Wednesday, January 26, 2005
GETTING OUT THERE AND SELLING THE GOLDEN NECTAR!
This is my friend Joe, a fellow beekeeper who joined me in the recent Rural Ramble. We had the only honey stand set up and had a great time meeting folks and explaining all about the bees. We managed to sell lots of honey and had an observation hive which always fascinates everyone.
One of the challenges in beekeeping is to sell all of your product. One hive will generally produce about one hundred pounds of honey. If you have two or three hives it is easy to sell two to three hundred pounds of honey (two hundred to three hundred one pound bottles). Once you find yourself with twenty to thirty hives, it becomes a significant challenge to sell the two to three THOUSAND bottles of honey that you have produced. At that point you have to be organized and develop relationships with lots of folks who will buy your honey all year round and with stores who will also sell for you. It takes time but it is part of the fun.
Going to events like county fairs and major events pays dividends as you can get lots of exposure, sell lots of product and pass your business card out to lots of folks. A sign at the end of your driveway will also bring in lots of folks who will be interested in beekeeping in general. Also helpful in selling product is a kiosk operated on the honour system.
The key to beekeeping (like everyting in life) is to keep it manageable fun. The minute it becomes tedious and stressful then you have gone too far and need to suck back a bit. Go slow, take your time and you will eventually find your comfort level in terms of number of hives and production levels.
# posted by Ed Gagnon : 6:43 PM
