Sold honey in my driveway today........WooHoo!

[Lburou]

I've kept bees for 18 years but have never had this much honey.  The three hives I didn't use for queen production, or didn't sell, produced 30 gallons of honey   (and the supers are full again!).  I gave 8 gallons to friends and family.  That left 22 gallons to bottle and sell.  We sold some at a community fundraiser but held some back for the community garage sale today.  We sold about 100 jars of honey from our driveway in three hours.  With only the pint and half-pint jars to sell, choices didn't take very long.  We averaged about $104 (gross) per gallon with the smaller jars.




You folks up north, notice the green grass and the leaves on the trees.  This is the time of year to live in Texas! We are three to five weeks from the first freeze. 

A good time was had by all.  We are well and truely blessed.   

[Jen]

Really Nice Pic Lee! and good goin' on abundant honey this year 

[Perry]

Nice pic. I think the huge banner was a smart idea and the stand is pretty clever as well.
(Nice house and yard too).

[Papakeith]

very nice! 
Love the banner . 
congrats on a great harvest

[Lburou]

Thanks Jen, you'll be harvesting honey by the gallon soon 

Perry, the stand can be assembled to be 7 feet tall....The wind blew it over before the first customer.  Had to take the elevation portion out and reassemble it again in 'short' configuration.  Its good to have a 'Plan B'. 

Papakeith, we ordered the 3' X 5' banner from http://www.buildasign.com/ for about $35.  The sign really worked, (wish it was double sided).  Many times vehicles would roll on past us only to come back after seeing the sign. 

We live in a Texas sized unincorporated community (4,400 acres with 52 miles of paved road, 3200 homes, complete with golf courses, airstrips and Club).  So, twice each year we open the gates and have garage sales,... people come from far and wide to buy good stuff real cheap.  Had five out of one hundred people decline to buy after tasting the honey today, so must be priced okay.  Its a great day to sell about anything, now we know honey sells too.  A unique retail opportunity and we are looking for more ways to capitalize on our situation inside these gates.  Plan to let five or six hives make honey next year. 

[Bakersdozen]

Congratulations Lee!  How did you know what to price your honey for?  I am still mulling pricing over. 

[Lburou]

Congratulations Lee!  How did you know what to price your honey for?  I am still mulling pricing over. 

Other beekeepers in my Club sell honey mostly by the quart, ranging from $13 to $20.  A prominent beekeeper closer to DFW is selling a quart for $26.  I advertised within my community and sold a half pint for $6, a pint for $11 and 1.5 pint for $15.  No one complained about the price, in fact several thought it was underpriced.  Nearby healthfood and feed stores are selling half pints of 'local' honey for $8 & $9.  When I began spending on tables, table cloths, signs, frames and advertising, I went up $1 on each of the jars.  Only one old guy (much older than myself anyway) offered me $5 for a half pint...I sold it -its a cultural thing and I practice a little negotiation myself.

That one time in total of about 300 customers is the only direct feedback about the price.  A total of 6 people in 306 people have tasted but not purchased.  Kind of rambling here, but those are some of my thoughts and benchmarks for price.  We could probably charge more next year. Labels for a pint jar are costing me two times $.24 each, and then there is the jar.  Need to find less expensive labels.

I plan to move away from canning jars.  The traditional queenline jar, in my view, is the way to present premium honey and I'm going to test that hypothesis with the next honey crop.

I counted how many times we handled each jar in the process of bottling the honey.  Its about six or seven times, then you put it on the table to sell it.  Don't have a problem selling really premium, unheated, unfiltered, natural, raw honey for a premium price.  Serendipitously, we are in an area that produces a great tasting honey with distinct floral notes, and that helps a lot.

[Jen]

When you say unfiltered, does that mean it came out of the extracter into the jar?

[Lburou]

Jen, I put a strainer over the bucket to keep the wings, legs and cappings out.  Strained, but not filtered.  To me, the point about not filtering means the pollen is still in there.  Since there is so much wiggle room in the language used to sell honey, I don't feel dishonest calling it raw honey...when asked, I describe what we do, people don't mind. 

[Jen]

Yup, that's what I do, and I feel confident to call it raw as well 

[Bakersdozen]

Congratulations Lee!  How did you know what to price your honey for?  I am still mulling pricing over. 

That one time in total of about 300 customers is the only direct feedback about the price.  A total of 6 people in 306 people have tasted but not purchased.  Kind of rambling here, but those are some of my thoughts and benchmarks for price.  We could probably charge more next year. Labels for a pint jar are costing me two times $.24 each, and then there is the jar.  Need to find less expensive labels.

I plan to move away from canning jars.  The traditional queenline jar, in my view, is the way to present premium honey and I'm going to test that hypothesis with the next honey crop.

I counted how many times we handled each jar in the process of bottling the honey.  Its about six or seven times, then you put it on the table to sell it.  Don't have a problem selling really premium, unheated, unfiltered, natural, raw honey for a premium price.  Serendipitously, we are in an area that produces a great tasting honey with distinct floral notes, and that helps a lot.

It appears that you are getting a good price for your honey.  Some rural folks around here have to justify $5 for a pound of honey in a queenline jar.  This year, I too switched from canning jars to purchased bottles.  I had run out of all my jelly jars and thought that if I was going to have to buy, I might as well buy a legitimate honey bottle and label.  The price paid for a bottle and label came out about the same as the jelly jar. 
You are right about the labor involved in the actual bottling of the honey.  It's a labor intensive product for our bees and us!