# Faster Ways of Honey Labeling



## marshmasterpat

Waiting to hear ideas as well.


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## beesohappy

I hope I don't sound dum stating the obvious but isn't there a way you can redesign your lables and put everything on one? Also, everyone I know out this way doesn't bother with sterilizing the jars as long as their new. 

I feel your pain. It's such a pain in the butt and it takes all the joy out of selling honey.


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## Fowlhunter22

No such thing beesohappy. That really is not a bad idea, other than the cluttering of material. I use 3"x4" ovals as my main label thy has my company, address etc., nt. Weight, and logo. With information we had to really work to fit it all on as it was. You also cannot really go up in label size as it would be disproportionate to the pint sized jar. The only reason we started to sterilize even with the new jars was I did a quick search on here at one time and it seemed like the majority said they do sterilize, plus on the boxes that the jars are stored in it recommended sterilizing before use. I don't know if that overkill or not. I would love to be able to skip that step though!


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## gww

When me and the wife owned a resturant we used a ink block to stamp checks as our signature. I wonder if ink sticks to the lids or plastic or glass. Maby just get one made and stamp to your hearts content. If any one trys it let me know how it works.
Just one thought that might or might not work.
gww


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## Aroc

Unless you have an autoclave what you are doing is sanitizing not sterilizing. That being said, home brewers use a mild solution of bleach or a sanitizer such as iodophor. There are others as well I just can't think of them. No need to dish wash, just rinse and drip dry. A heck of a lot faster than a dishwasher and probably less expensive if you consider the power to heat the water.


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## Daniel Y

Actually there is a single label option. Not likely you will want to pay for them though. But I have all sorts of labels that are a single label with a lot of information on them. including SDS requirements. They are harder to apply than a smaller single label though so not sure they will help on the work it requires issue. I personally would not consider 2700 labels that big of a deal. They do make machines that do it. Hince labels on a roll. Again 2700 labels would not qualify for going that method for me.

This does cause me to think about how many people do not consider their time when they set process or evaluate costs. That is until it starts being "To much time".


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## ethanhogan

I was just reading a thread on here about all different types of honey extracting equipment and there was a guy talking about his machine he bought at a honey show. I wish I could find it. Sounded like he just loaded the empty bottle the machine did the rest. The thread was about paying for equipment as he grew his operation. Sorry I can find the thread I have looked and look but can't remember where I saw it or his screen name


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## tech.35058

I know you are looking for some one to say" this worked for me", but since I am not there yet, I can't give that kind of referral.
Internet search engine offers several options, with glowing praise from the sales staff ...
( it always bugs me when I am looking for a thread, & some "wonderful person " tells how quickly google gave him the answer _ but not necessarily the thread_ i was looking for)
Uline gets the first hits, plus some others,
https://easylabeler.com/ looks interesting.
What about your bottle supplier?
If you try some of these & find them to be bogus, or wonderful, please let us know.
CE


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## grozzie2

ethanhogan said:


> I was just reading a thread on here about all different types of honey extracting equipment and there was a guy talking about his machine he bought at a honey show. I wish I could find it. Sounded like he just loaded the empty bottle the machine did the rest. The thread was about paying for equipment as he grew his operation. Sorry I can find the thread I have looked and look but can't remember where I saw it or his screen name


That was probably my response in a thread in the equipment section. When we had 6 colonies, bottling and labelling a little honey was not a big deal. We grew our colony numbers a bit, and a couple years ago we were sitting on close to a thousand pounds of honey that needed to go into bottles. We bought the Nassenheider fill up machine, Mann Lake re-badges it and calls it the Mann Lake EZ-Fill. Another thing we've done is look very carefully at our 'branding'. We spent a little to have labels professionally designed with a local graphics art place, then they printed them for us in rolls. Going this route, we now have consistent graphics everywhere, honey labels, business cards, etc. We had two sizes of labels printed on rolls, one of them fits the 500g bottles, and a slightly smaller one that will fit the 250g bottles we use. The labels are printed with a blank white spot in the center (on the business cards, that spot has our names). We also made stamps for the different varieties of honey we produce, and stamp the labels with the variety as they go onto the bottles. Before we started down this road, bottling and labelling was a very time consuming process prone to errors, ie overfill etc. We would print labels onto stock using the laser printer, then peel those off the sheets and stick them on bottles. Some of the issues we ran into

- Bottling by hand using a 10 gal bottling tank with honey gate gets old and tedious, fast.
- The labels printed on stock did not stand up well to getting damp when placed out on our farm stand
- When you tally it up, the cost of labels is NOT cheap when printing our own on peel off label stock

When the print shop did the label run for us, there is a basic charge for the first 500, then after that, it's only pennies per each for more, and no extra charge for switching sizes, so we had them run 5000 of each size. They are on rolls, so suitable for using one of the small label rolling setups if we choose to go down that road. 

