I agree that potentially, there possibly isn't much there in honey extraction, but I need it for my own purposes. likewise wax, likewise cleaning frames.

    I'm very much considering a scatter gun approach on the basis that I can't do a Murray and scale up to several thousand hives but that where I am located I can do something along the lines of: http://www.thehivehoneyshop.co.uk

    Granted they are backed by their own apiaries when it comes to selling honey and related products but that's half of what I'm considering, the other half is making those facilities that I need available to others. Maybe the honey extraction itself doesn't do much, once you get 2-3 hives getting your own extractor is a natural thing to want to consider. But I know here I can't put the kit I need in to sort out frames in bulk and wax production is a pain.

    I agree that asking for cold hard cash might not be the way to go, hence considering just asking for a percentage of the overall take.

    I've mulled this over for some time, hence sticking a post up here to garner some other opinions. To do just Honey and related stuff requires far more apiaries than I'm likely to get any time soon, let alone getting the hives and bees to bring that sort of income in.

    I might yet be barking up the wrong tree, believe me I haven't discounted that just yet.

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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    £20 per hour (but you clean the kit) might be fairer to you. Ultimately I imagine that you'd prefer to do the cleaning yourself or through a subcontractor who's then responsible.
    I think whether you ask the user of the kit to do cleaning or not, as the owner of the place you'd have to go over it again to make sure that everything is cleaned properly, it's just a case of has it done enough to make the final once over as painless as possible.

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    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    That's a fair response and I can appreciate where you're coming from. On another level (which I wasn't thinking of initially) if you're paying for such a service you would probably expect the cleaning to be done for you. I would.

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    Senior Member HJBee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post

    1) would a DIY extraction facility in a commercial grade food preparation area, with motorised extractors be of interest to people?
    Yes, it would to me (if you we're near enough)

    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post
    2) likewise a facility where you could drop off brood boxes and supers full of old frames and get them back cleaned up with processed wax?
    Again, yes

    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post
    3) in terms of paying for service like that is a flat fee of cold hard cash preferable or would giving over a % of the total be easier?

    4) if a % is preferable is a simple flat % than a sliding scale?

    4a) if a flat rate is preferable, how much, for half a day, would you consider a fair rate? Lets pick, for arguments sake £20 on the assumption you bring the buckets etc and have to clean the gear at the end.
    All depends on the size of the crop / harvest. If small a beekeeper with 1-2 hives may prefer to pay and get the full crop back. A bigger crop and a percentage of the crop may be preferable. Would you consider either or - may attract different potential customers then.

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    Hi Nellie,

    We have something like this in Scotland although not all located in the same place. Auchencruive the Agricultural college will extract your honey and jar it for you if required. Some local beekeepers use this service. For frame cleaning Gavin is involved in a scheme in Perthshire. He might be able to explain more. In Demark there is a frame cleaning and wax processing set up where you get your frames back with fresh sheets of foundation already fitted. I think the main problem would people be willing to part with their cash. A bit of local market research is needed to see if this service is viable.

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    Senior Member chris's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post
    I've done back of fag pack calculations for a while now .
    I think you'd probably make more by giving up smoking

    If you are aiming at the hobby beekeepers, why would they want someone else to do something for them that is part of the fun?
    If you are aiming at people who want to make money themselves, then you need to be cheaper than they already are. Or to be doing something that they don't want to do. This means you'll have the thankless tasks, but still be under pressure to be as cheap as possible (whether money or percentage).
    Often something that on a small scale is fine, on a larger scale becomes a headache.

    I honestly believe that some people have the *gift* of being able to make money, and the rest of us don't. The problem is that most want to make money. It's a bit like everyone trying to kick a football around a field. I don't know which category you fit into, but you probably do.

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    I'm aware of the saying "if you want to make a small fortune out of beekeeping, start with a large one".

    You might well be right, but there are lots of people round here who rely on borrowing kit either from friends or the association and they're the ones I'm hoping might be interested in what I have in mind.

    And it has also occurred to me that it might just be quicker and easier to set fire to £30,000+ and be done with it

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