marketing

[coontail]

i am planning on getting into beekeeping. i want to do it for fun and pollination but how do you sell all that honey. people say 500 to 700 per hive a year. how would you sell that much honey?

[panthercreekbees]

I dont know what kind of volume that 500 to 700 is, I have been told you should get 50-100 lbs per hive after established. My first hive only did about a half gallon extra that I pulled off the first year . The honey will sell itself I have lots of people wanting to purchase local honey already and all they did was found out I had a beehive. :applause:

[peletier]

Wow, wouldn't that be great.....500 pounds per hive! Have no fear, you won't have that much. Some years you may not get ANY. It is safe to say that until you have had more than a couple of hives for more than a couple of years, you will have no trouble getting rid of your honey.

[coontail]

i meant to put 500 to 700 dollars based on 6-8 dollars per pound. i used to see a local guy wi it stacked up on his pickup in town. i could be wrong but i just couldnt picture him selling much of it.

[USCBeeMan]

All the beekeepers where I live get rid of their supplies of honey as fast as they extract it. Once you are known to have local honey the people come.....kinda like the field of dreams.

Put a Local Honey For Sale sign in your yard and it will get rid of any extra honey.

[tecumseh]

snip..
people say 500 to 700 per hive a year.

tecumseh:
if pounds??? just the though of that many super makes my old bones ache.

if dollars??? sounds a bit unrealistic.

I sell my honey thru the local farmer's market. it took approximately one year for folks to discover the quality of my product. after that time it has pretty much sold itself. so the newer problem is how to have enough to keep my customer base in product.

[Ruben]

When I first got into beekeeping I said how in the world would I move 100lbs of honey. The answer was very quickly. It sells itself and I wish I could get 700 lbs per hive I would quit my day job!!!

[swamprat]

after puting about 15 lbs on my week hive to get them through the winter I had 32 pints left for me my first year.wondered how i was going to sell it all.gave some away to fama ly.had a friemd said he would sell some for me gave him 4 pints.two dayes later he wanted more.gave my last 4 pints.4 days later said he take all i could give him..now i have to buy balk honey from a friend to keep the market going.

[sc-bee]

>i meant to put 500 to 700 dollars based on 6-8 dollars per pound.

most don't get thta much. More in the $5-7 dollar range around here for a pt (22 oz). Depends on local market.

and 100 lbs a hive is a good year--- again that is based on locale.