Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => RAPID BEEYARD GROWTH => Topic started by: csalt on April 14, 2010, 07:40:28 pm
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How hard is it to sell honey, provided you do the leg work to market your honey is the demand for it out there? I recently read in bee culture that the US imports over half the honey consumed. Is this because imported honey is cheaper or because the US consumes more than it can produce? Is the declining of beekeepers because of the market or because of all the problems with ccd/varroa ext. or is it because the newer generations just not interested. Just currious, I don't want to get my hopes of being a commercial beekeeper up only to find out no matter how hard I work it wont happen. I would love to pass this lifestyle on to my children.
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Most people buy honey from a supermarket. Those who like honey with more flavor will buy it from local sources. Farmer's market, craigslist, etc.
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I have found that a lot of the younger people just don't eat honey. They did not really know what to do with it. When I show it to them, they are amazed at it, and a few are afraid of it because it was in a mason jar, not from the magic store factory. Has anyone else found this to be true, or is it just me.
BTW, my 3 year old son ate honey on his boiled egg sandwich for dinner yesterday. Talk about bad parents.
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I'd be interested to know the market dynamics as well; but I'm guessing that your instincts are in the ballpark. Look at the amount of commercially produced products containing honey.
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I have never had a problem selling honey. In bulk to packing houses , at farmers markets , or hand to hand - There has always been a demand.
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I have people lined up waiting to buy honey from me. Now, if I could just get to girls to produce enough, perhaps I could retire early... :roll:
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Assuming that you have a job other than beekeeping, let your coworkers know that you have beehives and plan on selling honey. As soon as my friends and coworkers found out that I have a few beehives, they've been lining up to buy honey. Now I just need the girls to produce the first batch.
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Sounds encouraging, I guess if I slowly keep adding hives whenever I can afford them there's not to much risk being as I won't have to take out a loan. I have a buddy that ownes a 40 acre orange grove that I can put some hives in. There's some other groves nearby his so I was thinking maybe putting between 10 - 20 hives on each end of his grove any suggestions?
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Sounds like you could have some great bee yards csalt! Of course citrus just finished so I'd make sure there's plenty of other forage in the area before you move the bees in. Gallberry starts next week which makes a fine honey....any of that around?
Scott
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Sounds like you could have some great bee yards csalt! Of course citrus just finished so I'd make sure there's plenty of other forage in the area before you move the bees in. Gallberry starts next week which makes a fine honey....any of that around?
Scott
we get mayberries, possibly gallberries, and blueberries (the blueberries have already run for the most part)
I haven't identified the gallberry though, scale seems to be a rare trait in nature pictures.
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Keeping the bees and getting the honey is the easy part (and fun!) :-D. The hard part is the marketing. If you can find a niche and sell tiny corked miracle bottles of magic organic wound-healing enzyme-packed liquid gold harvested from tiny angels with stings, you'll do great!
Ok, that is a bit thick, but IMHO the most important part really is marketing. Developing niches and the types of customers who are loyal. I'm not a marketing guy at all, and I can't do that, so I'm not going to be a full time beekeeper. I think that big operations can produce mass quantities to make it worthwhile at lower prices, but I think the smaller honey producers need a niche to thrive. To be both a successful physical laborer and a marketing guru is tricky and I think a rare trait.
There's also queens, nucs, pollination, honey/wax products, etc.
As to your overall question...I think that the nation as a whole is moving away from an agrarian society as we have for a long time. Economies of scale eliminate farmers and ranchers, and I don't think that honeybees scale as well which would explain why the #beeks and the # hives are both decreasing. There is so much uncertainty to farming so it is simpler to just have a 8-5 job (or was before last year!!).
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Not shure about gallberry I'll have to check into it. Right now I just have a couple of hives in my backyard, lots of woods and palmetto although I heard palmetto honey is only good for cooking. Yeah the marketing is going to be my weak point. I think I'm going to keep my day job and try to slowly build my apiary, if one day I can average 2000 a month I will quit my job and live a simple life.
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I think the palmettos make a strong baking honey.
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Palmetto makes a fine light honey, it's the cabbage palm (Sabal) tree that buyers label baking honey. Development has wiped out most of the palmetto around me. Certain ethnic groups prefer the dark over the light and I have no problem selling it.
Csalt, look down around Chass. for palmetto.
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thanks rast, I'm in the oaks, with neither palm around.
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Took me only a few years to establish customers that come to my house. If need be I can deliver. :)doak
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Keeping the bees and getting the honey is the easy part (and fun!) :-D. The hard part is the marketing. If you can find a niche and sell tiny corked miracle bottles of magic organic wound-healing enzyme-packed liquid gold harvested from tiny angels with stings, you'll do great!
Ok, that is a bit thick, but IMHO the most important part really is marketing. Developing niches and the types of customers who are loyal. I'm not a marketing guy at all, and I can't do that, so I'm not going to be a full time beekeeper. I think that big operations can produce mass quantities to make it worthwhile at lower prices, but I think the smaller honey producers need a niche to thrive. To be both a successful physical laborer and a marketing guru is tricky and I think a rare trait.
