Honey season is almost here, and beekeepers need something better...
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...something better than fruit boxes and coolers and totes. Honey is a precious commodity that requires heavy investments of time and money. Doesn't it deserve a protective mode of transport and storage? Of course it does!
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oops....pardon me...excuse me...ouch...
How do you bring in your honey frames? How do you hold them until extraction? Heavy, dirty, bottomless supers? Grimy coolers? Tote boxes that let them stick together or fall over? ...Really??
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Ick. A mess, and a loss of honey and sales...
We decided there had to be a better way.
If this is your first look at the Hive Butler, please take a few minutes to review our original campaign here.
Our original campaign on Indiegogo was launched in 2015 to fund the development of the die needed to manufacture the Hive Butler. We didn't get the total amount of money required to get our die produced, but we did get a lot of hits, interest, and positive feedback. The HIve Butler design was initially motivated by a desire for a clean, safe storage box for honey frames during harvest and extraction time. But the Hive Butler doesn't stop there: it works for beekeepers EVERY season, not just during honey harvest.
Wax frames are quite possibly the most valuable tool in beekeeping, as they serve as the foundation of the hive. However, its delicate structure and components are often damaged during transportation and storage, resulting in loss of materials, product, and profit. Because the Hive Butler holds frames upright and secure, your wax foundation, and drawn-out comb is safe and sound as your frames are moved, stacked, and stored. Even safe from wax moths!
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Watch that wax start to sag, any minute now...
And then there are those random moments when you have bees and queen cells, or even Queens themselves, that need moved from one bee yard to another...Quick! Get the bottom board, empty box, another cover and some ratchet straps! (Who has all that sitting around ready to go??) The Hive Butler (with a screen-top lid!) would be amazing for quick, short-term bees-on-the-frame transport.
Have you ever stood on a very tall ladder, maybe even in the back of a truck, with a heavy box in one hand, a pole pruner in the other, trying to knock down a swarm? We have and we would've loved to have one lightweight box, with a snap-on screen top. Slap on the lid and it is secure for transport, no ratchet strap required! The Hive Butler will be doing that work for you too!
The Hive Butler will be working for you, even when you're not...ALL YEAR LONG.
But just what is it going to look like? We have pursued multiple avenues for a full-sized prototype for the Hive Butler. Customers want to see the product they are investing in. All estimates for one full-size Hive Butler prototype were over $8000! That amount of money would pay for the down payment of our die. So we went to a friend who is an engineering student at Purdue University, and he got their 3D printing lab to produce the Hive Butler in 1/4 scale size, which you can see below!
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Don't panic! This bright green color is simply our choice of 3D printer filament. The actual Hive Butler will be clear, food-grade polypropolene or HDPE. This will allow you to see through the boxes, and know which size and how many frames are inside. We want to be able to look out in the storage area and know which Hive Butlers have deeps, which are empty, etc.
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We made the carrying edge extra-deep in consideration of men's hands in leather gloves to make them easy to carry. There will also be 1.5" clearance below the bottom of a deep frame to the bottom of the box. So if you need to move frames with swarm cells that you are trying to preserve, you can do that.
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So what do the beekeepers think about the Hive Butler??
We first brought the Hive Butler to beekeepers in person, at the Indiana Bee School in February 2016 as vendors. Even though we only had drawings of our design and no prototype, we had very positive responses among the attendees, and received multiple requests for wholesale pricing, distributorship plans, and quite a few pre-production orders. Ron Bastin of Bastin Honey Bee Farm in Knightstown, Indiana, ordered 10, and he can't wait to sell the Hive Butler at his bee supply store!
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Talking with beekeepers at this event made us realize that a physical prototype would be essential to the marketing and success of the Hive Butler. This led to the development of the 1/4 scale box shown above. Despite its small size, we knew it would be beneficial to have something in-hand to show our prospective customers. So, we picked up our little "berry baskets" on the way to the Michigan State Beekeeper School.
The more we handled them, the more we were impressed with the detail showing how they are designed not just to hold 10 frames, but to carry up to 100 lbs. of honey. T hose who visited our booth were not only impressed with the design, but were interested in buying the Hive Butler to bring in and store their own honey. Most of our customers pre-ordered multiple boxes at the event, some ordering up to ten!
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This is Don Lamm from Michigan State Beekeepers Association. Don gave us some terrific compliments at the end of their 2-day show. We were delighted with the responses we got there. And beekeepers were excited to see a solution to several problems that have plagued all of us for years!
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Beekeepers new, and experienced, were very interested in the Hive Butler. We sold about three times the amount in Michigan than we did at Indiana. As a thank you to all those buyers, we promised to deliver their Hive Butlers this summer when they are ready! We appreciate folks giving us their trust.
We were very excited to see beekeepers--young and old, new and veteran--"get" our product. The comments of "This is what I have been looking for!" and "We've needed this for a long time!" were almost constant.
Our road of promoting the Hive Butler didn't end in Michigan. Next up are events hosted by the Will County Beekeepers in Joliet, Illinois, and the West Virginia State Beekeepers. We will also be going to some local clubs here in Indiana after that, including the Bedford Bee Intensive on April 22, 2016.
In the mean time, we still need the deposit money to produce our die ($11,000) by the end of April. It will take about 8 weeks to build the tools (one for box, one for lid) and fine tune them. Once the machinery is calibrated and ready, production of the Hive Butler can begin! The sooner we can get that deposit in, the sooner we can deliver Hive Butlers to you! We are HOPING to have them ready for delivery in July!
As beekeepers, we appreciate that our work is never done and that there is always a better way to do things. That's why we are continuing to develop the Hive Butler to make it a versatile and TRULY USEFUL tool for hardworking beekeepers everywhere. Our new lid design allows beekeepers to choose between having a screen-top lid or a solid lid, allowing you flexibility in how you use the Hive Butler. We also have plans in the works for future variations of our box, including one that is darker and opaque for use in swarm collection.
The Hive Butler is going to help you, and us, with honey harvest, swarm collection, bee transport, frame storage, and apiary work. We have designed it to work for you throughout all the seasons of the beekeeping year. PLEASE help us get it to market more quickly, by showing your support, with even a small contribution to the cause.
We had over 3,000 views on our first campaign last December. If each of those hits had given us $5, our Hive Butler would be in production right now! A $5 contribution is about the price of a Starbucks, but it is an important contribution to us! Please support your fellow beekeepers!
We had a significant amount of interest from outside the United States last time. Please know, we are determined to get this product across the pond(s), in all directions. At this time, we are not able to offer shipping outside the U.S., but are hoping to do so by the end of Summer 2016. Please support the campaign and help us get to you sooner!
If you cannot send a contribution, we ask that you please forward our campaign on your social media platforms. We are on Facebook ("The Hive Butler"), Twitter (@thehivebutler), and Instagram (@thehivebutler). We are following a lot of wonderful beekeepers all around the globe and are excited to travel to many of those places once we have a finished product to bring along with us!
