# price for 1 lb of honey?



## berkshire bee

six bucks here in glass jar with label


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## David0504

I'm a hobbyist with about 300-400 lbs to sell each year. I get $7 for 1 lb and $13 for 2 lb. I sell everything that I can bottle and could sell twice as much if I had the product.
David


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## oldenglish

Mine is selling for $11 per LB and so far no shortage of buyers


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## jal_ut

> I get $7 for 1 lb


Wow!!! Its about $3 per pound in the grocery stores here. I have been selling some at $3 per pound. I bottle it in pint jars which hold 1.5 pounds and sell the jar for $5. Of course the jar costs me 50 cents.


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## Peter

oldenglish said:


> Mine is selling for $11 per LB and so far no shortage of buyers


$7 here, guess the West coast is more expensive for everything.


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## oldenglish

Peter said:


> guess the West coast is more expensive for everything.


You got that right, number of times I have looked at prices for equipment and wished I lived on the east coast.
That said I dont care what price they are asking in the grocery store, my honey is far better than that pasturized imported syrup that they sell as honey. One store was selling USA Grade A, when I looked on the label it said product of Canada & Argentina, they really should label it as cooked and blended.


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## lupester

I get $10 for a pint jar and $20 for a quart jar of local honey. I wish I had more to sell. Also, I sell soybean honey (not local) for $8 a pint and $15 a quart. We have people clammoring for the local honey here.


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## KQ6AR

Local honey here goes for $10 Lb. You can't compare the heated honey from the grocery store. 
People wanting to buy local honey are a different customer, & they are willing to pay a premium.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries

1 pounders- Last year $5, this year none. 
1.5 Pound- $8
3 Pound- $14


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## Brent Bean

I sell it for $ 3 per pound the price range in my area is 2.45-5.25 per pound as found in American Bee Journal.


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## bigeddie

5 bucks per lb.


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## jdesq

$5.00 a LB, $7.00 a Pint and $11.00 a QT


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## Hambone

8oz $6.00 16oz $10.00 is what I have been selling it for this year.


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## NasalSponge

I was going to go 6 bucks but after reading this I may up it to 8 or 10!!:applause:


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## suttonbeeman

I believe the ABJ is VERY LOW on their price. I dont know of any beeks selling for 3-4 a lb . Almost everywhere I see is 6- 10 lb. A VERy few at 5 /lb. If you are selling for 3.00 in a lb jar of 5.00 in a pint you are WAY underpriseing your honey. DO NOT compare it to grocery store prices unless you are selling crap. Most consumers are realizing the differance. Last yr at one festival I was selling qts for 13.00, got asked more than once was it pure....was awful cheap! THis year price will be 18.00. Dont forget booth cost and gas to get to a festival....I get 1-2 dollars more per lb.


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## Chick

$3.50 a pound. Yeah, I want more, but much more than that, no one here will buy it.


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## jbford

$4 lb, $8 qt

Just can't sell it for more even if it is raw, local honey.


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## peacekeeperapiaries

$6.00-$8.00 per lb


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## bigbearomaha

I would be interested to see how the cost to obtain, bottle, label and market the honey relates to the final retail prices being discussed.


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## StevenG

Big Bear, if we did that, we'd discover we're working WAY to cheap! :doh:


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## sqkcrk

bigbearomaha said:


> I would be interested to see how the cost to obtain, bottle, label and market the honey relates to the final retail prices being discussed.


One pound of honey costs maybe $1.00 to $1.50 per pound to produce. One pound jars cost $4.89 per case of 12 at the 100 cs price from Wixson Honey, Inc, picked up. That's .41 each jar. Caps are about .08 each. Labels, front and back, are about .10 each or .20 per jar. So that comes to $1.50 plus .41 plus .10 plus .20 which equals $2.21/jar before delivery costs.

I whole sale one pound jars for $3.75 each, which is $45.00 per case.
Retail is $5.00 each or $60.00 per case at my house. I sold some at a Arts and Crafts Fair for $7.00 per one pound jar. Not very many sold. The 8 oz. jar and 12 oz. bear sold, as well as the one pound invert container. 

When I saw the invert/no drip container a cpl of years ago, before they came available to us through Gamber or Mann Lake, I said, "I could sell some honey w/ those babys." And i was right. I am selling them faster than the one pound glass jar. And they cost less than the one pound glass jar. Not alot less, only .10 less, but I am selling more of them than the glass. Which is too bad because of all of the oil that is used to produce them. Maybe the reduced cost of delivering them to me off sets that some.

