Hi,
I harvested five of my Flow Frames today after setting them up in December. Last year I had no luck as bees did not settle into the flow frames. This year, I inserted one flow frame and kept normal frames in the rest of the area. In December I harvested the normal frames and poured honey on the single flow frame I had there. In a week, I saw the flow frame fully prepared with all the cells well made with wax. Then I removed the other frames and replaced all but one with flow frames (I had to put some pieces of wood to adjust the height to place the normal frames). From today I have put all six flow frames as bees are now used to it.
It would help us to help you if you could please update your profile with an approximate location. I am presuming south of the equator if you are harvesting right now, but a major city would really help.
The reason is that the rules for selling honey vary a lot in different parts of the world. Some places require a certified âhoney houseâ and very specific labeling requirements. We have a lot of forum members in various parts of Australia who may be able to help with advice on local regulations for your state or city, if that is where you are.
In the past, we had a little sign outside our house advertising honey for sale. This worked very well, but of course you have to be willing to have people drop in on you to purchase it. In our current neighbourhood, we are not allowed to have business advertising signs, so we canât do that any more.
I am based in California, USA. I sold my excess honey by advertising on a very local web site - www.nextdoor.com. We sold over 30 jars in less than 24 hours. I had to have some special labels made which complied with both US federal and California state requirements. Not a big deal, but important to know about before you start selling. So that is one option.
If you live in a big city, another option may be to sell at a farmers market. You could do this either by having your own stall (I think @Rodderick does this), or by offering your honey to an existing stall owner to sell for you.
I would not recommend eBay or any method which requires shipping. Not only is honey heavy (and thus expensive to ship), but you can also run foul of regulations if you ship across state or country lines.
Hope that gets you started with some ideas at least.
Thanks Dawn, for your nice tips. I will investigate further with some local beekepers and the Beekeepers Association.
Yes, I am in the Canberra region in South Eastern Australia. Have updated the profile.
I am using my garage as the âshedâ and have all new equipment for extracting and food grade storage vessels. All done very higenically. I am in the process of developing a label will all required info.
