Marketing your Honey.

[Queen Bee]

This is something that I am in need of.. It looks like I will have a great year and I have yet to sell any of my honey. (Everyone just "would love to have a jar of my honey"! :x ) But now I have some questions for all those who do market your honey.

First, what area are you in?
How much do you get for a pound of  honey?
How many pounds of honey are in a qt. jar? pint jar?
What information is a must on the labels? Besides Name, address, type of honey and weight of honey per jar?

I will not be putting it in groc. stores so I will not need a bar code system.
I'll be selling it to local people and to a local produce stand.

Any ideas and information is greatly appreciated.. Thanks Queen Bee (Debbie)

[leominsterbeeman]

You have to line up a number of distribution points.  

Farm stands.
Craft sellers.
Church fairs.
Health food stores.
Word of mouth is good too, which means that you'll have to
give some away.    
In my book - family gets it for free.

I gave alot a way at Christmas - small 8oz plastic jars, and those are the
people who are re-buying now in 16 oz jars.

[Beth Kirkley]

All I know about any of this is that there are 12 oz. in a cup of honey. And by that measurement, 2 1/3 cups = 2 lbs of honey.
If you get the glass jars (pint & quart), let me see about the math.
Pint = 2 cups = 24 oz. = 1 1/2 lbs.
Quart = 4 cups = 48 oz. = 3 lbs.

I've done a little research myself on the bottling part. I found that it was slightly cheaper for me to buy plastic bottles from a bee equiptment supplier than to get glass jars from Wal-Mart. The only place I looked though for plastic bottles was from Mann Lake Ltd, so some places may have better prices. But I figured it would cost about .65 cents per bottle (with lid and label) going plastic, vs. about .75 cents going glass that comes with lids (and labels).

I'd LOVE to hear what others say on this though. I've really been wanting to know about others experience with it.

Beth

[steve]

Good evening from the foothills of nor'western NC, Queen Bee.
  Generally speaking, we get $10.00 qt. for our sourwood honey (2.5 lbs per qt.).....Most of our sourwood honey is sold before the crop comes in,
(repeat customers). What you have stated on your label is complete, anything else is fluff........We sometimes add a recipe card or instructions on how to remove sugar crystals.......although that's not much of a problem with sourwood honey.
  We charge a little less for our spring honey (Tulip Poplar) because the honey is usually darker and some what stronger tasteing...this year being the exception...is was extremely light colored and very mild tasteing,
  everyone wants some of this oddity....price goes up, Beekeeper happy!
  Be fair in your priceing, but don't give it away to cheaply. You've worked hard and the bees have work hard to produce this all natural product...................
                                                          Steve

[RebelRx]

Here's some other info that might be helpful.

1 lb of honey = 12 oz
2lb of honey = 24 oz

[Beth Kirkley]

Rebel-
At first you had me confused because I was thinking - "wait.... a pound of honey weighs 16 oz". But I'm guessing you're saying that in a measuring cup, the 12 oz measurement would weigh 1 lb. Right?

Beth

[lobstafari]

Id think it would go the other way....
 For example maple sap is 8.8 lb/gal, but maple syrup is 11 lb/gal.  Id think honey would be heavier than water, which 1 pt=1lb

[Queen Bee]

See, this is what I mean!! I am confused... I see one apiary has one thing, another has something different!! :roll:  Maybe, John can point us in the right direction... It sounds so easy and then Bammmm--I hear something total different...

[Queen Bee]

I finally got up with our local bee inspector and this is the information he gave to me:


Pint=2 cups= 24 oz=1.5  lbs.
qt=4 cups=48 oz.=3 lbs.
1 gal=12 lb.

16oz=0.4536 kilograms

2 lbs honey=2 1/3 cups
12oz.= one cup honey
 

Thanks for all you input.. Debbie

[Beth Kirkley]

Honey does weigh more than water.
1 cup (8 oz volume) water = 8 oz weight
1 cup (8 oz volume) honey = 12 oz weight

1 pint water = 2 cups = 16 oz
1 pint honey = 2 cups = 24 oz

A pound is still a pound, but a pint of water will weigh 1 lb & a pint of honey will weigh 1 1/2 lbs.

And I can see how Steve has his quarts at 2 1/2 pounds (that would be 3 1/3 cups honey) because you don't really fill the jar all the way to the top.
(I'm getting myself confused :). Earlier I said "All I know about any of this is that there are 12 oz. in a cup of honey. And by that measurement, 2 1/3 cups = 2 lbs of honey." I think I should have said 2 2/3 cups = 2 lbs. of honey.)

Are we having fun yet?  :?
Beth

[Robo]

I suggest buy plastic honey bottles.  It is much more professional looking and your product will sell better.

Check out http://www.betterbee.com, they have a wide selections of sizes and shapes.  If you buy them in bulk, they ship for free.

They even sell a "variety bulk pack"  that comes with labels for around $50 that will let you see what size/shape sells best for you.  The container means a lot to your sale.  People are willing to pay extra for the same honey in a squeeze bear than a plain glass jar.

My personal favorites are the 1lb & 2lb Betterbee honey jars


The 3lb. economy plastic


The "no mess" tabletop


An added feature to the later two is that they have built in tamper seals.

And No I'm not affiliated with BetterBee.

But most importantly, talk to your customers and ask them what they want.  Some people have specific sizes they like and think sell good and won't buy anything but those.  After all, the customer is always right :D

Another thing that you might want to consider with some customers, like health food stores is to sell in bulk by the 5 gallon bucket (Beth here is a quiz for you, what does that weigh? 8) ) and let them bottle it.  They think they are getting a good deal, and you don't have to lay out for bottles or the hassle of bottling.

[Beth Kirkley]

:) My head hurts from all that counting. And I'll have you know, it caused a tiny arguement with the hubby. (We got over it.) It was all about weight vs volume - 8 oz volume of honey equaling 12 oz weight.

BUT.... I did tackle the task! :)
60 pounds, right?

Beth

[Robo]

A+ :lol:

[Beth Kirkley]

And you get an A+ for catching on to my little fixation with this issue. :)

Beth

[Bee Boy]

All right Beth! :lol:  

What does everybody sell their honey for price wise?

[Beth Kirkley]

I don't have much background to answer this..... but here it goes. :) Last year I sold a couple quart jars for $7 each. I felt that was a little low. I'm thinking this year (if I get enough honey at all), I'll do like was suggested by leominsterbeeman - give away lots of small jars (maybe the 4 oz size) and hope for returns as customers. :) Family gets it for free of course, and I've given away lots of 2 pound jars to neighbors.
I'm thinking though that I'll try a price of $4 a pound and see how it goes. That would make the quarts $10.

Beth