Make money from your bees

[@tomdamour4902]

I love your 24/7 beekeeping site. I highly recommend it.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Thank you Tom! We are having a great time with it and are very proud of the classes we have set up on it and the positive reinforcement brought by such a great membership.

[@paperthyme]

Thank you, I needed this info so badly, marketing is not something I excel at. I appreciate your generosity in sharing your knowledge and experience.

[@wpankey57]

Thanks for sharing!

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Thanks for watching!

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Here is the link to join the waiting list for Beekeeping 24/7 new enrollment will only be open for 6 days so make sure you are notified beekeeping-24-7.mykajabi.com/bee-keeping-24-7-waitlist?fbclid=IwAR3M662tZXvwcJMKonFmJyC9bD2j_qGRIAsTfcavgC5LS3FUsZrk6pgabwg

[@RobinFollette]

Don't forget the licensed kitchen required to sell bottled honey in Maine. It's a $20 home processing license. The requirements aren't difficult, and there's an inspection once a year. The application is available on the Dept of Ag website.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Thats a good point thanks....unless you can sell everything from your front door to friends and neighbors, my understanding is that then a licensed kitchen is not required.'

[@RobinFollette]

@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer That's legal in towns with the sovereign food law.

[@sarahc.5431]

Great video. Got my brain cogs turning on what I can do to make $$. You provided a good start and definitely motivated me to start marketing and making new products. I am perfecting bees wax wraps. Haven’t sold them yet.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Great to hear!

[@joejackson9214]

Very informative video. Thank you for all the prices and the way you market your hives

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Thanks

[@NewEnglandgardening]

Finally a video with some good information on making money from your bees. The majority of videos are on beekeeping but very few on the details of making money from them. The popular videos are on catching swarms, doing cut outs, managing bees, extracting honey. I watch Kamen Reynolds, Michael Palmer, Jeff Horchoff, David Burns, 628DirtRooster, to name a few and many homesteading channels. I was wondering is there a market for hobby beekeepers to just sell a five gallon bucket to a bakery or central processing facility? I understand diversifying your product line but you have to buy the supplies to produce your product and take the time to bottle, label honey and the same for lip balm, candles plus the time to sell at a booth at a farmers market or flea market. I've seen commercial extraction videos on processing and filling those large steel drums but are there facilities that accept honey from hobbyists or would there be too much of a risk because of quality control from accepting honey from small operations?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Yes there are. Small craft breweries, ands a Cannabis farm making CDB oil infused products to name two of mine.

[@babybeeapiaries8667]

Where do you buy your lip balm and hand cream containers? Thanks for the videos.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Try Betterbee

[@ericgauthier8695]

Awesome videos!!!! Spent well over 2 grand and got 2 hives ( free bees from 2 swarms ) and no honey yet … I am brand new and this past winter I overwintered them well and looking for honey this season to recoup some money back

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Good luck!

[@stephenpaulo]

Hello. I was wonder how much less money you make per bottle selling to grocery stores. If you normally charge 10$ per pound of honey, how much would you charge the retailer? Your videos are great, I can't wait to watch more.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

My wholesale prices are usually approx. 60% of the retail price

[@reproduco]

You mention Comb Honey in your video. Do you use single brood chamber management to make comb honey, or do you stick with two brood chambers for that?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Either.

[@russellkoopman3004]

Thanks for all the great tips. I can't seem to sell candles so maybe I'll try lip balm. Just wish I knew how. HINT!! Last year I sold almost all my honey in one lb bears. This year I just got in a case of 12oz bears which I think will sell better.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

I have done two or three videos in which I make lip balms, just scroll through the beekeeping as a business playlist to find them.

[@russellkoopman3004]

@@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer I am surprised I missed them. I try to watch all your videos and always give a thumbs up. I check it out. I have several lbs of capping wax to get rid of. Thanks.

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

Peter you have help us so much with tradeshow marketing! Thank you and Blessings. We found 90% of our sold honey was in 8 and 16 ounce jars. Christmas time our local store sold a fair amount of the 4 ounce jars for, I think, stocking stuffers. I'm going to give a shot at producing comb set in jars with a starter beeswax foundation. We are also putting propolis traps on all the hives with intentions of selling to some of the "traditional chinese medicine" clinics here. And I'm toying around with making creamed honey possibly with a Lyson creamer. Any thoughts? Being next to our lake with tourist stopping by, I'll have to bite the bullet and start making lip balm as well as honey sticks? Which seems to be a bit of a pain but another marketing price point. As well as donating jars to our local food self. Finally I want to make some Ghost and Jalapeno infused honeys to sell to locals but also local restaurants. Would love to see how you prefer to make that. Again, thank you so much Peter.

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Be careful to be sure you sell the comb built in jars as quickly as you can. I once made 'Chunk" honey which is chunks of honey comb in jars of liquid honey. It looks fantastic for some weeks then if the liquid honey crystalizes you suddenly can no longer see the comb and it wont sell. I might do a video on the hot honey but I have made quite a bit for now.

[@russellkoopman3004]

Mike, I started making flavored cream honey last year. In August I had seven 5 gallon pails full of honey and bunches of jars and bears already full of honey. I bought a wine cooler and used a 5 gallon pail with a drill and made creamed honey. People would walk by my booth and I'd say have you ever tried creamed honey before. Most had not, so we gave them a taste sample and we'd watch their eyes light up. In September I was starting to buy 5 gallons of honey from a friend and ended up doing that 5 times. I sold five times more creamed honey than runny honey. Blueberry was the favorite followed by lemon and cinnamon. Just remember you can't add moisture to the honey or it will ferment. All the Lyson creamer does is stir the honey which can be done with a drill. There is an art to making creamed honey but it isn't that hard. Make it taste good. LOL

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

@@russellkoopman3004 Blue berry you say, interesting. I did not see lemon coming in second or even third! Russ did you add the starter crystal stuff? The reason I ask is that our forest honey here doesn't like to crystalize very much. But now you got me thinking, some spicy pepper creamed honey. Hum. Thanks.

[@russellkoopman3004]

@@MinnesotaBeekeeper Yes, I use starter or seed creamed honey. I made my own with a food processor but it's easier to buy some at a store. This seed is like yeast propagation. Keep some back to make seed honey and some to make creamed honey. 10-20% seed to runny honey. All honey crystallizes. 57 F works best and it takes between 5-10 days.

[@Lsmith-ly2cm]

Hi Peter , are you still in Maine?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

Yes I am

[@kennylecroy9706]

On the super do you use deep or med boxes ?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

I use both. Usually deeps on the bottom and with some a second or more deeps (or mediums) Which are for part of the time brood chambers and part of the time honey supers. See videos from June and July.

[@jamestownsendjrtbees3226]

Thank you for all the helpful information. I like how you have self-service honey for sale in front of your house. I am going to try that this year as well as selling to my local farm again. Any tips on that self-service idea?

[@BeekeepingwithTheBeeWhisperer]

I have been very lucky here in Maine to be able to sell self serve. Others may need a camera. Make your stand look good to get best prices.