Many people are passionate about beekeeping, be it a hobby, conservation effort, business, or all of the above. If you’re considering starting a “beesiness”, you might be surprised to learn just how many products can be derived from honey.
While the profit potential can’t be argued, there are many factors that can have a negative impact on your bottom line. That said, it’s no more risky than any other crop.
“Like most types of farming, you’re at the mercy of the weather & climate change, diseases, predators like the Giant Asian Hornet, and other factors,” says All Natural Pet Care. “Focus on what you can control and build a strong colony that can better deal with things you can’t control.”
How Beekeepers Can Make Money with Honey
You can sell your sweet products and services locally and/or online. For help with the latter, follow this Checklist: How to Start an Online Store in Canada.
Raw Honey – Pure honey is in high demand for its healing properties and nutrition.
Flavoured Honey – Honey has a lot of potential as a gourmet product because its flavour is complimentary to many others. Play around with flavours and warm it up with spices, such as cinnamon.
Honey Products – Honey can be a featured ingredient in many food and beauty products.
Beeswax Products – Beeswax is used in everything from lotions to lip balm and candles to cleaners. Make some yourself and/or sell the beeswax to others.
Spun Honey – This is honey that has been processed by whipping it to control the crystals. It is spreadable like butter.
Dried Honey – If you have enough honey, you can dehydrate it, grind it up and sell it as a high-end powder.
Selling Queens and “Nucs” – Some people create a side business breeding queens and selling nucs and queens to other beekeepers.
Pollination – Some beekeepers use their hives to help farmers pollinate their fields by transporting the hives to the area in need of pollination. Charge $100+ per hive!
“When providing colonies for pollination services, beekeepers are encouraged to remove colonies as soon as pollination is complete,” cautions the Honey Council of Canada. “This will help to reduce exposure to any insecticides that are applied post bloom. If the colonies cannot be removed promptly, beekeepers can place a soaked cloth at the entrance of the hive to disrupt the flight of the bees for up to 12 hours. Prevent overheating of the hive and do not confine the bees for any longer than 12 hours.”
Bee Removal Service – Once you become an expert at handling bees, you can offer to help people remove hives and swarms from their property.
Hive Tours – Set up a colony in a see-through hive and use it to educate the public about bees.
Hive Construction – Build hives and sell them.
Teaching – You can earn serious money by sharing your beekeeping and related knowledge. You could create digital products like ebooks and online courses, and/or have offline classes or public speaking gigs.
Most people take a few years to build up production before making any real money, but it can provide some food security for your own family and help bees until then. Many recommend 100-300 hives if you want to start a full-time, sustainable, socially-responsible honey business.
??? Do you keep bees? Please share your experience in the comments below.
✔ You may also be interested in reading:
10 Side Businesses you can Start Online
6 Online Businesses for Canadian Parents
5 Ways Raw Canadian Honey Can Improve Your Health
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