# Just starting out



## Hobie (Jun 1, 2006)

Farmer's markets are the first thing that come to mind. But I have only a couple hives and for me it was not worth my time. A friend has a craft shop and was willing to put a few jars on the shelves, and I sold several that way, and gave the shop owner several jars free. This works well for small quantities. Similarly, my sister makes jewelery and has a small display in a friend's glass shop. It's not really "marketing," more like getting impulse buyers. But it's zero labor for me, and I'm not looking to make a living off it.


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

We sell fresh produce and honey in a road side stand and do very well. Here in Michigan honey is considered a natural product like produce and there are very few regulations on selling it. 
I found that business cards are helpful in selling honey, I registered a business name with the state cost $10 dollars for five years, this also gives you a tax code so you can deduct beekeeping expenses. Depending on how you are about talking in front of people, offer to give beekeeping lectures in local schools. I find them a lot of fun and it’s surprising how interested kids of all ages are and will give you their undivided attention. Then hand out some business cards to the teacher and people will start calling for honey. 
Getting you name out in the public will start to pay off I have had people call and pick up honey that have never been near our place but have heard from a friend of a friend that they can get good local unadulterated honey. So far I have more customers than honey. We operate from 15 to 25 hives and I made a little over 3K profit last year. I am hoping for better results this year because I came threw winter much better this year and we have had abundant moisture this winter which should offer better early nectar. Also a local farmer that I have hives on is planting 40 Acers of Buckwheat and sunflowers after he harvest wheat this should provide a good late season honey crop of dark honey, which seems to be the latest health craze.


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## Shapleigh's Bees (Mar 8, 2008)

Town fair. Put on a display for the folks. Better if you can get a hive out there, but if not, bring out the tools and suit and frames. Cobble together an empty hive out of your spare equipment (folks won't know it's a stack of supers). 

Put on an "educational" type display where most of the education leads them directly to you. IE: Raw Local Honey is Better Honey. And you can buy some here. Some of those people will make a point to seek you out, so put your contact info on the lables.

Anything silly gets folks into a booth. Let folks take pictures wearing the veil. Run the smoker.

Your homeowners insurance says if you made $1000 (gross sales) doing it last year or are regularly engaged, it's a business and not covered.


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## berkshire bee (Jan 28, 2007)

Here are things that have all worked well for me. You want to get the word out.

Let people know you are a beekeeper in general conversation.

Wear a bee related tee shirt. Betterbee has a great one of an old-timer retrieving a swarm.

Put window or bumper stickers on your vehicle.

Write a guest column or letter to the editor of your local newspaper
I was lucky enough to have a local reporter interviewing us about our Celtic band, and when she asked what else I did I told her I was a beekeeper. She did another article about our bees a few weeks after the music one, and came to take photos of us working on our hives.

Give a few presentations. The local library is a good place.

Tell friends and family to spread the word.

Be your own best promoter. Let people know that you have a quality product, and that it's good to support local products.

Eventually, people will come to know you as the bee guy or bee girl


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

Berkshire bee:

Sounds like me and you are on the same page, the key is getting you name out in public. In today’s world of Wal-Mart mass produced food. People are starting to appreciate foods that are grown by local people, that don’t blend or pasteurize the honey, just extracted and bottled. We also operate a U-Pick blueberry patch and being only a hundred miles form Chicago, we get many folks that drive here to enjoy picking their own fruit. I get a kick out of the their reaction when they taste a sample of raw honey verses the stuff they bought at 
Wal-Mart. 
It’s a look of surprise and the money starts coming out of the pocket. 
A couple of years ago some friendly folks that are form the Ukraine now living in Chicago came to our patch and picked blueberries and bought a lot of honey. Every year more people with Ukraine accents started showing up and wanted honey. I mentioned it to the first folks which we are now friends with about all the people from their neighborhood that are coming to our place and was told, of course, I work in a radio station that caters to Polish and Ukraine folks and she had been talking about our place over the air waves. And it didn’t cost me a dime.


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## Jas0n Bresson (Feb 3, 2008)

Thanks for the replies.Along the same subject line,would I need to be a registerd business to sell at a farm market.


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## Sprig (Oct 31, 2007)

*Selling Honey*

JasOn Bresson
You need to check with your local state. I know here in Michigan you have to have a Honey House inspection in order to sell at farm markets (only about $45 fee, BUT I can’t afford to build the HONEY HOUSE). I can sell from my own property without the inspection and honey house. The side liners and full time beeks are the only ones that can afford the honey houses. I figured it out once and to build the honey house to the proper regulations it would be in the neighbor hood of 15K or more! I attended a seminar a couple weeks ago and the speaker was from Connecticut. She said they call it a cottage industry and do not need inspections and can sell at farmer markets.

Sprig
God willing and the creeks don't rise I'll be there.


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## JonL (May 27, 2009)

*Pasteurizing honey*

We all have to think carefully about the pasteurization issue.
Yes, it takes some of the "pure" flavor out and changes an enzyme or two however, if honey is not pasteurized and infants are fed it, they can contract a severe case of a form of botulism and die.
Many parents and grandparents do no know this.
Do we take that chance just so we can say we are 100% real, raw and pure?
:no:
Bee careful what you are selling.


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## DRUR (May 24, 2009)

*Re: To infant botulism*

Sorry JonL, I can't agree with you. We have our own milk cow, and choose not to pastr. our milk for the health benefits. My understanding is that this is rare and only affects infants under 1 year old. Certainly people should be made aware of this risk, but there are all kinds of risks in this country. Should we not ride in an automobile because 100's of thousands are killed every year. Most people are aware of this risk and it is the responsibility of the parents not to feed honey to their own children, if they choose to do so. Which with regard to honey I don't, but have raised 9 children on nonpastr. milk. If you want honey that has the health benefits destroyed, buy it at Wal Mart. Your choice. If you want a healthy product buy natural nonPastr. honey and don't feed it to and infant under 1 year old. Again your choice. For me the health benefits outweighs the the risk. I don't even vaccinate my children, I am really weird, and yet my children are healthier than vaccinated children. Yet, I know numerous parents who have had bad reactions to shots and in one case they lost their 2 year old child. No, I will continue trusting in the Lord and living "naturally".

Danny


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## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

JonL said:


> Do we take that chance just so we can say we are 100% real, raw and pure?


By that logic, no one would ever sell raw vegetables which can contain the same spores as honey. In fact the spores are everywhere. This is a pretty good article on the subject.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AA142


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## Hobie (Jun 1, 2006)

I wonder if there are any restrictions on feeding infants raw veggies. My sister made her own baby food, and my niece seems fine (except that she IS a teenager  )


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