# Weight of Honey for selling



## Beeginning16 (Nov 12, 2016)

How much does 1 pound of honey weigh? is 1 pound the same as a pint? i am very confused on weights of honey. 

is 1 pint of honey = 12 oz
is an 8 oz jar = 8oz of honey or what is the weight? if you could help me, that would be awesome

I sold 8oz jars for my first year, but i think i gave people more than 8oz of honey since honey weighs more.


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## MiBees (Aug 9, 2016)

To answer your first question, a pound of honey weighs a pound. I think what you need to understand is that there is a difference between volume and weight. For example in most cases 8 fl. oz. by volume is not the same as 8 oz. by weight i.e. 8 oz. jars hold 8 oz. of a product by volume not by weight.


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## Hoot Owl Lane Bees (Feb 24, 2012)

A pound of Honey weigh's a pound?

Put you jar of choose on a scale that does oz's and weigh your jar.
Fill it with honey and weigh it again till you have the weigh the jar should hold.


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## Beeginning16 (Nov 12, 2016)

I am complete noob at this stuff, What does 8oz of honey weigh


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## MarkSaratoga (Mar 21, 2013)

It is a slightly odd concept. This link might help -

https://www.containerandpackaging.c...surements-fluid-ounces-and-net-weight-ounces/


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## MarkSaratoga (Mar 21, 2013)

As in "Sugar, flour, honey, salt and… babies are all measured in net weight ounces", not fluid oz. 
So to answer your specific question as honey is measured by weight not volume, 8oz of honey should mean 8oz of weight, so it weighs 8oz.

What you probably did was take 8 FLUID oz jars and fill with honey. That would weigh (net weight) more than 8oz.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Jars/containers are _typically_ sized by the volume of _water_ that they hold. So an "8 oz jar" holds 8 ozs of water*. But honey is approximately 50% heavier than water, and a jar that holds 8 oz of water holds 12 ozs of honey (by weight). 

Honey is typically (and in some states, by law) sold by weight. So a "quart" mason jar holds 32 ozs of water, but 48 ozs of honey. Similarly, a "pint" mason jar holds 16 ozs of water, but 24 ozs of honey.



* a _few_ vendors that market containers specifically for honey size their containers by the weight of honey that they hold, not the water weight. So one needs to pay attention.


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## Greeny (Jun 27, 2016)

A Pint's a Pound the world around.

I don't believe it, but I've heard it all my life. 
After typing it out and thinking about it, I don't even know if this is a measure of weight statement, or a British price/cost statement for a pint.


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## Beeginning16 (Nov 12, 2016)

Thank you everyone. If anyone has any more info, let me know. Thank you


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

Rader is, as usual, right on point. 

A few things to keep in mind:
- If you buy random jars to sell honey in, the label will likely tell what its volume is. Not how much honey it weighs. Ignore that.
- If you buy jars specifically meant to sell honey in, their volume will be accurate to hold the weight it was advertised for.
- A pint of honey _USUALLY_ weighs 1.5 lbs.
- A quart of honey _USUALLY_ weighs 3.0 lbs.
- The weight of honey when compared to volume actually varies. Different honeys will have different moisture contents, which can make the weight of honey differ. Sometimes a pint will weigh as little as 1.46 lbs according to some literature, sometimes as much as 1.5 lbs.


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## trottet1 (Jul 18, 2013)

> I sold 8oz jars for my first year, but i think i gave people more than 8oz of honey since honey weighs more.


Take one of your 8oz jars and fill it with water. then pour it into a measuring cup. If it pours out to 5ish ounces, then the jar holds 1/2 pound of honey. If the water pours out to the 8 oz line of the measuring cup, then you short changed yourself. 

I buy my jars from Mann Lake. The 1 pound jars hold 11 fl.oz of water. They also sell those as just that, 1 pound jars. I don't know why, but they call the 1/2 pound jars 8oz jars, and they hold 5.5 oz of water. I have only ordered queenline jars so I don't know if its the case with all their jars. 

Now I have a question and I hope this does not derail this thread. Should we be selling honey buy net weight or fluid measure. My labels specify "net wt." right on the label. example My 1 pound jars, which hold 11 ounces of water are labeled as "net wt. 16 oz" I am very hesitant to hit post, but here goes nothing.


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## Richard Cryberg (May 24, 2013)

According to US labeling laws honey must be sold by weight. So a pint jar holds about 625 g of honey ( this is 22 weight ounces) and a quart about 1250 g of honey (this is 44 weight ounces). If you label in ounces you must use weight ounces, not volume ounces. You can sell a jar with too much weight of honey in it, but not one that is short. So, you would be legal to label a full pint jar as one pound and a full quart jar as two pounds even thou both are going to hold a bunch more than that. Your label also needs to list your name or business name, address and phone number to meet labeling laws.


