# Age Old Question, What to Do with All this Honey!



## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Marketing can easily become a problem. Some people really enjoy that aspect and others not at all. I have a good location for an honor stand and some repeat customers that I reserve a supply for. That works for 5 or 6 producing colonies but more than that and storage, reliquifying, marketing etc., does take some planning so that it does not become a drag on other aspects of family life.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

So far, I have found it is easy to give 5 gal away but selling has not been as successful. I have not put much effort into it yet but have the same worrys.
Cheers
gww


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## cbay (Mar 27, 2017)

A high quality problem to have. Get fat on honey, sell some, give away, feed new colonies...


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

Let the bees keep it? 

Nancy


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Use it as payment instrument. 
For many things, people will take a jar of honey in exchange, I propose.
My egg lady mentioned it to me. 
I wonder though if she'll sell me the 3 dozen egg for 1 lb of my raw, organic honey. 
Will ask soon


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## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

I'm a sideliner so I needed to find places to sell once I got to 20 producing hives. One of my best markets is a local church yard sale that happens once a month. Over time, I built up a very good customer base there. 

I could easily sell 60 lbs of honey per year at work, and in fact I know I'm well over that now just by word of mouth as people from different departments found out about my honey sales. It took some time to get the word out and I do very well and no extra time or cost of sitting at a market table. I give my co-workers a special price just for that reason. 

I recommend that you set a precedence right off--figure out a price before you start unless you do want to give honey away.
I found it quite annoying when people thought I should give the honey to them for nothing because I got the honey "free". I'm prepared with an answer now that folks can come and "u-pick" your own honey for a 50% discount. No takers yet.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

This comment wins the day!



> I found it quite annoying when people thought I should give the honey to them for nothing because I got the honey "free". I'm prepared with an answer now that folks can come and "u-pick" your own honey for a 50% discount. No takers yet.


Roll on the floor funny!

Nancy


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## bushpilot (May 14, 2017)

bevy's honeybees said:


> I found it quite annoying when people thought I should give the honey to them for nothing because I got the honey "free". I'm prepared with an answer now that folks can come and "u-pick" your own honey for a 50% discount. No takers yet.


Yes!


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## rick54 (May 8, 2014)

Best advice I've heard all day! Good for you!


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## VickyLynn (Jun 20, 2011)

Make mead!


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## BadBeeKeeper (Jan 24, 2015)

VickyLynn said:


> Make mead!


Absolutely! What doesn't sell, you turn into booze. Booze sells (just don't let the Federales catch you selling it)...or drink it yourself and stop buying that second-hand Clydesdale water called Bud Light.


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## Moon (May 7, 2011)

I've been a hobbyist/sideliner for six years. I think my best year was just shy of 2,000#, finished extracting by mid October, sold out by end of February. I have never had problems getting rid of honey. My wife does all of the marketing and most of the sales, she also makes cinnamon honey butter, lotion and lotion bars, lip balm, pain rub, and other products. This year she's going to try selling propolis tinctures. I have always viewed honey as the worst byproduct of beekeeping because harvesting and extracting is what I consider "actual work". I have, however, never had a problem selling it. Marketing and customer relations are huge in my opinion, we have people that will not eat any honey but ours; will swear up and down all day long that our honey is far superior to any other beekeepers in the area regardless of my explanation that aside from different processing techniques it is literally the exact same honey as the beekeeper down the road.

In all honesty, if it wasn't for my wife's entrepreneurial spirit I would still have 5 gal. buckets full of honey from my first year beekeeping stock piled in the basement.

Prices: 
1# Squeeze Bottle - 8.00
3# Quart Jar - 20.00
1# Comb Honey - 10.00
8oz Honey butter - 10.00
3oz Lotion Rub - 8.00
3oz Lotion Bar - 8.00
Lip Balm - 3.00
3oz Pain Rub - 20.00
Propolis Tincture - 25.00

Our prices are always lower than our competition too, usually by several dollars per pound.


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## VickyLynn (Jun 20, 2011)

Moon said:


> I've been a hobbyist/sideliner for six years. I think my best year was just shy of 2,000#, finished extracting by mid October, sold out by end of February. I have never had problems getting rid of honey. My wife does all of the marketing and most of the sales, she also makes cinnamon honey butter, lotion and lotion bars, lip balm, pain rub, and other products. This year she's going to try selling propolis tinctures. I have always viewed honey as the worst byproduct of beekeeping because harvesting and extracting is what I consider "actual work". I have, however, never had a problem selling it. Marketing and customer relations are huge in my opinion, we have people that will not eat any honey but ours; will swear up and down all day long that our honey is far superior to any other beekeepers in the area regardless of my explanation that aside from different processing techniques it is literally the exact same honey as the beekeeper down the road.
> 
> In all honesty, if it wasn't for my wife's entrepreneurial spirit I would still have 5 gal. buckets full of honey from my first year beekeeping stock piled in the basement.
> 
> ...


I think you should raise your prices, same as your competition's.


