At out meeting we watched the short DVD "Sister Bee". See www.sisterbee.com for details. Its a beautiful documentary of some women beekeepers and their experiences. After pizza, we then had a discussion of value added products and how some AMBA members are packaging and selling their products. Ruth Martin showed some of her products and packaging and related how well some of the eye catching tags and labels help display the products. Ben Cooper then discussed some of his molded figurines. The main point is that the value of the honey or beeswax in the product is minimal, but the value of the product produced is very high and can command much higher sales prices. One example Steve mentioned were the products from Stoneleigh Farms (www.stoneleighfarms.com) and included lavender honey soap and shampoo. Other members had some experience which they mentioned. For ex, Harry Mallow mentioned that a vendor had not sold much of his honey but when the honey bear was dressed up with abit of ribbon, it started selling very fast. We held a raffle and prizes were awarded. Richard Cutter brought in a super, Ruth Martin brought in eggs, and Ben Cooper brought in a large quantity of molds. The gifts donated are much appreciated. A 50-50 drawing was also made and the prize was $55 or so.
At out meeting we watched the short DVD "Sister Bee". See www.sisterbee.com for details. Its a beautiful documentary of some women beekeepers and their experiences. After pizza, we then had a discussion of value added products and how some AMBA members are packaging and selling their products. Ruth Martin showed some of her products and packaging and related how well some of the eye catching tags and labels help display the products. Ben Cooper then discussed some of his molded figurines. The main point is that the value of the honey or beeswax in the product is minimal, but the value of the product produced is very high and can command much higher sales prices. One example Steve mentioned were the products from Stoneleigh Farms (www.stoneleighfarms.com) and included lavender honey soap and shampoo. Other members had some experience which they mentioned. For ex, Harry Mallow mentioned that a vendor had not sold much of his honey but when the honey bear was dressed up with abit of ribbon, it started selling very fast. We held a raffle and prizes were awarded. Richard Cutter brought in a super, Ruth Martin brought in eggs, and Ben Cooper brought in a large quantity of molds. The gifts donated are much appreciated. A 50-50 drawing was also made and the prize was $55 or so. 
