Start a Honey Farm

Guide to Beekeeping Business

Summary: Some people raise bees for a hobby, others do it for a business. As a business, it could raise enough to support a small family. If you have the interest or resources to start a honey farm, explore the possibility of getting into business with it. Our guide will help you by providing some basics of starting a honey farm.

Honey farming could be a hobby, but it could also be a full-time job that could support a small family. Small bee farmers can produce average of 100 lbs. of honey per year.

If you are into honey farming as a hobby, you can turn that interest into a business. If not, and you are outright interested in getting into business, try working as a beekeeper employee for a while, even just part time, to assess whether beekeeping is indeed for you.

Honey Farm Essentials

If you have decided to pursue the project, be sure you have the farm, vehicles and the equipment needed to start the business. For a small farm, you would need bees with queen, brood chamber, honey containers, honey boxes, attire (hat, veil, and overalls), hive tool, scratcher for unsealing the honey, manual or motorized extractor, and freezer for storing honey.

Alternatively, you can operate a large honey farm by buying honey from small farmers and distributing it to schools, restaurants, households, pharmacies and hotels under your own label. Usually, small farmers do not allot time and energy on marketing their produce. As a bigger outfit, with perhaps between 10 and 20 employees, you can do extensive marketing. Expect to spend about $100,000 for fixed assets and working capital when starting.

Tips for Bee Farm Keepers

Research honey production standards that might be applicable to you. Feeding bees artificial pollen could be an issue in your state.
If you are taking care of a small honey farm full-time, you can do it alone, but hire someone to help you extract honey when the time comes. You’d need to hire hand for bigger farms or else your operation could fall into pieces for lack of manpower and proper maintenance.
Employ your family and kids especially if you are farming full-time, it will help keep expenses down and is a good way to start the children young into the business.
The kind of honey produced depends on what they are fed. Different flowers, because of their different complex sugar ratios, produce different flavours of honey. The most commonly used plants by larger honey producers is canola. Experiment on different kinds of flowers, to see the results. You could specialize in producing a certain kind of honey for a niche market.
Heat employed when extracting honey affects the quality of honey, some small operations avoid it as much as possible to preserve the quality of their produce.

15 Responses to "Start a Honey Farm".

1. indrasena on 4/9/2009 3:10:31 PM

hi i want to start a honey farm but here i don't find resources to start can u help me sir please........

2. yunus ahamad javed on 4/30/2009 4:35:11 AM

i want to start honey farm but i don't have resource and i also don't know about there financial system please help for giving whole plan of honey farming and also profit ratio of this business and where its market also.

3. olatunji on 5/18/2009 7:39:17 AM

bee farming?

4. Ashok Ram on 5/21/2009 5:27:04 AM

Hello sir, I want to start a honey farm but i have no knowledge about this sector. I don't have resource, financial system, profit ratio, etc. please give me information on honey farm. Thank you

5. Bob on 5/22/2009 5:34:04 PM

I am very interested in starting a honey farm business. I know nothing about it. How many acres do I need to get started. I live in the bay area in California. I am thinking I would like to buy 10 acres of land to get started. But where? Can you tell me the cheapest land and a place I can drive to? Any thing you can tell me would be a great help. Thanks, Bob

6. Debbie Hammond on 6/23/2009 11:23:16 PM

How do I begin to start a bee farm, I have the acreage is this worth putting your money into.

7. Blu3tick on 6/26/2009 12:59:48 AM

Hi, I have 4 acres and would like to start my own honey farm. I only work 3-4 days out of the week and think it would be a good second job for me. How can I get started?

8. Arsalan Zia on 7/5/2009 4:52:11 AM

Hi, i used to buy honey from the local farmers and i sell it with my company label. So far i am doing it on a medium scale and mostly I get 100% profit margin ( the honey i buy for 200$ i used to sell it for 400$ on average)... How much raise should i expect in my profit margin if i produce the honey myself. In my country (Pakistan) i think i can start doing it with just 2000$... if profit margin increases significantly i would definitely go for it.. Thanks

9. Peter Pomarkas Ponaloh Pokanis on 7/8/2009 7:41:19 AM

Hi, I want to start a Honey Bees Farm in my village. I am from Lundret village 12km from town, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. I have the land but no money and I know nothing about honey bee farming. Before starting the farm can you find me a scholarship to study about honey bee farming. I am now in Bandund, Indonesia. GOD BLESS YOUR HEART ! Peter Pomarkas

10. Breanna Wadington on 9/3/2009 1:21:18 PM

Hello, I am interested in starting my own honey farm sometime in the future but I want to know all I can before I do. I am doing it for a hobby and maybe as a part time business as well. I have other plan in edition to this business. I would love to know any information you could possibly send me. Thank you for your time. Sincerely yours, Breanna Wadington

11. Amanda on 10/4/2009 1:48:35 PM

Good day, I would like to know more about making a brood chamber and honey boxes. And when to start with the farming. I am interested in starting a small business with honey. I have got a lot of bluegum trees on my farm. Please can you assist me with any information. Blessings Amanda Abreu

12. CLAY CLAY on 10/4/2009 10:53:52 PM

hello, am from solomon islands. my parents live in the village and are interested in going into honey farming business. however, we don't have any technical knowledge of this kind of business. please i'll be grateful indeed if any of you successful friends in this business could help. there is a lot of demand for honey products from our surrounding areas. thanks for helping us.

13. Lolo on 10/11/2009 9:46:35 PM

Hi,I would like to know how to start a small honey farm. Please can you give advise. Best Regard Lolo.

14. Dima on 10/14/2009 1:41:13 AM

Hi. I currently own a few small bee farm and would like to use them for pollination. I would like to know if there is a list, of farmers that need pollination and what range of income can this provide?

15. sajjad husain on 11/20/2009 12:50:17 PM

ahmedabad, gujraat, india. i want to start a honey farm but here i don't find resources to start can u help me

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