I would sell my honey for about $6 a pound.
First off, money is the last taboo. People will graphically describe the details of their most intimate relations along with their sick compulsions and addictions before they tell you their check book balance or how much money they are making. I'm not surprised these other guys won't tell you how much...or maybe they don't really know!
Wow, if you can sell your honey for six bucks a pound, go for it!
My advice would be to sit down and figure your income at $2.00 a pound, $3.00 if you're really savvy and retail everything yourself--and this is very doable.
Refigure your operating costs, not just the cost of buying the woodenware, but also replacing deadouts, new queens (unless you want to raise your own), supplemental feeding, seasonal help, containers, more hive tools because you lost the other ones in the grass, etc.
I think there's good money in bees, but I've met quite a few people who want to borrow the money to buy everything new, hire the help to run the bees (and take the stings), then roll in the big bucks as they wholesale their honey in barrels.
It takes a lot of barrels to do it this way and the price your honey brings is closer to $1.30 to $1.50. maybe as high as $1.75 if you hang on to it until the spring. The hired help may have more money in their pockets than you and will probably drive nicer trucks.
And then there's a host of variables that will whip-saw you from one year to the next...kind of like farming. We are so weather dependent.
I hate to sound discouraging, so to be encouraging, my route has been to keep as many bees as my time allows, keep track of expenses, keep good records on production and then start looking forward to that time you can judge the expected crop and you have a good handle on the markets. By keeping your day job and entering the bee business, you'll have your first batch of equipment paid for.
I also buy used equipment (that's a topic for another thread), repair everything, make a bunch of my own equipment from discarded scrap wood, catch free swarms and sell most of my honey on a retail level at the farmer's market. I also sell a lot of 6-ounce bears--high price per pound but you need to sell a lot of them to make any money.
It can be done, but what I make per hive, on average, will vary from the guy across the road from me. Start small and you'll have a better handle on the real costs.
Grant
Jackson, MO