Does that give you an idea Big?


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## sqkcrk

StevenG said:


> Big Bear, if we did that, we'd discover we're working WAY to cheap! :doh:


Well, Steve, if you didn't already know that until now, you must have been satisfied w/ what you were already getting, No?

I tell people that all of the time. You are selling honey at too low a price. 

Our state association has a booth at the state fair every year. We had a discussion at our summer picnic board mtng about selling honey at the fair. And when i heard that one pound jars were being bought from members at $4.00 each and sold at $6.00 each, I said, "Too cheap." and got jumped on by a bunch of folks who disagreed. Then it was said that maybe last year it was $7.00/ jar. Which is better, but it isn't $8.00. "What are the Maple Producers selling teir syrup for?" I asked. No one knew. "More than wholesale plus half, I'll bet.", said I.

If we don't set a high price we won't get it. And if we do set a high price, and sell less, we will make more per pound sold. And we will get the buying public used to seeing honey at a higher price.

My electrician came by to do an estimate on the wiring of my new building. His Father-in-Law came along. We got talking and he said, "Boy, honey is getting expensive, isn't it?". I said, "Yeah, I hope so." "Good answer.", said the electrician.

The proper price of honey is the most that you can get for it. Anything less is a loss. We need to reach for that price.


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## oldenglish

sqkcrk said:


> One pound of honey costs maybe $1.00 to $1.50 per pound to produce. QUOTE]
> 
> On the small scale I would say not even close. even if I write off the equipment costs I spent $800 just on bees this year (winter loss replacements) then I had feed at about another $200, gas for travel between my three yards, and fall feeding is not factored in yet. Figure $1200 in the hole before I get started. I look to make maybe 300LBs this year, that puts me at $4 LB at a minimum. If I factored in labor at WA minimum wage it would be more. Containers on a good day cost me about 75cents each and on a bad day $1. Shipping is always the killer. In this wet state woodenware really takes a beating and probably has a life between 5 - 8 yrs.
> Most retail stores like a minimum mark up of 40% I doubt if I did the math I am getting that at $11 LB.
> If they big guys are losing the high % of bees we keep reading about then they are probably not in much better shape.


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## sqkcrk

Of course it is going to cost each and every one of us something different. I have 600 colonies and I'm sure I could figure costs in several different ways. But I wasn't going to go w/ $4.00 per lb only to find out that at $3.75 per one pound jar, I'm not even covering production costs.


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## StevenG

No Mark, I'm not real pleased with what I'm getting on my honey sales. I know what the jars, labels, printer ink etc. cost me depending on how I package the honey. I know what I net per pound of honey, in each type of jar. I know how much I have in equipment and bees, but haven't factored that into my cost per pound of honey, nor have I factored in my labor. 

That's the advantage of being a sideliner - I work for free!  It's like any other business, you dump your net profits back into the business to build it up to the point you can actually start taking money out of the business as income without harming your future or expansion plans. You know what they say, "don't quit your day job." 

You are absolutely right though, a person simply must understand his/her costs. In the 1970's it took me 3 years to show a profit, and was gravy after that. Now? lolol I'm 4 years in, and probably 3 more years away from a profit. If only the clover flow hadn't tanked this year here! 

I raised my prices this year, I'll raise them again next year. It is very interesting, seeing what this market will bear. Every place is different, I kind of envy you who can charge those higher prices per pound...but then I wonder what your cost of living is, compared to where I live. It's all relative, isn't it?
Regards,
Steven


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## sqkcrk

I know some beekeepers who pay themselves a salary, but I don't. I work for free too. And yet I survive. I don't think that my cost of living is all that high. I sure don't look like it to most people that see me. Other than my new van. I love it when beekeepers who should know better say stuff like, "Well, you sure can tell who had a good crop last year." I just laugh and let them think what they will anyway even if I tell them how I got it.

Steven, we are all in the same boat. Some just started earlier and/or are just smarter about some things. Not that I am. I hope you do get into a profit year soon. Let me know what that is like, will ya?


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## walking bird

I just threw a few fliers out in the lunchroom here at work on Friday, with a sign-up sheet on my office door. I've got about 30 lbs sold so far, 8 bucks/lb, of sage honey. Several are ordering more than one; one gal ordered 4!

10oz sold for 5 bucks each at a gardener's club speech I gave; 12 oz for $6.

btw, I think the honey prices in the Journal may be wholesale?? If you keystone some of those you end up at what appears to be local retail.


