re:  " in the UK feed costs are very significant 12.5kg (27lb) block of fondant has rocketed to around £11 this year) and we need to consider input:output very carefuly."
 
I am confused by that comment.  Assuming the numbers above, I get £0.88/kg for fondant.  Call it $0.64/lb at today's exchange rate - pretty close to the retail price for granulated sugar in the US.  The opportunity cost of leaving excess honey on the hive would seem to be as much as an order of magnitude higher.
 
My reasoning:
- First, the choice to express the comment in purely economic terms implies a belief that fondant/sugar is at least as good a winter food for the bees as honey.  If one doesn't believe that, the rest of this analysis is irrelevant.
- One unit of fondant has the energy content of about 1.25 units of honey (call it 20% water to keep the math easy).  To fairly compare fondant or sugar costs to honey on a per-unit-of-weight basis, the effective cost is £0.70/kg ($0.50/lb).
- The average retail price for honey in the US (as reported by BeeCulture) has been running about $5.50/lb for 2012.  Assuming UK prices are in the same range, that's about £7.50/kg.
- Average US wholesale prices (same source and period) is about $4.00/lb (£5.50/kg).
- Even if you sell at the international bulk rate of $1.50/lb (US Dept of Commerce, 2011 last data available), that still works out to a bit over £2/kg.
 
Granted, there is labor and overhead associated with feeding - we can't just include the raw cost of the feed itself.  And we have to offset the opportunity cost of the honey by the avoided costs of extraction (and bottling if retail).  But I am having trouble imagining a realistic scenario where the overhead and avoided costs would eat up a 10x advantage in price - or even the 3x advantage at international bulk rates.  What am I missing here?  What economic reason leads you to hesitate at a fondant price point of £0.88/kg? 

Mike Rossander

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