I want to make the product as cheap as possible as i feel a lot of the commercially available nest boxes are really over priced for what they are and vary in price depending on who is selling them.
The boxes i feel offer the best value for money is the Esschert bee house as it is a good size with plenty of nest holes and has a metal roof (although this may rust) Also the wildlife world bee box (bottom left) although it is still quite expensive the tray are removable for cleaning and made from good quality wood. Although the mini bug house is by far the cheapest it only provides 9 little holes and is still expensive considering hoe small it is!
I took the prices of 20 different bee boxes and worked out the average price to buy a bee box which came to
£14 (Not including P&P)
Approximately £20 with P&P included
What will affect the cost- Posting- weight of product + weight and cost of the envelope/packet + packaging Materials - body + Attachments + Components
Selection of the most popular bee boxes commercially available and their prices
I recently found a flat pack bee box in the lanes which initially looked pretty spot on what i going for. it was very small however when i picked it up was extremely heavy and cost £25!! which i thought was ridiculous! i wasn't able to take a photograph in the shop but the product was called 'The Beesnees- solitary bee box' . With products designed to help bes being so expensive it prevents people from purchasing them, i was thinking of buying the product to do a bit of analysis and use the product in my garden however the prices stopped me from doing so.
product i found in a shop in Portsmouth priced at £99.99
Another product i came across was an insect hotel. Although it is rather large at 400mm high and provides multi functions accommodating a variety of insects it was still really expensive.
Royal Mail website- post size and weight guides
Price of postage per 100g first and second class
Cost in my project that need consideration
Maximum postage price £1.76 (Second class large letter weighing 750g)
Price of envelope
Price for materials (outer wrapping, nest tubes)
Price for components
Manufacturing costs
How will i make a profit? although its nice to make something for the good of the bees but
Material costs
Using reject tetra pak will bring the cost down as opposed to buying new and printing my own (See materials section)
Table of purchased materials
Snap fasteners - 9mm x 9mm x 3mm - 55p - Fabric land, Brighton
Loctite glue - 3g - Buy one get one free - 99p - Robert Dyas, Brighton
Saving money! ... sort of ....
Whilst cutting the bamboo I decided that if I cut each piece from the nodes along the cane this would leave one end closed. This would mean I no longer need to make cork stoppers for the ends of the nest tubes and thus saving money on additional materials! However on down side i could only use the 'fat ends' on the canes meaning there was a lot of waste material
So how much has my product cost me? 99P + 55P + £5.45 + £4.00 + £2.00 += £12.99
Plus i have used a lot of university materials which i do not know the cost of such as X2 A2 Polypropylene sheet - £? A2 Card sheet - £?
Although ive tried to keep costs down when purchasing materials it has been difficult as purchasing single/small amounts is a lot more expensive than if i was bulk buying, for example to buy a single sheet of cork it cost £4.00 however to buy 25 sheets from the same company it was £12.00. As a consequence I have spent more on materials for my one bee box than i wanted the product to cost to buy. Another problem i encountered is i will have a lot of waste material left over after i have made my one bee box as i couldn't buy a single bamboo cane or a smaller sheet of cork, however i will know how much materials are need to made one box and how far the materials will go.If i have time i will make more than one bee bee box as i wouldn't like to just let materials go to waste.