>>>>Why on earth are you trying to break into a market that doesn't exist?? Sounds like a recipe for failure.<<<<<
It is definely a small market, for sure. That is a good thing when you are a small time beeperson. However, There is also no doubt that I have truned down enough offers to buy my honey that I cold have sold it all the first week if I wanted to sell at $1.50 lb in the 5gal bucket. I am looking for a niche market, not a major one. I am also counting on a couple of other factors:
1- The cheap land in Oklahoma is bringing many people from other states who are more health conscious.
2- The state is tired of the poor reputation about its health, especially in the areas of heart disease and diabetes. Oklahoma wants to grow up. They just havent yet. The media and the government are trying to effect change in the poor health habits of Oklahomans, which they know is driving up health care costs and are a burden on the consumers.
My plan is to be larger when the market grows, but to stay within my realistic budget until then. I agree that I should sell my honey higher. It is a bit problematic that others selling raw honey have no marketing or people skills and sell themselves short on price.
rdy-B,
Sorry if it sounds like I'm a bleep and only in it for a buck. But that is only a partial reality of the situation. I like the bees, the challenge, and the health benefits of both honey and beekeeping itself. My actual trade is classic car restoration and teaching body shop at a private school. That is very unhealthy work, and will certainly lead to an early grave. I also write religious books, but there is no money in that, so it is really more of non-profit a ministry. So when I looked at alternative carreer and farming oppties beekeeping just sort of "happened". My wife wanted to get into bees, so I bought her a hive last Christmas. It turns out she is allergic to bees, and since I am not, I decided to give it a go. A guy had a bee farm for sale for a song, so I jumped at it. It is possible that I might eventually write a book about how I have done absolutely everything wrong that a beek can do wrong.
Now that I have said all that, How long should I keep bees in a nuc before transplanting them to a ten frame hive? An if I use the frames from the nuc is that going to be a problem with my plastic frames?