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## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

To convert from volume to weight you have to look at the density of the product. 1.5 is a nice round number for estimates, but it won't work at all for things like ordering labels. The density of my honey runs from 1.36 to 1.40. I've never seen it higher than that, but then my honey here in GA usually has a higher moisture content. Drier honey will have a higher density. I say all this because if you use 1.5 and order honey labels that say 48 oz. for your 32 fluid ounce quart jar, you'll find the only way to actually get 48 oz of honey weight into the jar is to fill it up to the very brim where anyone who opens it will have spillage. My quart jars get a label that says 44 oz. (1.24 kg)

If your buying containers from anywhere other than a beekeeping supply house, my suggestion is to buy your containers, weigh empty and filled with honey, then order appropriate labels. Here in GA, the Dept. of Ag has to approve labels. Other states may differ.

Don't forget that containers sold in bee supply houses are usually named by weight - not volume. A 16 ounce Muth jar holds a pound of honey -- not a pint (which is 16 fluid ounces).


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## psm1212 (Feb 9, 2016)

Richard Cryberg said:


> According to US labeling laws honey must be sold by weight. So a pint jar holds about 625 g of honey ( this is 22 weight ounces) and a quart about 1250 g of honey (this is 44 weight ounces). If you label in ounces you must use weight ounces, not volume ounces. You can sell a jar with too much weight of honey in it, but not one that is short. So, you would be legal to label a full pint jar as one pound and a full quart jar as two pounds even thou both are going to hold a bunch more than that. Your label also needs to list your name or business name, address and phone number to meet labeling laws.


Richard: I have found in the Code of Federal Regulations where I must "specify conspicuously the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer or distributer." 21 CFR 101.5(a). However, the "street address" of my place of business may be omitted if it is shown in a "current city directory or telephone directory." 21 CFR 101.5(d)

Though I have been told multiple times that it is required, I have never found a federal requirement for the inclusion of a phone number on a honey label in the Code of Federal Regulations.


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## Hops Brewster (Jun 17, 2014)

Greeny said:


> A Pint's a Pound the world around.
> 
> I don't believe it, but I've heard it all my life.
> After typing it out and thinking about it, I don't even know if this is a measure of weight statement, or a British price/cost statement for a pint.


It's true.
It means that a pint (8 liquid ounces) of water weighs 1 pound. It always does. Here's the fun part... Although Imperial measure is somewhat larger than US measure, the _proportion of scale_ of an Imperial pint to an Imperial pound is the same as a US pint and a US pound. 
So...
A Pint's a Pound the world around.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Hops Brewster said:


> So...
> A Pint's a Pound the world around.


Except that it is not. A gallon (8 pints) of water actually weighs more than 8 pounds. Something like 8.334 if I remember correctly. So, since honey must be sold by the pound, use a scale and mark the label accordingly.

Now if at a pub, its an inexpensive pint of ale.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>A Pint's a Pound the world around.
>I don't believe it, but I've heard it all my life. 

But it is close enough for most things like oil and water. They weigh about a pound per pint. Honey does not. It's also close to true for sugar. A pint of sugar weighs about a pound.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> Jars/containers are _typically_ sized by the volume of _water_ that they hold.


I don't know the history of this statement, but I believe a clearer way to say this is: In the US, jars/containers are _typically_ sized by the *weight* of _water_ that they hold. The volume of the container is independent of the substance that it contains, since it is only based upon the internal dimensions of the container. My point is that volume of the jar in question doesn't change whether it is holding lead or air. In English unit system "Ounces" and "Fluid Ounces" are very different measures. The former is a measure of weight, and the latter is a measure of volume. This can cause confusion if you're buying standard (non-honey) jars to use for honey. This happens a lot, particularly with folks selling honey by the "pint (16 US fl oz)" or "quart (32 US fl oz)", which are both units of volume - not weight. When these two containers are filled with *water* they weight 16 US oz and 32 US oz, respectively. The generally accepted conversion of honey from US fl oz (volume) to US oz (weight) is to multiply by 1.5. So, a pint jar filled with honey should be labeled as 24 US oz, or 1.5 US lbs.

To confuse the situation further, some vendors sell jars specifically for honey and these jars are sold by the weight of honey that they contain. So, for example, a 12 oz hex jar that you can buy from Mann lake will fill to contain 12 US oz of honey, but when filled with water will weight 12/1.5 = 8 US oz, which also has a volume of 8 US fl oz.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

I agree with _AstroBee_'s clarification of my statement above. 

What I was _thinking_ when I wrote that was "...by the _amount_ of water that they hold." However, I used "volume", but clearly _weight_ is a better choice. 

In my view, since it is _water_ that determines the volume that a container sized in fluid ounces can hold, there isn't a material difference as long as we are speaking solely of water. But AstroBee is correct, "weight" is a better word to use.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Rader, I don't agree that weight is a better choice.