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## MichiganMike (Mar 25, 2014)

Rick, I have never “marketed” my honey however I do have customers all of whom having discovered that I keep bees asked if I would sell them honey. Friends pay $10 per qt, acquaintances $15 and family is free. I also give jars to my mail carrier and various service providers. Sellers at the local farmers markets have offered $150 for a 60lb pail. I am not keeping bees for profit and like you have more honey than I can personally use.


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## rick54 (May 8, 2014)

Michigan Mike, I'm wondering with all the micro breweries going up these days, could a brewery use honey as a sweetener? The next question would be how much the average micro brewery would use for one batch of beer? Not being a micro brewer myself, I couldn't say if they'd use two 60# cans or ten per batch of beer. Still, a micro brewery might be a potential source for unloading some 60's.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Pretty hard to compete with sugar simply on its sweetening or fermenting value. I dont think anyone would want to produce honey to be sold that cheap. When you get beyond what you can sell at "farm gate", (depending on labelling and production facility laws in your area), you have to jump through some troublesome hoops! 

Looking after and selling the yield from half a dozen hives is fun but more hives might make it into something that is not fun anymore. One beekeeper I am somewhat familiar with "farms out" his honey production and sales on a percentage basis and spends most of his time on queen and nuc production.


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## rwlaw (May 4, 2009)

I found it quite annoying when people thought I should give the honey to them for nothing because I got the honey "free". I'm prepared with an answer now that folks can come and "u-pick" your own honey for a 50% discount. No takers yet.

I think the most annoying ones are the people that want the honey for smoked fish. I had a guy that BEGGED me to put 4 hives on his property for land use honey to smoke his fish (which turned out to be a joke for honey production, they put away just enough for winter). I went to pull them for the winter and “ well, how much honey am I going to get. Gallon, quarts?”. I almost started laughing out loud, bit my tongue, gave him a couple qts so we could stay friends.


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## ncbeez (Aug 25, 2015)

I give some to family. My wife uses some for baking bread. I eat a lot of it. I have a few regular customers who take 2 or 3 quarts a piece each year. It sometimes takes a while to sell the last few qts. When I harvest the sourwood honey I keep 1 maybe 2 jars and do no advertising at all for it because it is the one variety of honey that I have more requests than supply. I call it a good year if I sell enough honey to pay for what supplies or queens that I bought that year. I am just a hobbyist. Some of my loyal customers have advertised for me successfully. However I think I will sell a couple of nucs next year if things look favorable.


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## ncbeez (Aug 25, 2015)

" I'm prepared with an answer now that folks can come and "u-pick" your own honey for a 50% discount. No takers yet."[/QUOTE]
I love that comment too! Might be tempted to use it sometime hope that is okay.


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## Robert166 (Mar 12, 2005)

That’s a problem I wish I had. Lol


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## SuiGeneris (Feb 13, 2018)

A few ideas that I've thought of, should I ever get into the position of too much honey:


 Make mead. Drink mead. Forget about life for a while.
 Contact your local craft brewery. Many would be happy to buy your honey in-bulk.
 Make mead. Drink mead. Forget about life for a while.
 "Honour-system" road-side stand (assuming its legal in your area). Someone had a nice post on this a BS a week or two ago.
 Make mead, distil mead, drink the "mead", forget about life for a good long time.
 Sell on kijiji/facebook market/craigslist/etc
 Make mead. Drink mead. Forget about life for a while.

For the record, the odd-numbered ones are my plan, the even-numbered ones are SWIMBO's plan...


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

The roadside honour stand sells most of our honey but before I think of doing more my wife decreed that I had better get a motor on the extractor! Presently she is the power supply but rolling brownouts are predicted!


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

Contact your local garden center or boutique store and see if they will buy it by the case. You get less profit, but you are also not sitting at the farmer's market on the weekend to try and sell it. If you have a well designed label, they will sell through the 50-100# without any problem.


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## cfalls (Nov 26, 2017)

rick54 said:


> Michigan Mike, I'm wondering with all the micro breweries going up these days, could a brewery use honey as a sweetener? The next question would be how much the average micro brewery would use for one batch of beer? Not being a micro brewer myself, I couldn't say if they'd use two 60# cans or ten per batch of beer. Still, a micro brewery might be a potential source for unloading some 60's.


Yes, craft beer with honey is not unusual. Hoppy beers have a tendency to be quite bitter, and as sweeteners go, honey comes across as natural and maybe serving some flavor purpose other than just sweetening. Usually the honey will be "local" in some way.

For example, the brewery in my neighborhood makes this one. They do not make a beer with plain table sugar.

I don't know how much honey is used, but I'm guessing it's a very small percentage of all honey sold. That being said, if you only have, say, 200 pounds to sell, and propose this idea to your local microbrewery, it's probably 50/50 they'd go for it, especially if there's something about your honey that would help them market the beer -- organic, monofloral, raw, local, whatever.

Also, craft beer costs a lot more than its ingredients, so they're likely to be price insensitive.


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