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## StevenG

Mark, profit in 1973 was when I could take the honey money and pay the doctor his fee for delivering my first child. Sold honey then for $1 a pound jar. Profit in a few years will be when I can take the honey money, and take my wife on a week's vacation.  (Actually, next year my income might exceed my outgo...but then I gotta pay myself back for the investments of the last 6 years! :lpf
Regards,
Steven


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## sqkcrk

walking bird said:


> .
> btw, I think the honey prices in the Journal may be wholesale?? If you keystone some of those you end up at what appears to be local retail.


Don't give those reports too much credit. They have little realism regarding what you can get for your honey. I don't really know what they mean. They certainly don't influence my decision of what price to put on my honey.

Amongst some of my friends, who, when we are talking about where to sell barrels of honey almost always get around to this joke, which is actually what a so called honey buyer said to someone, I forget who.

"We are paying Xdollars and cents for white honey. But we aren't buying any."


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## beedeetee

oldenglish said:


> If I factored in labor at WA minimum wage it would be more. Containers on a good day cost me about 75cents each and on a bad day $1. Shipping is always the killer. In this wet state woodenware really takes a beating and probably has a life between 5 - 8 yrs.


Well, lets don't talk about the Washington minimum wage.

My containers (with shipping) cost between $0.43 and $0.67 except cut comb containers (the fancy ones) that are about $1.20 with shipping. That includes lids but not labels. Betterbee had (or maybe has) free shipping on at least the plastic containers by the case. I can get my quart jars with lids for $7.99 a dozen at Winco.

I have been beekeeping in Washington since 1986 and have not thrown any of my boxes away. I have burned 5-8 that were my dad's back in the 1950-1960's and I still have a few. So if you keep them painted they will last a long time. My stuff doesn't look that bad either. Most of the pictures of bulk boxes in the beekeeping magazines look a lot worse than mine. I know that I have one box that the bees can get in a back corner.

I use wooden frames and toss a couple a year, but most can be fixed. 

Your point is still valid however.


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## Reid

I've been selling 3 lb jars for $20, but I haven't had any really surplus until this year. If all goes well next year I should have significantly more to sell.

On a related note, how have most of you set up your honey businesses? 
As Sole Proprietorships? If so, what do you do about potential liability and the exposure of your non-bee business assets?
Or have you set up and S-Corp to provide yourself with additional protections (and hassles)?

~Reid


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## oldenglish

I eventually will get a business license and may go with an LLC but thats about it.
I have been able to sell 50 lb in three days for $11 per LB at work just by word of mouth. I took some comb honey in to show someone and sold five just by people walking by my desk and seeing it. I am using the bee o pac and was selling for $4 each, they weigh in at about five ounces each, my local bee supply says I should charge $5, they sell ross rounds for $9.50 and they run about 11oz ea (but the container is heavier)


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## sqkcrk

Does the place where you work get a percentage for allowing you to make money from your business while you are supposed to be working? Just curious how that works. I wouldn't care for someone taking time away from their employment to make money off of the other employees who are supposed to be working and not shopping. But that's just me and I'm sure I don't understand office dynamics, since my office is as big as the sky and w/out walls. And I only have one employee, usually. So, maybe I'm jealous. I have to drive my honey around to stores.


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## suttonbeeman

Back about 15 years ago when I was packing about 100 cases a week I was talking to Bill Gamber who ran DUtch Gold at the time. I commented that it cost me .10/lb to bottle honey(shrinkage, electric, labor, building, (I as VERY efficient). With price of honey now much higher and labor cost probably 3-4 dollars an hour higher, Price today is probably 15 cents or .20 per lb. Bill told me at the time that was about what it cost him also. I was using a automatic filler from dadant and three of us could fill, label and box 750 honey bears in a hour. Pretty efficient. SO if you were fillling by hand and slower, cost would be higher. WEll at todays prices you are probably looking at 55 cents a quart PLUS container. THat puts a quart at about 1.25 incl label. Now at wholesale price of honey at 1.60 at least, the cost of honey in a quart is about 4.00 or 5.25 a quart incl jar NOT including labor to go get containers, delivery, booth rent ect. So if you are a small producer or bottle by hand your cost are much higher. At 1.60 per lb....this is wholesale price of honey in barrell produces by large producers usually more efficient than small producers. So IF you ae selling honey wholesale by case for less than $8 or more a quart you arent making much profit. Retail under $10 a quart you will starve if you need honey profits for grocerys!


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## habutti

Queenline plastic one pound jar $10; wholesale 60 pound bucket $5.75 per pound and I don't blink.


