# Selling honey with another beekeeper



## Salesi

I helped someone get started with bees a few years back. We have discussed off and on about selling honey from his place with a self service stand. He lives on a busy road so the traffic is there. I live in a subdivision that does not have traffic. I would have to build the self service stand which is fine by me. We would put a sign out front advertising local honey. Has anyone ever done a partnership like this and how did it work out. I would definitely like to push more honey in order to expand my empire or at least help support my beekeeping habit. Thanks for anyone's help.


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## mathesonequip

I know a beekeeper who does it this way he does not even use a lock box. my brother in new England tried self serve for vegetables at his house about 3 miles from the family farm store. it was a disaster. every thing stolen as soon as he turned his back, cash boxes stolen, cash box padlocked to shelf: shelf ripped out and gone. local police unable to help. many people have had success with this but try it and see.


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## djei5

I've has expensive tools stolen from me WHILE I was using them. You are actually advertising to be robbed if you do this. The easiest thing I have ever done is sell honey. My first year selling, I sold every drop (at a premium) and could have sold five times more if I had it. Once the word got out, it disappeared. I have never had any left over, never advertised, and never put up a booth or stand.


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## tomkat

In over 30 years I have only been robbed twice. Neighbor boy was one, he got a whopping and had to work for me free for two weeks. Nicest kid in the neighborhood now.
As far as partnering, I have my honey in three locations besides the house stand.


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## djei5

Where I live, there are too many rotten toothed meth heads that wont work and are waiting to steal you blind. You would get robbed just on principle here tomkat!


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## Salesi

djei5 said:


> Where I live, there are too many rotten toothed meth heads that wont work and are waiting to steal you blind. You would get robbed just on principle here tomkat!


Note to self - cancel vacation plans to Elizabethton, TN


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## djei5

Salesi said:


> Note to self - cancel vacation plans to Elizabethton, TN


LOL, actually a beautiful place to visit, only about two hours from Gatlinburg.
Two years ago I was looking to buy a house, I go into a foreclosed home and the meth zombies had cut all the copper plumbing out of the basement.

I was born in Waukegan, Il. it isn't any better.
Other hobby is reloading a lot off bullets....I don't have problems very close...


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## TWall

You probably won't have a problem most of the time. But, it only takes one incident to make it hurt. 

It has been a long time since I have been to Elwood. I imagine things have changed a lot. My family farms just north of Wilmington. There was a day we had our PYO tomato fields bring in $200 on a good day self-serve. We would only do it during soybean harvest. I suppose we could have lost some money, more likely bushels of tomatoes not being paid for.

Tom


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## Salesi

djei5 said:


> LOL, actually a beautiful place to visit, only about two hours from Gatlinburg.
> Two years ago I was looking to buy a house, I go into a foreclosed home and the meth zombies had cut all the copper plumbing out of the basement.
> 
> I was born in Waukegan, Il. it isn't any better.
> Other hobby is reloading a lot off bullets....I don't have problems very close...


I was raised in Grayslake, IL not far from the big metropolis of Waukegan.


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## Salesi

I just did a trap out in Wilmington, IL. Elwood has not changed much but ever since they built the intermodal facility just West, it is nothing but truck traffic. We are thinking about moving somewhere else. 



TWall said:


> You probably won't have a problem most of the time. But, it only takes one incident to make it hurt.
> 
> It has been a long time since I have been to Elwood. I imagine things have changed a lot. My family farms just north of Wilmington. There was a day we had our PYO tomato fields bring in $200 on a good day self-serve. We would only do it during soybean harvest. I suppose we could have lost some money, more likely bushels of tomatoes not being paid for.
> 
> Tom


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## AstroBee

Is your biggest concern theft from the stand or dealing with the partnership?


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## Ray1

I have around a dozen bee hives at a friends place, he also has four hives. I hate to accuse him but all of his hives are booming like I've never seen ,three to four supers on each of his hives! His are all loaded with bees like a good hive should be. (1st year hives) I have been beekeeping for four years now so I am not green to this! It sure seems fishy to me that his are all booming and mine are not doing as well at all! Has anyone ever had this problem with a partner? I think he is shaking bees or newspaper splitting when I'm not around. All of my hives have drawn comb in then and new queens. I also have two hives at my house that are doing great! But the ones at his place, I'm not sure if some will even make it through the winter now! I can't imagine that he would do that to me but mine were booming a couple months ago and his suddenly picked up pace??? Hmmmmm any replies please!!!


