Selling your honey

Some people who list here have more honey than the family can use: a couple of hives in the back garden and a shelf of jars by the door. Others run beekeeping businesses with a honey house, a market table or store accounts. Both are welcome, and the listing says which you are, because buyers ask.

What buyers ask first

• Is it raw? Say so if it is, and be ready to say what you mean: strained but not heated, or not fine-filtered.
• What flowers? Even "wildflower, mostly clover in June" helps. If you harvest twice and the two taste different, say that.
• What jar sizes, and how much? The form asks for the price of a 1 lb jar so buyers can compare sellers. Put other sizes in your description.
• Where do I pick it up? From the house by arrangement, a stand, a market day, a shop. This is the first thing a buyer needs to act on.
• Do you have comb? Comb honey is what buyers can't find in a supermarket, so it is worth listing even if you have only a few frames.
• Have you got any left? A page or social post where you say "sold out until August" saves you messages and saves buyers a drive.

Check your state's rules first

Each state decides how honey may be sold, and they differ a lot. Many let small producers sell their own honey with few or no extra requirements. Others treat honey under their cottage-food rules, with limits on where you can sell and what the label says. Some want a registered or inspected extraction room (a honey house) once you sell to shops or above a certain amount, and many ask beekeepers to register their hives whether or not they sell.

We don't list thresholds here, because they change and vary by state. Your state department of agriculture is the authority: search for its honey or cottage-food page, or call. Your state beekeepers' association will usually know the answer too. Selling across state lines or to stores can bring in rules that a porch sale doesn't.

What goes on the label

Even where a small seller is exempt from other rules, a jar of honey for sale is normally expected to say:

• What it is: "Honey", or "Comb honey", "Creamed honey". A floral name like "Clover honey" only if that is mostly what the bees worked.
• The net weight of the honey, not counting the jar.
• Your name and address, or at least the town, state and ZIP, so a buyer can find you.

A jar labelled just "honey" is understood to be honey and nothing else. If anything is added, such as cinnamon, a flavour or another sweetener, the label has to say so and the name changes with it. Your state may want more, such as a cottage-food statement, so check the same page as above.

Keep health claims off the label and out of your listing. Saying honey treats allergies or heals anything turns a jar of food into something regulators treat very differently, and listings here that make such claims are edited or turned down.

Your state beekeepers' association

Nearly every state has a beekeepers' association, and many counties have a club. They are where to ask about local rules, borrow an extractor, find a mentor, and in many places get listed in a member directory of honey sellers. Some run honey shows that judge moisture, clarity and flavour, which is a useful check on your own jars.

How a listing here works

• Free, no account, no commission. Buyers contact you and pay you directly.
• No street address needed. Your pin sits at the centre of your ZIP code and buyers see only your town. Add the address only if you want buyers to come to it, such as a honey house with hours.
• The phone, email or website you give is public, so buyers can reach you. One is enough.
• A person reads each listing before it goes on the map, usually within a day.
• Your listing shows how long ago it was posted. To update it, submit again under the same name.