It is splitting hairs, but if you want to accurately describe the volume of a fluid ounce in terms of a weight of water you must specify the temperature of the water. Its volume will change with temperature.

By definition the US Fl. Oz is a unit of volume; 29.6 ml. regardless of the weight of whatever liquid you choose to put in it.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

> When these two containers are filled with water they weight 16 US oz and 32 US oz, respectively.


You are correct in your explanation, however I am going to play devil's advocate here. If, as you say, 32 fluid ounces of water at STP weighs 32 oz., why does a gallon of water, 128 fluid ounces, actually weigh 133.53 oz.? 

Answer is because we have an imperfect system.:shhhh:


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

JWPalmer said:


> Answer is because we have an imperfect system.:shhhh:


Absolutely! I believe that a US gallon is legally defined as 231 cubic inches, and that weighs about 8.34 pounds of water. This means that 1 fl oz of water does not weigh 1 oz (more like 1.0425 oz)! What does this all mean for selling honey? Well, if you have an accurate scale you can actually weigh the honey minus the jar and provide exactly the "weight" called out on your label. Most jars this comes out looking under filled. We simply fill the jar to the fill point, which usually results in more weight than the label calls out. I think customers prefer this


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

:thumbsup:


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## Knobs (Sep 20, 2014)

I see a number of comments wondering why a gallon of water weighs over 8 lbs and yet a gallon is 4 quarts which is 128 ounces. The confusion lies in the fact that Fluid ounces are not and never were actually based upon the weight of water. Its close but not the same. 8 fluid ounces and 8 ounces of water are not the same... Yes this statement will start some arguments I'm sure ... but people should realize that water essentially had almost no value until recently. There was no reason to measure it exactly because until the advent of bottled water it was basically free. Our scale of measuring fluid ounces is actually based upon wine which weighs a little bit different than water does. This should make sense because wine was very valuable and something that was routinely traded by volume in the past. Water was not. 

From wikepedia:

The wine, fluid, or liquid gallon has been the standard US gallon since the early 19th century. The wine gallon, which some sources relate to the volume occupied by eight medieval merchant pounds of wine, was at one time defined as the volume of a cylinder 6 inches deep and 7 inches in diameter, i.e. 6 in × ( 3 1⁄2 in)2 × π ≈ 230.907 06 cubic inches. It had been redefined during the reign of Queen Anne, in 1706, as 231 cubic inches exactly, which is the result of the earlier definition with π approximated to  22⁄7. Although the wine gallon had been used for centuries for import duty purposes there was no legal standard of it in the Exchequer and a smaller gallon (224 cu in) was actually in use, so this statute became necessary. It remains the US definition today.


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Now that makes sense. I just became a little less ignorant. Thanks for the post. I never thought to look at Wiki for the origins of this topic.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

My chemistry teacher made me sit on a stool in the corner wearing a dunce cap for brnging up that an ounce isn't quite an ounce. 
When I said "a pint's a pound the world around" sealed my fate. 

Density is the topic. A gallon of honey weighs about 1.5 times more that a gallon of water.
Which is heavier? A pound of honey or a pound of feathers?


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## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Perhaps since honey is liquid gold, we should be measuring it in troy ounces instead of avoirdupois ounces to really muddy the waters...:digging:


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## DanielD (Jul 21, 2012)

aunt betty said:


> My chemistry teacher made me sit on a stool in the corner wearing a dunce cap for brnging up that an ounce isn't quite an ounce.
> When I said "a pint's a pound the world around" sealed my fate.
> 
> Density is the topic. A gallon of honey weighs about 1.5 times more that a gallon of water.
> Which is heavier? A pound of honey or a pound of feathers?


I would rather you throw a pound of feathers at me than a pound of honey. Did the original question ever get answered clear enough?


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## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

Never thought you could have such a discussion on what does a pound weigh :scratch:


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## DanielD (Jul 21, 2012)

Beeginning16 said:


> How much does 1 pound of honey weigh? is 1 pound the same as a pint? i am very confused on weights of honey.
> 
> is 1 pint of honey = 12 oz
> is an 8 oz jar = 8oz of honey or what is the weight? if you could help me, that would be awesome
> ...


If you purchase jars that are specifically honey jars, the designation of the size would be in honey weight only. 
8 oz homey jar holds 8 oz, by weight of specifically honey.
16 oz homey jar holds 1 lb (16) oz by weight of honey.

If you by fluid oz jars, they are different. 
1 gallon fl. oz. holds 12 lbs, of honey.
1 quart fl. oz. jar holds 3 lbs. honey.
1 pint fl. oz. jar holds 1 1/2. Lbs. honey.
Generally.


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## mbear (May 18, 2017)

You need this link.

http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/honey_measurements.html

1 ounce - oz
Equals:
0.67 fluid ounce - fl oz

1 pound - lb
Equals:
10.67 fluid ounce - fl oz


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