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What to do with all the honey?

12K views 65 replies 22 participants last post by  jcolon 
#1 ·
We're planning on starting up our first hives in the spring, but a lingering concern I have is what to do with all the honey once the hives are producing. Our family can only eat so much as can our friends & families, especially with honey not going 'bad'. I don't want to make this a mini-business … can't imagine having more than a few hives. Thoughts??
 
#50 ·
Coincidentally, I did not see this until now because I spent yesterday selling honey at the local flea market. I usually can sell it all by word of mouth, but last year was a good year and I still have some left.

First, these laws vary by state, so you need to check your own state's laws. Up until about 2 years ago, in Oklahoma, you really had to sell direct from your house. However, now you can sell direct at home or away from home (farmers markets/flea markets) and not violate the law, but you have to put a label on the honey jar that has your contact information and states that "This honey was bottled or packaged in a facility that was no inspected by the Oklahoma Department of Health."


As for what happens if somebody resells your honey, generally only the retail seller would be violating the law, assuming that the beekeeper followed the law when selling to that person.

However, there is a big caveat. The general rule is that a person who "aids and abets" another person who commits a crime is liable just like the person who is violating the law. To "aid and abet" you have to have knowledge that the other person is going to commit the crime and help that person do so. The net effect is that if you sell the honey to another person with knowledge that the other person intends to resell it in a store in violation of the law, then you would probably be violating the law too as an aider/abettor.

Also, an intent to aid/abet can be proven by circumstantial evidence. So if somebody is buying a bunch of honey or you know that the buyer also owns the local health food store and is buying and reselling your stuff, then that would be enough to prove aiding/abetting.

As a practical matter, I doubt the state health inspector or whoever hands out the tickets would bother to track the beekeeper down.

Editorial comment: For honey, these laws are really just a way for the state to make a buck by issuing a license for a fee (or by issuing a ticket if somebody did not have the required license). There's certainly some products that need to be inspected, but honey is not one of them. (Moderator: Please just delete this paragraph if it makes this post worthy of Tailgater).
 
#51 ·
Editorial comment: For honey, these laws are really just a way for the state to make a buck by issuing a license for a fee (or by issuing a ticket if somebody did not have the required license). There's certainly some products that need to be inspected, but honey is not one of them.
Yeah, well, the honey house they want us to build is the same as if it were a slaughterhouse or restaurant.
 
#60 ·
In Oklahoma, all that they care about is the bottling part. Of course, who knows where a lot of honey in drums was extracted and under what conditions? That's another reason these laws are goofy: honey could be extracted in an outhouse in some other country and if its bottled in an inspected facility, it's all good.

Also, even if the honey is bottled in an inspected kitchen, nobody has inspected whether the bottles were cleaned, and nobody checks whether the kitchen was clean on the actual day of the bottling.

None of it makes sense, and this is just an excuse to help charge a fee to pay for the regulation of other stuff, only some of which needs regulation.
 
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