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## sqkcrk

suttonbeeman said:


> At 1.60 per lb....this is wholesale price of honey in barrell produces by large producers usually more efficient than small producers.


$1.60 per pound in the barrel for white honey. Since, traditionally, packers have paid beekeepers a little more, or often less, than production cost for a pound of honey, that is why I said that it costs between a dollar and one fifty to produce a pound of honey. I really don't know. I haven't tried to figure out what it actually costs me. That was just an edumacated guesstimate.


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## jmgi

sqkcrk said:


> Does the place where you work get a percentage for allowing you to make money from your business while you are supposed to be working? Just curious how that works. I wouldn't care for someone taking time away from their employment to make money off of the other employees who are supposed to be working and not shopping. But that's just me and I'm sure I don't understand office dynamics, since my office is as big as the sky and w/out walls. And I only have one employee, usually. So, maybe I'm jealous. I have to drive my honey around to stores.


I'm sure that all honey sales are conducted during lunch hour, chill Mark.


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## sqkcrk

Hey. Just askin'. Do you suppose I can take my honey into that place of business, even during lunch time, and pedal my wares? I bet not. Unfair advantage, from my perspective. And if a person is buying a jar of honey, now and then, what aren't they buying from the cafeteria or vending machines that depend on that business? Just askin'.


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## StevenG

sqkcrk said:


> Hey. Just askin'. Do you suppose I can take my honey into that place of business, even during lunch time, and pedal my wares? I bet not. Unfair advantage, from my perspective. And if a person is buying a jar of honey, now and then, what aren't they buying from the cafeteria or vending machines that depend on that business? Just askin'.


As we all know, life is not fair. And besides, if people buy our honey, they aren't buying it from the local supermarket or corner store. Are we being fair to them? 
Regards,
Steven


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## sqkcrk

I just wanted to know if the boss got a kick back. That's all. Like I said, I don't know from Office Dynamics. I'm the only one in my office. I don't have to suffer through meetings. I don't have to buy your honey so you will feel obligated to buy my Girl Scout Cookies. What's the Societal Norm?

And can you get more for your honey at the office than at the farmers mkt?


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## StevenG

In my office, I'm the boss, soooo 
People at my wife's office know we have bees, and they buy honey from her, including the bosses... 

But more importantly, _You sell Girl Scout cookies???_ Man I wish you lived closer! I buy the thin mints by the CASE!!! not by the box...and usually two cases! And it's harder each year to find a Girl Scout!

Now, back to your original point, I imagine every place of business is different, and what works at one place might not work at another.
Regards,
Steven


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## sqkcrk

Yeah, and you should see me in my outfit w/ the braids, beanie, green knee socks w/ the tassle, brown shoes and everything.


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## StevenG

OH! OH!! I'd like an autographed 8 x 10 glossy, please!!! :lpf:


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## Hoxbar

This was my first year. I sold honey in queenlined glass jars for $5 a pound. It sold like hot cakes. Next year I'm going up to $8-10. I have no competition in this area and the locals love it! 
Here's an idea for you guys. I marketed my honey on facebook. I have almost 500 facebook friends and I continually post about my great hobby of beekeeping. I post pics of my girls, things I've learned and most importantly the honey extraction process. I have friends as far away as floridia and California, that are wanting me to ship them a plastic Teddy bear of my honey. Facebook is a great marketing tool,


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## Mike Snodgrass

"But more importantly, You sell Girl Scout cookies??? Man I wish you lived closer! I buy the thin mints by the CASE!!! not by the box...and usually two cases! And it's harder each year to find a Girl Scout!"

I had the same problem...untill i found Keebler Grasshoppers or something like that! Their the same cookie!


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## Reid

StevenG said:


> . . . I imagine every place of business is different, and what works at one place might not work at another.
> Regards,
> Steven


At my office we have both a designated "Charitable Food Drive Area" and a large cork board in the kitchen/lunch room that people just post stuff for sale. The number of company-wide emails was getting out of control. This system seems to strike a happy medium. You get to sell you stuff and not bother 150 people if they don't want to be. I sold $200 worth of orchard mason bees this last spring without even trying.


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## oldenglish

This is a big company with lots of rules so I have to be a little careful. Most of the honey sold so far is to folks who know I keep bees and asked for it, the rest was just by word of mouth. Almost $700 in Honey and comb sales.
And that is at 1lb for $11 and comb $4 (bee o pack about 5oz).
We are also getting a lot of requests through facebook and I am looking into shipping costs, USPS fixed rate priority mail looks to be the best bet.

Looks like no need for farmers markets for me this year


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