Backyard Honey Profit Calculator · guide

How much to charge for a pound of honey: hives, winter losses and your hours

Short answer: add up a year of replacement colonies, equipment, mite treatment, jars and fees, add your hours at the wage you want, and divide by the pounds you actually sell. The calculator does it for your own numbers.

Everything below is arithmetic on invented numbers. Not financial, tax, legal or food-safety advice. Costs, prices and rules belong to your apiary and your state. No warranty.

A worked apiary

10 hives averaging 50 lb each, 10 percent of the crop left on combs, kept or given away, a 25 percent winter loss replaced at $180 a colony, $25 a hive of mite treatment and feed, $400 a year of equipment, $150 of insurance and fees, $1.10 of jar and label per pound, 20 hours per hive per year and a $20 an hour wage, selling at $10 a pound.

• The hives make 500 lb and you sell 450 lb.
• Cash cost is $1,745.00 a year: $450.00 replacements, $400.00 equipment, $250.00 treatment and feed, $495.00 jars, $150.00 other. Per pound that is $3.88, and 0.44 hours.
• Revenue is $4,500.00, so the margin is $2,755.00 a year, $13.78 an hour for your time.
• Pay yourself $20 an hour and the year is a loss of $1,245.00. The price that earns your wage is $12.77 a pound; cash breakeven is $3.88.

The crop and the winter decide it

A poor honey year of 30 lb a hive costs $5.73 a pound and cuts profit per hour to $5.77; at 20 lb it costs $8.04, pays $1.76 an hour and the price you need is $30.27. Losing 40% of hives over winter costs $4.48 a pound; at 60% it is $5.28 and the price you need is $14.17. A bad year with an $8 price, 25 lb a hive, half the hives lost and 15 percent of the crop lost has a cash cost of $9.10 a pound and loses $4,233.75 a year after wage. Try the bad year button in the calculator.

At $20 a pound the same apiary earns $36.28 an hour: comb honey, creamed or infused honey and gift packs sell for more because they are a different product, not because the bees are cheaper.

How to measure your own numbers

• Weigh every harvest for a few seasons and divide by the hives that were strong enough to produce.
• Count winter losses each spring, and note what you paid to replace them.
• Add up mite treatments, feed, jars, labels and equipment from your receipts.
• Time inspections, extraction and bottling for a full year, then check your state's rules on selling honey and labelling.

Common questions

How much should I charge for a pound of honey?

Enough that the price covers your cash cost and pays your time. On the default numbers that is $12.77 a pound for a $20 an hour wage, against a cash breakeven of $3.88.

What costs the most?

Jars and labels at $495.00 of the $1,745.00 cash cost a year, 28.4%. Your own hours matter more: 200 hours a year at $20 is $4,000.00, more than all the cash costs together.

Is this advice?

No. It is arithmetic on invented numbers; check every figure against your own records. Not financial, tax or food-safety advice. No warranty.