There's also queens, nucs, pollination, honey/wax products, etc.
As to your overall question...I think that the nation as a whole is moving away from an agrarian society as we have for a long time. Economies of scale eliminate farmers and ranchers, and I don't think that honeybees scale as well which would explain why the #beeks and the # hives are both decreasing. There is so much uncertainty to farming so it is simpler to just have a 8-5 job (or was before last year!!).
I think you are exactly correct. Lots of people - including me - believe that eating local honey is good prevention for pollen allergies. It's part of the reason I got bees to begin with - the local supply is unreliable.
Now I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to package seasonal honey for the same niche - spring, summer, fall - different flowers, different pollens. At almost any price it's cheaper than allergy treatments.
Also, the local neohippie health food store said they would buy all I can sell. Price wasn't discussed though. :-D
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I have found that a lot of the younger people just don't eat honey. They did not really know what to do with it.
Of comb honey, I've actually had a couple of 20 somethings ask, "What do you do with it?" :jawdrop: This newer generation has no clue!
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I have found that a lot of the younger people just don't eat honey. They did not really know what to do with it.
Of comb honey, I've actually had a couple of 20 somethings ask, "What do you do with it?" :jawdrop: This newer generation has no clue!
Wow, my sons would think those kids had been living under a rock. (they had all moved out by the time I got some bees).
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A lady I know who took over the bee yard that I got my hives from is selling hand over fist at the farmer's market. The magic ingredient seems to be those silly bear bottles. She says as long as it is a bear bottle people buy it like crazy. I suspect it is because the bear bottle catches a lot of impulse buyers, and also maybe because people have seen them in the stores so it makes your product more familiar to them.
JC
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Keeping the bees and getting the honey is the easy part (and fun!) :-D. The hard part is the marketing. If you can find a niche and sell tiny corked miracle bottles of magic organic wound-healing enzyme-packed liquid gold harvested from tiny angels with stings, you'll do great!
Ok, that is a bit thick, but IMHO the most important part really is marketing. Developing niches and the types of customers who are loyal. I'm not a marketing guy at all, and I can't do that, so I'm not going to be a full time beekeeper. I think that big operations can produce mass quantities to make it worthwhile at lower prices, but I think the smaller honey producers need a niche to thrive. To be both a successful physical laborer and a marketing guru is tricky and I think a rare trait.
There's also queens, nucs, pollination, honey/wax products, etc.
As to your overall question...I think that the nation as a whole is moving away from an agrarian society as we have for a long time. Economies of scale eliminate farmers and ranchers, and I don't think that honeybees scale as well which would explain why the #beeks and the # hives are both decreasing. There is so much uncertainty to farming so it is simpler to just have a 8-5 job (or was before last year!!).
I completely agree with all of this.
What I see around here is a real movement to local food. You need to know why your produce is better than imported or mass produced. Is it raw? Does it contain a bit of local pollen? Are your hives treatment free? Are your containers fancier? :) You have to be able to explain to people why they should buy your product. It seems to me that the best salesperson is the one who absolutely loves what he/she is selling. And, be able to tell people many, many ways they can use it (make wound salves, for baking, sweeten tea, etc.)
Also, some will care about you supporting bees in their area. A lot of people have heard about the bee crisis, even nonfarmers, and will care that you are helping increase their numbers.
I think honey should be an easy sell! I have the tougher challenge of selling people on Brussels sprouts, kale and beets :-D At a nice resort recently that my mom treated me to, they served honey in tiny 2-tablespoon glass jars. Could you get a bunch and hand out samples? The honey would hook them. I agree with telling coworkers, using it in front of people constantly, talking about it, showing people your hives and then handing out samples. Anything that gets people talking about and/or tasting honey.
Good luck! As my kids would demonstrate, not ALL the younger generation is clueless about honey!!
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when I have honey to sell, I can't keep it long enough to put it in a market. There are enough people to know about my hives that my entire stock is usually gone in about a week. I sell it lately in plain 8 oz. mason jelly jars with my own label.
I only sell Raw honey and that's what people are demanding from me.
I have 3 neighborhood stores wanting to buy a few cases each when i get a chance, so they can sell it in their stores.
I also have a Saturday "Bee Market" where I set up a tent and tables to sell various items, like honey when I have it, honey straws, wax based soaps and candles, hives, etc...The honey items are the first to go. I run it from 8 am to noon and if you come after 11, usually the honey items are already gone.(just got a new location to be more permanent, so we'll see how that performs)
Big Bear
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I haven't sold any yet as this is only me second year. People have been finding out that I have bees and have been constantly hounding me if I have any honey to sell yet. I even had a local deputy sheriff stop by and ask If I was keeping bees? He told me that him and a couple other deputies used to by raw honey from a guy that went out of business and he would sure like to buy some from me when it is ready! I don't even know if I will get any honey this year as all my hives are first year hives starting out from either packages or swarms? I sure don't think being a salesman or marketing will be an issue! Course I have no plans on going big time either, lets see six hives now, just finished making five more? Frames on order?