You may remember from a previous blog that Flynn’s Enterprise for Kids plan was to buy honey at wholesale and sell at retail. All he needed was a good source of cheap quality honey that he could buy in bulk.
Flynn’s Grandad has kept bees for over twenty years and had a number of hives which he regularly harvested honey from. The honey produced from his bees is very light in colour and tasty as the bees forage over the Mid West fields of Paterson’s Curse and coastal gums. Flynn knew that he had a good quality product.
His plan was to pay a visit and strike up a deal with his Grandad!
Flynn’s Grandad saw that Flynn had thought through his plan. He was more than willing to support Flynn with his new honey enterprise. Flynn negotiated a good price per kg, however, the deal included Flynn having to help his Grandad rob the honey from the hives. Listen to Flynn explaining the deal he has made with his Grandad by clicking this link!
Flynn donning his gear.
Flynn with Grandad
Flynn was up for the challenge! He donned a pair of overalls, gloves, boots and bee veil. Then he and his Grandad disappeared for the morning, returning later in the day with a heavy load of honey supers in the back of the ute. They were carted around to the rear of the house and quickly stacked in the garage. Already the local bees were honing in on the honey, hoping to pinch it for their own hives. The garage door was closed to keep the bees out.
Flynn slotting the honey combs into the honey extractor.
Extracting the honey from the honey combs.
Grandad sliced the caps off the honey combs with a hot special purpose electric knife and Flynn slotted them into a honey extractor. The extractor uses centrifugal force to extract the honey from the combs. It was Flynn’s job to spin the extractor, which proved to be a lot of fun. Although everything nearby became sticky with escaping honey, including Flynn!
Checking the temperature of the honey
Yummy raw honey - a great enterprise venture
Flynn’s brother Jai, and a family friend Jack, stopped by to lend a hand. Many hands made light work and before long, after warming and sieving the honey, it was sealed into 10kg buckets.
Angry bees don’t take too kindly to people robbing their hives. It was pretty amazing that Flynn managed to do all this work without getting stung! His Grandad and Dad weren’t so fortunate though!
Enterprising Flynn paid cash for 80kgs of honey from his Grandad. He loaded it all up in our car to take it back to his home. It was a large investment for a twelve year old and Flynn, knowing its value, took great care to ensure that the honey was well sealed and cushioned for the long trip home. He didn’t want it spilling, nor did he want any ants finding their way into his containers.
Pouring the honey into tubs.
Filling tubs with Grandad
Flynn wanted to sell his honey at retail. He had done his research and found that honey generally sold in shops for around $12 or $13 a kg. He had a unique product. It was tasty, raw and full of enzymes, which are generally destroyed during commercial pasteurization processes.
He had also searched online for plastic honey pots. We discussed with him that people would pay a premium for his product if it looked professionally bottled and not sold in recycled jam jars. New plastic honey pots weren’t cheap! The larger the order, the better the price.
Flynn made his order over the phone and bought five hundred 500ml pots. These were delivered by mail within a few days, arriving in a massive cardboard box.
Flynn ordered honey jars and lids...
....ready to be filled
So now he was all set to go with his enterprise for kids project. He had his honey and honey pots and had spent every cent that he had. It was a huge investment and Flynn had no choice, but to make it work. He had overcome fear and had taken a calculated risk with his business. All he had to do now was bottle, market and sell his honey. … and this will all be revealed in a later blog!
In our next Enterprise for Kids blog we check back with Candy Man Chayse and see how his enterprise has been progressing.
