$41K/Month Selling Honey from His Garden?!
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- čas přidán 31. 07. 2024
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James Hartman brought a hobby and $500 together to start a full-scale honey farm business. Having worked in a completely different industry, James was running the business as a side hustle until he was laid off from his full time job. What’s really impressive though is James considers himself to be an “accidental farmer.”
James was first introduced to beekeeping by his friend in the Spring of 2020. When he developed PTSD and a mild traumatic brain injury from his time working at the bomb squad in the military, James turned to beekeeping as a form of agro-therapy for his health. As he really dove into it though, he realized it could be turned into so much more.
In this episode, we take a detailed look into the process of a successful honey farm, discover the free money nearly every entrepreneur misses out on, and learn the unusual marketing strategy to boost your sales.
Resources:
bit.ly/3SqwYe7 - Start, Build, or Grow Your Business with UpFlip Academy
secretgardenbees.com/- Find Out More About James Hartman’s Honey Business
Timestamps:
00:00 - START
00:40 - How it all started
02:09 - Initial investment
02:30 - Revenue
03:45 - Going full time
04:26 - Monthly overhead
05:10 - Sourcing bees
06:02 - Setup and equipment
07:29 - Hive box
08:16 - Building a hive
09:56 - Fan blitz
11:34 - What he’d do differently
12:31 - Biggest mistakes
13:25 - Headquarters
15:56 - Equipment walkthrough
17:01 - Packing demo
18:06 - Importance of packaging
18:57 - Retail vs Wholesale
20:17 - Wholesaling
22:05 - Hiring employees
23:41 - Important lessons
25:04 - Outro
#beekeeping #honey #bees
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I am a commercial beekeeper running over 1000 hives. From 60 hives you cannot make honey for 100 stores.
Hi imports or buys honey wholesale and repackages selling as an expensive brand.
Agree. Something doesn't add up.
Agree, I run 600 colonies and his math does not add up. This video is misleading. If you are thinking about getting rich quick on beekeeping, be careful because you will likely lose a lot of money.
@@mikleach How do you manage to run 600 colonies? Do you employ helpers? Beekeeping is one of the hardest farming and requires huge amount of knowledge.
There are no rules, the 60 colonies are just for show. Taking care of thousands of colonies would only eat up all his time. He let's you do that and he buys honey wholesale and focuses his efforts on selling at retail.
@@dogblackprincehoney very mechanized reducing labor wherever possible used seasonal help when needed 4 full time employees
Could someone please explain what I am missing? Early in the video it was stated that they are @ $250,000 in revenue just six months into this year. The price per pound of honey on the high side is $20 and one hive averages around 80lbs of honey per year. The owner has 62 hives which translates to just shy of $100,000 in revenue for an entire year. I watched the entire video and I cannot figure out what I am missing.
Let me know when you've figured it out. Beats me too.
Honey, beeswax, bee pollen, propolis and royal jelly all the products from beekeeping. The gentleman also sells eggs from what I saw earlier.
Yeah, I think that is misleading in the title and I never heard 41k per month mentioned in the video and don't think it's anywhere near possible with just 62 hives.
I'm at about the same number of hives and I'm nowhere near even the $150,000.
Granted I'm still scaling so just because I have around 60-70 hives, doesn't mean they're all production hives yet. (Meaning not all hives are bringing in excess Honey yet).
Location plays a lot too. I might get 50-60 pounds per hive average on a decent year.
This year was horrible for Honey production and I'm only getting around 400-500 pounds total (still processing the Honey at the moment).
There are other ways to make money in beekeeping as someone below already mentioned.
You can sell Pollen, wax, propolis, royal jelly and even bees. (Queens, package bees and Nucs (nucleus colonies), as well as pollination services.
I sell a few Nucs but I think I might hold off until I scale larger because I'm only selling around $2,000-$4,000 in bees per year when I could be putting those bees to work and grow my apiary. I'm still growing it, but just not as fast because of selling some of the bees off. There is good money in selling bees, but it's a lot easier to do when you've already hit your target number. Because at that point, every new colony made is excess and can be sold off without slowing down the business plan.
The quicker you can get to a larger number of colonies, the quicker you're making better money.
I did decide to stay steady this year though because last year I took a beating just trying to keep up.
I went up to 75 colonies and wasn't ready for it. I didn't have my boxes built so I was constantly playing catch up through out the year.
I also work a full time job (I just can't afford to quit no matter how much better it would help me run my bee business). I need to get to where I want to be first before I can quit.
Trying to work full time and sell Honey any time I wasn't working, as well as building equipment, really took a toll on me. So 2024 was a year to hold steady and catch my balance so to speak.
I'll plan to grow to 100-125 colonies next year.
In my opinion, I won't be looking at decent money until I get to around 200-300 colonies.
@@TexasBeekeeper I think the grants and the line of funding through on the job training adds direct cash back into the business as well.
@@colinaamot Great point!
