Where do you sell your honey

Where do you Harvest process and sell your honey?
My bees are in the garden 2 hives one good colony and one dodgy one this year.
I process in my kitchen.
I sell by word of mouth and at the door by putting a board out, on the grass verge, that I designed and produced myself. My honey is in 12 0z 340gm hexagonals and I fill up to the neck.

Mine are in the garden too and I process it in a large utility room that HWMBO sterilises top to bottom as and when (helps clean the gear up after too!!!). I sell to a regular, if elderly and ailing from arthritis and hayfever etc, clientele (of which I am a multiple pill swallowing member too of course). Mostly they responded to an advert in the parish newsletter some years ago and word of mouth has worked since. Apart from that Country Markets is another useful outlet as well as Shrewsbury Flower Show when I have enough to go round - 100 1lb jars 4 years ago but going downhill since. £ for £ smaller jars make the contents more expensive imho so I always use 1 lb jars which include a lesser proportion of relatively more expensive glass !!!. Current price is circa £5.20 per 1lb jar elsewhere but £5 at the door.

My bees are in the garden 2 hives one good colony and one dodgy one this year.
I process in my kitchen.
I sell by word of mouth and at the door by putting a board out, on the grass verge,

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Much the same, but dont have a grass verge.
Half the people who live here probably cant read English anyway.

Hives are in a field five minutes walk from the house.
Extracted and jarred in the sun room....warm and can exclude family, pets and bees; 12 oz round, 8oz chunk, 8oz cut comb.
My biggest one off sale is Conwy Honey Fair which is also a long weekend away treat. I am off the beaten track so few door sales, though I might experiment with a sign at the end of our track and a sales point at the end of our drive (we are actually along a footpath but a rarely used one. The rest of the year I do a fortnightly farmers' market, which is great fun. I can talk about honey and bees all morning without encountering that glazed expression. Two or three Christmas fairs let me indulge in fancy packaging and I usually do very well.

Dishmop said:

Much the same, but dont have a grass verge.
Half the people who live here probably cant read English anyway.

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Maybe you need a multi lingual sign?

I extract and jar in the kitchen. It used to be a restaurant kitchen so the walls and ceiling are covered with stainless steel. Also stainless benches.

I'll be going to my first farmers market this Saturday to try and sell 167 12oz jars. £5 each or 2 for £9. Do you reckon £100 of change will be enough? Any advice welcome

Ely said:

I extract and jar in the kitchen. It used to be a restaurant kitchen so the walls and ceiling are covered with stainless steel. Also stainless benches.

I'll be going to my first farmers market this Saturday to try and sell 167 12oz jars. £5 each or 2 for £9. Do you reckon £100 of change will be enough? Any advice welcome

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A polite "do you have the right change" helps if you get low.
You will be amazed how many people do but cba digging it out.

My wife has sold some at work for me and I have sold some in the local pub.
I haven't sold much from the house maybe the bullmastiff stops people calling.

12 oz jars for £4 not tried cut comb or chunk honey yet or anything fancy.
Extraction was done in the kitchen same for jarring but wow it gets everywhere and spreads for miles. Got told off about my cleaning up not being upto standards lmao and yes i waited for the kitchen to be cleaned before messing it up.

Asked a couple of shops about selling it for me but they already buy from a beefarmer at less than I want to sell for.
Looked at the local farmers market and someone was selling soft set for £3 a lb not a beekeeper just a trader. I thought that was too cheap.
I've got to go and see the health spa people my hives are in the field next door that could be a good sales spot.

The country store we get pet food from sells honey for £6 per lb but it has crystallised in the jars so i guess they don't sell much. They advertise it as local honey but it is from 20 miles away. The soft set they sell is £4 for 8 oz.

I've got to sort something out for next year another 300 acres of OSR is planned and if they make it through winter ok i will have a lot more bees so hopefully more honey.

Gilberdyke John said:

Maybe you need a multi lingual sign?

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Might end up being a big sign..

Dishmop said:

Much the same, but dont have a grass verge.
Half the people who live here probably cant read English anyway.

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They certainly can't speak it, Dishmop...

Ten hives are just behind the garden - the rest are in out apiaries two and five miles away, extract in the kitchen (which I sanitise beforehand - galley sanitisation was one of my fortes whilst at sea so no problems there) also this is where it's bottled.
Mother sells quite a bit for me,as does sister and SWMBO at work, get some doorstep enquiries and I home deliver to an old lady who used to be my neighbour years ago. I supply one of the butchers in the market town a few miles away and the health food shop also sells it now.

Harvest at home, fifty yards from bees, sell by sign at bottom of drive.....posh job....looks like a pub sign. Also sell in the local walkers centre where they add £1 to my prices. Farmers market for the first time this weekend! £6 for a stall, see how that goes! Have had people come up the drive and buy £100 worth!!! Well once!
E

My hives are in the garden so process and bottle in the kitchen (but we have builders extending the utility room at the moment so no extraction for a few weeks!) I sell at £5 for 12oz at work and to friends of family - family get it free. Have just sold 12 jars to a local deli/cafe but it's in competition to honey from a bee farm but I'm much more local so lets see how it goes

I extract in the utility - enough room for full\empty Supers, extractor and buckets etc.

Sell at work, local Post Office and friends/family etc. Have found that by giving the first jar helps drive more sales.

Just gave the equestrian vet one who three weeks later turned up and purchased 4 more saying that his family have no sugar in the house and only use honey. In fact they have a dedicated cupboard for the stuff. The good news is they are running down the supermarket rubbish so they can just buy mine.

Ely said:

I'll be going to my first farmers market this Saturday to try and sell 167 12oz jars. £5 each or 2 for £9. Do you reckon £100 of change will be enough? Any advice welcome

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£100 is more than enough...
Make your stall attractive and have tasters. Make some fudge to sell.
My market is slow, struggling in fact, but a few of us are trying to keep it going.
Hope you sell your jars, let us know how it goes.

Erichalfbee said:

£100 is more than enough...
Make your stall attractive and have tasters. Make some fudge to sell.
My market is slow, struggling in fact, but a few of us are trying to keep it going.
Hope you sell your jars, let us know how it goes.

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Will do. Thanks for the advice.

Do you need public liability insurance to sell at a farmers market?

Yes. Market manager should ask to see certificate or some such evidence.

I sell most of my honey at a farmers market every Sunday. I charge £5 a pound or £3 for 8oz. I love doing the market, its great to talk of customers about bees and honey.

I put a jar out for tasting along with broken up crackers, I also sell beeswax candles.

I take a float of £40, thats 20 £1 coins and 4 £5 notes.

I also supply two shops and two local pubs.

Ive sold 600 lb since May, hopefully get most of it sold my Christmas

Erichalfbee said:

Yes. Market manager should ask to see certificate or some such evidence.

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Surely it's the market that needs the insurance!