# Royal Jelly Pricing



## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

Good question Ian.. I'd say by the ml or ounce but the pricing is what i'd be interested in. The collection of royal jelly is going to tie up resources and take you a bit of time too, so pricing should reflect it. Of course if you're able to say that the hives are chemical free that produce it, that could mean a mark up too. The china stuff is laden with virus' from what i've read, so having a solid source of clean royal jelly may be a good market.

I went to an add from the banner here for Royal Jelly 3 link is http://royalhealthunited.com/Merchant5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=RHU&Screen=PROD&Category_Code=Specials&Product_Code=Super_Royal_Jelly_Special&gclid=CK2K44PdhcMCFeOPMgodKGIAlA
Doing the math it breaks down to about 2.43 an ounce. The source is not mentioned on the site that I'm able to find.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Thx for that Thomas.
$2.50 per ounce does not seem like much ... 

So to go about harvesting it, I would probably harvest from the cells just before the queen cells cap over.


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## apis maximus (Apr 4, 2011)

Stakich sells it...a lot of it. Starts at about $17.00 for 2 oz.
http://stakich.com/collections/royal-jelly/products/fresh-royal-jelly-1


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

Ian said:


> So to go about harvesting it, I would probably harvest from the cells just before the queen cells cap over.


How many cells does it take to fill that 9lb bucket they sell for $350 ?


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

I'd say just prior to capping or just slightly after. Each extra hour is that much less that's available to harvest. Have you watched the video's on Youtube of collection of royal jelly?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FllN2taeVLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBtbghsOZ1c


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Well when they do it that way... 
Awesome link! Thx for the input.


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

apis maximus said:


> Stakich sells it...a lot of it. Starts at about $17.00 for 2 oz.
> http://stakich.com/collections/royal-jelly/products/fresh-royal-jelly-1


apis - With that kind of pricing, I think i might just get into production of royal jelly on the side too. I'll have to do a few test runs to see how many cells it takes to produce 2 oz though.

Ian - Looks like the price point is better than thought.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

$8.5 per ounce, hmmm I wonder how much comes out of one cell?
I'm thinking on my small scale of production, $10 per ounce might be my starting point.


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

Ian said:


> $8.5 per ounce, hmmm I wonder how much comes out of one cell?
> I'm thinking on my small scale of production, $10 per ounce might be my starting point.


Ian - I did a quick search and found this on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_jelly Look under Composition

Therefore, only in queen cells is the harvest of royal jelly practical. A well-managed hive during a season of 5–6 months can produce approximately 500 g of royal jelly.

500 g of royal jelly comes to 17.637 ounces.


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

At that pricing you will go broke. 1 queen cell is maybe 1/3 of a gram of royal jelly. That translates to 3 accepted grafts per gram at 28 grams per ounce means you have 84 cells to harvest. This means you grafted 100 cells to collect $10. Ten cents a graft hmmm, me thinks you owe me a beer lol.

Jean-Marc


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

I just purchased some Royal Jelly for making lotions. It was about $30 for 45ml frozen and I wouldn't use it for grafting as was told it " came from the US" but nothing more specific than that.
Is the skatchit stuff from disease free hives?



Ian said:


> $8.5 per ounce, hmmm I wonder how much comes out of one cell?
> I'm thinking on my small scale of production, $10 per ounce might be my starting point.


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## apis maximus (Apr 4, 2011)

drlonzo,

Notice that Stakich sells also 1 kg (1000 gram) tubs. So, the retail per gram of RJ goes from anywhere between , $0.12-$0.29. 
I am sure even Stakich sells wholesale too.

On my "test runs" I get anywhere from 0.18 grams- 0.25 grams of RJ per Queen cell/cup at about 3 days post grafting. I use JZBZ plastic disposables. 
Now, it will vary quite a bit based on your cell builder set up, how many cups you graft, if it is during flow, if you also feed, how good you are at taking the last smidgen of RJ out of the cup...
I mean same issues to consider just as if you'd set up to make some very nice, very well fed Q cells.

So, if you go with my 0.18 grams of RJ per cup, it will take you ( 2oz=57 grams....57 grams/0.18 grams= 316 queen cups/cells). YMMV, so you'll have to run your own figures...but I venture to bet you'll get in the same ball park.

But now, the Chinese guy you linked, had a frame with 4 bars, each with 2 rows of at least 45-50 cups per row, so that is around 400 cups. Yes, not all of them get taken by the bees, but say 80% take, being a reasonable number. That would put him at around 320 harvest able cups. That would be really close to 57 grams or 2 ounces, from one cell builder. 
Well, a cell builder as he shows in the clip. The Chinese guy is clearly set up for RJ production. 
Notice the specially made queen cups...clearly not for making and selling queens.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

jean-marc said:


> . Ten cents a graft hmmm, me thinks you owe me a beer lol.
> 
> Jean-Marc


Lol anytime!
...and not me grafting for this project ha ha


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

After closer observation of the figures that apis came up with, I have to conclude this is not my cup of tea either. lol I may do an early graft or two to get some good primer RJ, but production isn't for me. If i'm going to take the time to get the bees to make the queens, I'm just gonna go ahead and let them make queens.  More money in queens any day.


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## Kiddkop (Sep 18, 2014)

Seems to me that the hatched, bred queens would be more valuable than the RJ acquired from the destroyed queen cells.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

drlonzo said:


> 'm just gonna go ahead and let them make queens.  More money in queens any day.


Yes probably but the product I was asked to produce is royal jelly. If it were easy there would be little value to making it. 

Thank you for the input


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## Dominic (Jul 12, 2013)

Ian said:


> Yes probably but the product I was asked to produce is royal jelly. If it were easy there would be little value to making it.
> 
> Thank you for the input


Royal jelly is mostly produced in countries where labor is cheap. And where I reckon the queen market is probably also saturated.

You'd probably have to sell it for at least 5$ a gram for it to be worth your time. If not more.

I'd recommend estimating how much money you could make (or save) by producing queens instead, and then how much RJ you'd expect to produce with the same equipment, to adjust your royal jelly prices so that it's exactly as profitable as making queens (adjusting for increased labor). To me, that would be the true value of locally-produced royal jelly. Whether that's a price the market is willing to pay for is another issue...


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Dominic said:


> To me, that would be the true value of locally-produced royal jelly. Whether that's a price the market is willing to pay for is another issue...


Yup, that is farming, isn't it. You should see our books on wheat production... I think you would compare its feasibility it to Royal Jelly production! lol


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