Selling Bulk Honey

[Jon D.]

After an attempt to sell honey "retail", I am thinking this summer I will just go back to keeping bees, and sell my honey in bulk, keeping only what friends and family need.

Anyways, the gentleman (large scale commercial bee farmer) to whom I previously sold my honey in bulk is relocating. I am wondering if anyone knows anywhere else I can bring my honey (in 5 gal pails) to sell it. I usually don't have too much, 4 or 5 five gallon pails twice a summer.

What does everyone else do with their honey, and does anyone know of somewhere local I can bring my excess? I'd be willing to drive a ways, perhaps up to an hour away.

I would really appreciate all of your input.

--Jon D.

[Ruben]

That amount should be no problem to retail, but if it was then how about selling it wholesale to gift shops, health stores, gas stations, or any business that may want to give it to their customers as a gift/ That way you could make a little more from it. Just a thought. Or try Ebay!

[Jon D.]

Thanks for the thoughts Ruben.

I am more trying to get out of the hassle of bottling, and the required "Salesmanship" that goes with the retail market. It was starting to kill my hobby. So I figure this year I'll get back to bees, and just sell the honey in the bulk (wholesale).

Thanks

--Jon D.

[Ruben]

Maybe you have a friend, or know someone who could use a way to make a little extra money bottling and selling honey but does not want to mess with bees. You supply the honey and manage the bees and the other person bottles and sells it and you split the profits, or sell him or her the honey wholesale and they bottle and sell it retail.

[okb]

There are always people at our beekeepers assocation that will buy honey . I would try a local assoc.

[RAlex]

Jon D ...The nice thing about honey is that if you dont have to have the money for it right away it wont spoil in pails. What I do is when harvested I mark it as to the date and source then store it. I do retail some of it and sell it at the flea market but any that I dont retail I save and sell to a larger honey producer in my area. My brother in law who is also a small beek sells his at a stand but occasionally saves 20-30 pails and when he needs the room drives it to a bulk buyer about an hour away. I have met a local guy who doesnt have bees but travels to NYC where he has a store and he wants to buy all of my extra honey to sell under his label. The good thing is that it wont spoil....Rick

[Grant]

I LOVE to retail honey. I LOVE the personal interaction at the Farmer's Markets and face-to-face conversations.

And I LOVE the extra money that retail prices bring. And I don't mind selling to stores at their wholesale prices as it more than compensates me for my bottling time.

I also have a number of requests from people who want five-gallon buckets of honey, at wholesale prices. But I'm a little reluctant to let it go so cheap.

If I were to retail that five gallons in quarts, I could net around $140 after I buy my jars. I sell that five gallon bucket for $85. Perhaps that's too cheap, but that's what the going rate is around here. I can make a lot more money filling little squeeze bears.

Who wants five gallons of honey? Most of my buyers are the people who home-school their children. They tend to have large families (six to ten children is not uncommon) and they tend to demonstrate a higher level of nutrition with home-made products. They go through a lot of honey, and prefer honey to refined sugar.

Ask around. Start with a home-school association to contact those parents. I would think you would have no problem selling five-gallons of honey.

Grant
Jackson, MO

[greenbeekeeping]

I will probablly be needing to buy honey this year. Let me know when you are ready to sell. Hopefully I will have the funds available. We are in Ligonier, IN. Thanks.

Matt

[BjornBee]

Jon, have you tried bakery and butcher shops? Deer processing shops use it for sticks, etc.

[riverrat]

I would get a 5 gallon bucket with a honey gate fore easy bottling put a sign honey for sale in the front of the house and bottle it when needed place a few jars on a table by the sign sell on the honor system most people buying honey are honest people, I also have a couple sundry shops that buy it to resell I sell it to them12 bottles at a time it sure helps pay for the hobby better than wholesaling it 5 pails 60 lbs a pail 300 pounds @$5.00 a pound = $1500 dollars compared to wholesale at just over $300.00 quite a difference and once you have a clientel built up in couple of yearsyou will be wishing you had more. this would also limit your contact with the customer if you are uneasy about salesmanship. I also sell to coworkers at the end of your next season what you have left then wholesale I bet you wont have much if any at all.;)

[dcross]

Put a flyer up at every brewing shop around! Also microbreweries.

Or find someone who's already retailing lots of stuff at a farmers market(Amish?), you bottle it, they sell it.

Check your regulations.