Today, for us a typical run of bottling honey will have 300 to 500 pounds at a crack. We set up the bottling machine, then get going with two people. I will be taking empties out of a case, set them under the bottler which puts in a precise fill as soon as the bottle touches the microswitch. Then I put that bottle on the table. My wife will be putting lids and labels on, then putting them into cases. Setup time is about 15 minutes, cleanup another 15 minutes afterwards. We still use the 10 gallon stainless tank to feed the bottling setup, so every so often I have to cross pour another 5 gallon bucket of honey into that one, which slows us down a bit. My wife can almost keep up with lids and labels while I am filling, then she catches up completely when I have to stop and pour more honey. A 500lb batch of honey will do 25 cases of each size, and a few buckets, we can be done in 2 hours or less, including setup and cleanup time.

I dont remember the exact numbers, but off the top of my head, when we figured out our costs on the labels, by printing in the quantity we did, it was less than half the cost of using label stock from staples, and now we have very nice professional looking labels, printed on stock with inks that dont run and smudge if they get damp sitting outside at the farm gate stand. The bottle filler chewed up a good chunk of our honey profits the year we bought it, but, we are both busy folks with jobs etc, so for us it was worth it just on the time savings and equally important, the consistent fill quantity in all the bottles.

We started down this road when we bought a new home after moving up island, and the new place is on a small acreage that allowed us to start increasing the bee colony numbers. Our end game goal is to be set up such that we can produce a thousand pounds of honey for each extraction cycle, two or three times a year, and have the equipment in place to make it a strait forward process. We want to be able to go from honey in frames to honey in bottle over a weekend for each extraction run. It's a 5 year plan that includes rolling all the revenue from bee products back into various bits of equipment that streamline our work flow to reach that goal.

The project for next year is to build a small building specifically set up for processing honey, and get all this stuff out of the garage. It'll be set up with a small warm room that can hold 50 boxes in preparation for an extraction round, and store a hundred empty boxes over the winter (we can stack empties much higher than full boxes). The work flow along the back wall will be the uncapping, and extractor, with honey storage in place. On the other wall, a counter set up with the bottler, and room for two palettes of empty bottles. The work flow we are designing around goes like this. Late in the week, an 'after dinner' project is to go set bee escapes. Then either friday evening, or the saturday morning project is to go fetch the boxes of honey and get them into the warm room. The next day we can spend extracting and get the honey into the settling tank(s). Bottling the whole works is a one evening 'after supper' project early the next week. One of our goals, no long term storage of honey in largish holding tanks, we get it into the bottles as soon as it's extracted, then longer term storage is already in bottles ready for sale.


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## Hops Brewster

Something I learned from years of homebrewing,... I never use bleach to sanitize bottles, as it leaves a residue that can spoil the taste of your honey (or beer, wine, mead etc.). I rinse the bottles in iodophor to sanitize them. It leaves no undesirable residue and sanitizes very well. Just dip the jug and invert to dry. 

Tag alternative; have you considered using hang tags instead of labels? Printed on heavy paper and tied onto the jar with a length of jute twine tied in a bow, presents a classy look with plenty of room for your logo and whatever else you need. 
I'm guessing I could probably tie a tag on in much less time than you can put on 3 labels.


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## texanbelchers

My wife and I just had this discussion with some friends that make candles. They use a hang tag, but have nothing "permanent" on the candle. There is no good way to leave the tag on and burn the candle. That leaves a candle with no labeling and no way for the customer to get back to you to purchase more. For them, we suggested a basic label on the bottom in addition to the hang tag.

This year we did about 300# in regular canning jars and used a round kraft-paper laser label on the top. It is expensive per label, but flexible for a start-up and identifying the market wants. Next year I've got to make a better plan on both containers and labels.


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## AstroZomBEE

If your bottles are round you can get one of these
https://easylabeler.com/


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## Stephenpbird

A simple label applicator might be what you are looking for. 

Google "Hand held Label Applicator " and see if that's what your after.


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## aunt betty

Was into brewing a little while and found that oxyclean is what comes in the brewing kits for sanitizing your equipment. 
Oxyclean is like super-bleach without the bleach. If I was sanitizing glass that'd be the method I'd use without hesitation.

The labeling problem...you're on your own.


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## Fowlhunter22

Thank you for all the advice. This has helped a lot. Never thought of a lot of these things. I never thought I would of ended up with 1500 lbs of honey either though! I like the oxyclean method! Seems like that would be much faster! Also the easy labeler and handheld label applicator look interesting. Do any of you have any experience with any of them? The only thing that may take me out of the easy labeler is that my jars are square. Not like with 90* corners but the rounded corner type, so it may work. Again thanks for all of the help. I knew I came to the right place!


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## grozzie2

Fowlhunter22 said:


> We also have 3 labels per jar.