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## mathesonequip

got mites?, got the same bees, Italian vs. Russian? got old or weakly mated queens?


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## Ray1

No mites, new queens, all same bees, no diseases, normal activity, as mine diminished his mistily started booming


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## mathesonequip

last weekend I was out of state visiting my brother who is a pretty good crop and vegetable farmer. he told me about a story he had heard about a commercial beekeeper who he had heard snuck into orchards at night and lured queens out of their hives with a special trap so the bees would all follow out by morning. I said bees do not fly at night and they get nasty if you disturb them, the whole story is amish-hot rod exaust particles. I think you might be jumping to a misguided conclusion???


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## mathesonequip

drifting for some reason, not likely a conspiracy.


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## sqkcrk

Ray1 said:


> No mites, new queens, all same bees, no diseases, normal activity, as mine diminished his mistily started booming


Same frames in hives?


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## Ray1

All of my hives are established and have great brood production and his are all first year hives , that is what is raising the eyebrow here , four first year hives with two deeps and three to four honey supers each litterally overflowing with bees when you take the cover off? At 1400 eggs per day maximum that's 42000 bees cycling on a lifespan of 28-40 days , these four hives of his pry have a quarter million bees in them each mathematically a single queen cannot possibly rear those kind of numbers at 1200-1500 eggs per day! And some of my hives look like package starts to say the least! I've been keeping bees for four years now so I can tell when things don't look rite! And it don't look rite!!! It's funny that my other two hives at my house are perfectly normal looking with two deeps and three supers and have the normal 40000-70000 population and the ones down at his place are 1/4 to 1/2 the populations what they should be from my experience!


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## EastSideBuzz

Time for a game camera in the tree to see him take your frames.


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## Ray1

Game Camera , Sounds like a good idea! I think you really gotta watch who you keep bees with! When money is involved people can get greedy!! He keeps talking about 5 gallon buckets for $300 bucks! I'll be lucky to get any honey off of any of my hives at his place, lesson learned! My bees will come home soon!


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## Michael Bush

Cameras have gotten cheap and fake ones are also available. Set up two obvious fake ones and two tiny well concealed real ones...


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## Redbug

I think you can make a hidden mark or notch on your frames, too. If any are getting swapped you can tell.


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## sqkcrk

If you feel you have reason to mistrust your partner seems like considering game cameras indicates it's time to move your hives. Setting up surveillance cameras will only cause more problems between the two of you.

Have you discussed your observations w/ your partner?


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## Ray1

I will be moving hives before it gets to cold out, I agree time to buy cameras time to move! Cameras are a great idea though! I don't want to ruin a friendship if you call it that over the bees! I guess you just can't trust some people to far! All I know is that I will only have a two hive honey crop this year from the hives at my home, and I will not go down this road again! This is a great forum as well! Thank you all for your advice!


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## sqkcrk

When is it too cold to move bees?


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## Ray1

It's too cold when you need to move your hives due to the above situation to enable your bees enough time to feed on 2 to 1 so they can at least make it through the winter! Also my harvest was great this year ,a whole seven frames of honey from all of my hives at his place  Yes, 7 frames , And I also just found a few of HIS empty frames in my hives this past weekend!!! Wow!!!!!! folks just as I thought, BEWARE of who you trust in beekeeping, I would hate to see this happen to others! And I still can't beleive he did this to me!!!!!


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## Santa Caras

Our club has all of their frames branded and the boxes too. Kinda hard to pull from those and not be seen if anyone looks at the hive it went into. Good luck. If he's stealing than he's not much of a friend.


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## Ray1

Totally Agree!!


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## JStephens

One thing I have done for the last 6 years is when building boxes my name is inside with a black marker and every frame has the year it went into service on it in marker also. It's more for if hives are ever stolen I can tell the lawman what he might find inside. Marker can be sanded off.. but it soaks in a little and most thiefs probably won't take the time.


