Sunday, July 11, 2010

Ready for marketing

Jeesh, how long it's been since I posted. Let me catch you up.

My hive made it through the winter with gusto; Joel's did not. I split my hive 5/1 and made a new colony in Joel's equipment, grew my own queen and everything.

My hive has produced 6 frames of honey in June and today I pulled off TWENTY ONE more. Plus there's at least another 6 in there that are almost capped and ready to go. I'm running out of equipment!

Joel's hive is going slower. I just put the first honey super on them today. The spring season is pretty much shot, but there is the fall season. I just have to figure out how and when and if to treat for varroa mite and nocema. Last year we treated mine but not Joel's for varroa and both for nocema, and only mine made it through the winter. Coincidence? Who knows. But I do want to treat again.

Julia is still in the hive as of today, but the poor old girl's laying patterns are starting to fail. Looks like she's going to have to be replaced in August. That bums me out. I hate killing things, and she's done SO well by me, it's a sucky way to end your life. But I keep telling myself it's humane...it's either me doing it quick or the bees doing it slowly and painfully. The question is whether to buy or make a queen (or to combine Joel's colony with mine...but I kind of don't want to do that). Timing may not be right to make my own for the fall since we are going away and I would need to buy deeps to put in the nuc to do so, but maybe I can figure something out.

My biggest pressing question at the moment is how to market this stuff. I have played around with packaging and labelling and have a plan for the moment (I loved the hex jars that are shaped like a honey cell, but they are too expensive, so I bought some 8 oz "skep" jars from Everett, which are acceptable but I need to also buy some 1 lb jars since the 8 oz are kind of small for people buying; they're more for giving away as gifts). The 8 oz skep jars are in the front of the below picture, with the 1 lb plastic jars behind them. I don't really like the 1 lb plastic jars aesthetically, but they are practical to ship; lightweight and with a dripless bottle (so you can store it nose down and squeeze it like ketchup). And just to give you an idea of volume...the bottles below contain the 6 frames worth of honey processed in June. I have 3.5 times that sitting in frames at the moment ready to harvest. That's about pehaps 72 pounds more of honey or 6 gallons. Good grief. I mean YAY!!



And where do I market? I don't want to put a cart out front, since who knows what the town would say (I was told I need a food license to harvest honey, which nobody in the bee club believes because I'm not cooking it or adding anything to it; it would be kind of like picking lettuce and selling it on a cart). But I have the daycare out back too and I don't want parents freaking out about honeybees being in such close proximity to the daycare. Plus if the shop next door sells honey I don't want them to feel like I am undercutting their sales.

Maybe I should try Etsy. People sell honey online on Etsy. There's the S&H that I have to contend with, which may result in repackaging once again (I like glass far more than plastic, but it's much more expensive to ship). Maybe I should put a sign in our cars saying "fresh honey" and our phone number or something. Maybe I need to find a friend that does a local farmers market. Maybe I need a sign out front. So many maybes!

If you are interested in buying some pure raw Bristol County honey, they are $3.75 for 8 oz, $7.00 for 1 lb, plus S&H unless you want to pick it up (or unless I can deliver it if I work with you or live near you). I'll post an Etsy site when I have it up. My email is bluidshay@aol.com if you want to contact me about a purchase (or call me if you have my number).

I will also think about any trade (stuff you offer me that I could use) for honey!!