Why 3 labels ?


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## camero7

Here's the dispenser I use.







This one from Uline should work for you. 

https://www.uline.com/Product/Detai...EIMp5-52TDf6wIgpURn2hRoCI_Hw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds


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## Fowlhunter22

grozzie2 said:


> Why 3 labels ?


Logo, Nutrition, and label how to uncrystalyze the honey (not necessary, but recieved a lot of questions concerning why the honey crystallize)


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## Fowlhunter22

camero7 said:


> Here's the dispenser I use.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This one from Uline should work for you.
> 
> https://www.uline.com/Product/Detai...EIMp5-52TDf6wIgpURn2hRoCI_Hw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds


That looks pretty simple. Does it speed things up much? Have you used one of the above mentioned label applicator gun?


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## Hops Brewster

DO NOT use Oxyclean to sanitize your honey bottles, nor your beer bottles! It contains artificial scents, fillers, and other ingredients that will contaminate your product. 
The sanitizing powder found in beer kits is perchlorate, which is the active ingredient in Oxyclean, but it is definitely not the Oxyclean you buy from Safeway!

No way do I want my beer, wine, or honey to smell like Oxyclean. Or like bleach, for that matter.


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## BobsBees

No need to clean / wash "Packaged" bottles or jars.

Me, only bottle / label a little at a time. Much easier to keep it in the tank or five gallon buckets.
That way you can respond to sales in different sizes as needed. 

And if it granulates in bottles vs a bucket, the warming up again is less of a hassle.


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## ethanhogan

Grozzie thanks for the response!


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## sqkcrk

Chase,
I bottle and label 30,000 lbs of honey in jars each year, by hand. Bottling and labeling as orders need filling. I never wash Honey Jars. They are already usable right out of the box. So, that's one thing you can change. Buy only honey jars, not canning jars and cut out the washing step. Don't wash the caps either.

I can't tell you how to apply labels faster, only that I have a front label and a back label and don't find it too time consuming. But if you do, consider getting only one label with only the things required to be on a label, including a bar code, if you use one. What are your three labels for anyway? Keep in mind that most people don't read beyond the information they need to decide whether they want to buy your honey or not. So if one of your labels is purely informational, like what's going on with bees these days, it's mostly a wasted expense.

Stop washing jars.
Reduce the number of labels to only those required, aka one label.
Bottle and label per order, not too much ahead.

Those are my thoughts.


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## camero7

Fowlhunter22 said:


> That looks pretty simple. Does it speed things up much? Have you used one of the above mentioned label applicator gun?



It's very simple and dependable. Haven't used an applicator gun


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## CedarHoney

Haven't tried this, but what about this
https://www.amazon.com/Zap-Labeler/...15011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=Zap+Labeler


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## Joe Hillmann

For labeling you could look into screen printing. 

This is about the simplest machine. If you are handy with woodworking you could probably build one for next to nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDor_8v999Q

It can be done even simpler with nothing more than a screen and squeegee. You stand the screen up. Use the squeegee to press the ink into the screen so it sticks to the bottom of the screen then roll the screen over the bottle. If you go to around 4:15 of this video it will show the general idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O54sCKjch1k


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## razoo

grozzie2 said:


> My wife will be putting lids and labels on, then putting them into cases.


Grozzie, does your wife peel and apply the labels by hand? What method does she use to ensure the labels are all straight?


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## xl5alpha

It's easy to increase your labeling output, you need a fully automatic jar labeling machine capable of applying 120 labels per minute


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## info_7254

Fowlhunter22 said:


> Guys/Gals,
> I need some advice. I don't know if I am considered a side liner or hobbyist anymore, but what I do know is I have 42 colonies and produced 120 gallons of honey this year, with some colonies producing very little due to new start ups. The girls did really well. We sell mainly pints with a few quarts to certain customers that request. We also have 3 labels per jar. So if you are doing the math that's roughly 900 jars and 2700 labels!! My wife and I are the main preparers of the jars for bottling. When we bottle 200 jars the work was not so cumbersome, however, with us both having real jobs 900 got pretty rough. So now that you know our situation, what is the fastest way to label jars? Is there a gun of some sort? I know originally we used labels that were on a sheet and those seemed much faster than what we used this year, which were on rolls. Also as a sideline question is there a better way of sterilizing jars? We use dishwasher and I tied the dishwasher up for about 3 days running it almost night and day. I would sure like a better system while in the off season. Thanks for any help.
> 
> Chase


our suggestion, if you have enough budget, you can use a semi automatic equipment or even an automatic labeling machine for more efficient, no matter, 200jars,900jars or 2000jars/hour, an automatic labeling machine , and automatic honey filler can completed the jobs fast than human work. A jar with 3 labels, it is a hard job for any people if you have more than 200jars to do.
victor liu


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