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## WLeeH

Ray1 said:


> All of my hives are established and have great brood production and his are all first year hives , that is what is raising the eyebrow here , four first year hives with two deeps and three to four honey supers each litterally overflowing with bees when you take the cover off? At 1400 eggs per day maximum that's 42000 bees cycling on a lifespan of 28-40 days , these four hives of his pry have a quarter million bees in them each mathematically a single queen cannot possibly rear those kind of numbers at 1200-1500 eggs per day! And some of my hives look like package starts to say the least! I've been keeping bees for four years now so I can tell when things don't look rite! And it don't look rite!!! It's funny that my other two hives at my house are perfectly normal looking with two deeps and three supers and have the normal 40000-70000 population and the ones down at his place are 1/4 to 1/2 the populations what they should be from my experience!


Well if you have to question your "friends" integrity, I don't think he/she is much of a friend in the first place. Perhaps you should find a new locations =)


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## D Coates

As one who's run an honor stand for a few years now it could get tricky sharing shelf space with another's product. A very very few people will flat steal and very few people will short pay. It's a cost of business this way. Combining this with another beekeeper and there could be trouble if you've not decided how to skin that cat ahead of time. Even if you had video you can't tell who's paid for what consistently. Combine it with trying to figure out who's honey was stolen, vs. who's was paid in full and a friendship could be lost. Sometimes people don't pay one day but come back and pay another day, sometimes you get over paid because they don't have change or they like your idea so much they tip you. It muddies the water if you're trying keep things black or white.

My 2 cents is don't do it unless you buy all the honey he's wanting to sell at a rate that works for you both, combine it with yours and sell it all yourself. Set up the stand and assume all the risk but enjoy the rewards. I've lost some now and then but +97% of people are honest. The 3% will poke you but normally they get you for 12oz to 2lbs now and again. Right before Christmas I got hit for $300 (list price) worth of product. That hurt, I knew it would eventually happen, but it still hurt. Combine that with another beekeeper who may or may not have your risk tolerance and you've really got challenges. I still recommend an honor stand (it will put you in the financial black if done well) but enter the opportunity with eyes wide open.


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## Joel

The issues that speaks to me has to do with traffic. How long will it take to sell a stand full of honey. Honey crystallizes in cool. Night hrs and has to be liquified, road and wind blown dust make jars dirty, if it gets solarized the color and flavor degrades. In our ealy days when we sold locally we did so at the Farmers Market, Flea Markets and our best results came from special events such as civil war reenactments, colonial day type events, old time farm events. When you are there to "sell" a product you worked proudly to produce, can talk with customers and get a,taste test in you'll gain much more than a roadside stand most will drive by. We loved it so much we now do markets in NYC with our own line of value added products,to boot. I think you'll love sharing your unique lime of work as much as making honey that will most likely be fresh and clean and better than anything your customers will have had before.


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## D Coates

You'd be surprised how quickly you'll sell as stand full of honey. I gently warm it before I put it in there to minimize crystallization and have never had that issue. To keep rain and dust out and UV honey and label degradation nonexistent my stand has small sealing barn style doors held closed by magnets. I put 5 of everything I offer in regular liquid form. I check and refill every day on the way home from work. The longest a single bear (2, 8, 12oz) or skep (1 & 2lbs) will stay in there is 2 weeks. When you refill make sure to refill from the rear to ensure the stock is fresh. 

http://s196.photobucket.com/user/Drew454/library/Honor Stand?sort=3&page=1

My stand is next to the hives in one of my apiaries and people stop to talk when they see me refilling the stand as well as when I'm working the bees. I have business cards I leave in there as well as my contact info on my product. People call me all the time. To me, sitting and retailing, especially next to someone who has no idea what they should charge for honey is not fun. This silent salesperson is by far the best I've got. It's still a risk, but so is getting out of bed in the morning.


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## Joel

Wow, what a well designed eye catching stand. You should make and sell them (outside your sales area of course). The yellow and black really pops.


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## SowthEfrikan

EastSideBuzz said:


> Time for a game camera in the tree to see him take your frames.


Agree. If the camera also moves away, well then ....


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