Start, build, and grow your business with guidance not guesswork: www.upflip.com/academy
Bees don’t make this much, we have 75 hives as a side business. We get around 3k pounds in honey. It’s around $40-50k
He doesn't factor in costs. Only states sales. He probably buys honey from Beeks.
@@Userxyz-z2dexactly. After watching this it looks like he buys barrels and white labels the honey.
Impossible to do this in serbia. I have 134 bee hives and bearly make 10k a year.
It's impossible to do in USA according to BeeFit girl. She has about 50 hives and has to work somewhere else to make a living. The guy maybe gets a lot of grants as a veteran.
Yeah the numbers don't really add up.
Love this episode! Even more, I love to see my fellow Veterans succeeding in the Civ Div. Semper Fi
he says in a "good" year he can make 1000$/hive per year , and he also said this year he already made 250000 dollars which sounds a little sus with only 68 hives
Buys honey from other Beeks? He doesnt say what his expenses are. We think profit, Corps think gross sales.
@@Userxyz-z2dI agree as a commercial beekeeper and he lies about the floral sources he has in the Carolinas and buys a lot of honey and is really only in three grocery stores
After three years ! 😂 Huhuhu ! 😅
I just bought my first hive. No bees yet. Thats next year. Learn first.
Excellent video guys! Thank you both for doing this show. Great advice. Pete.
So wish we looked after our vets in Europe in the same way. I've been beekeeping for 6 years and need to look into this.
I wonder if his calculation is based on high side of 100 pounds per hive on 2 harvests of June and October (5 months?) or 200 pounds per hive per year or 12,800 pounds at $20 per pound or $248,000. Maybe his price per pound is more than $20?... So $41K over 6 months per month possibly makes sense... but not $41K per month over 12 months... UpFlip should give further clarification...
Yah like verification of income & receipts. I think what hes doing is buying honey from other Beeks. So hes spending $248,000 to make $250,000, its the Corp nonsense.
I would say that this was misrepresented on income. 61 hives all 61 productive each super at 35 lbs max weight you would have to get 3 full supers per hive. That is only 6100 lbs of honey this would only be $54,000 gross income. Then stating a hive cost is $50 including frames again is not a realistic price. There is Bottle cost, label cost, labor cost. Honey is only 15% of a bee business. You have to split into Nucs and sell bee nucs and packages to reach these numbers. The income numbers vs cost numbers don't add up to the numbers expressed . They would have to be buying and processing honey from other sources as well , selling bees and again 100 nucs is only an income of 24,000. So to reach the numbers expressed there is much more going on that is not being told
Dude is a bee pimp.
To mitigate winter losses theres a grant you can get for a hoophouse/greenhouse, leave the hoops up all year and throw poly over the hives when temps start to drop.
Interesting idea. Thank you.
Another great video from UpFlip! Thank you!
I got into beekeeping years ago, but got burned out because I was collecting colonies by performing cut-outs. I may revisit this again next Spring. I actually have a colony in our old house - I'll collect swarms from this and nearby hives, then perhaps requeen them.
You're one of those people that starts rambling to a stranger about your life when literally no one cares 🤣
Sharp business owner and he builds quality it would be a good mentor. He reminds me of Paul Akers and his 2 second Lean
Great video.
I’m not understanding how this can be, but very happy you are so successful.
Awesome and thanks for sharing with us ❤I’m new to your channel and I’m excited to be here ❤
don't be, all the information you heard here is absolutely false, at least in terms of profits
IDK I havent watched this yet but I was driving around in the hills near me in SoCal and came across a honey farm on google maps... Did some research and they do $2M a year. Not bad for a small biz honey farm!
How many hives they have To make that much money ?
This episode was so helpful! I have questions specifically about that $20k honey pour set-up. I hand pour fudge and my neck and shoulders are killing me. Can the honey stay in there for a long time? Do you think chocolate sauce could work in that? I have to bring it up to a boil but then maybe pour it into that to keep the right temp. This is the main thing stopping me from scaling my biz. Thank you for sharing so much already!
Thrilled to hear the episode was helpful for you! Have you considered consulting with a equipment specialist or maybe testing it out on a smaller scale first? Keep pushing forward with your biz-you've got this! 💪
Did honey for the purpose of having greet pollinators for all varieties of trees. Found like anything to turn out great it takes work (and lots of money to get started. I give this "story" a C for effort. Eighty pounds per hive. What were they, the size of a hundred gallon barrel!
thank you for the veteran info
🐝I started in 2020 as well but due to where I live selling honey has proven difficult. Thanks for sharing
Maybe consider exploring online platforms, farmers' markets, or local collaborations to get your product out there. Wishing you all the best in your journey! 🍯🐝
everyone's a bee farmer until they get stung 100 times in the nuts lol
That's funny.
😂😂
Oh my goodness 😂…
I’ve tried for 4 years to start a bee hive. Unfortunately I have not had success. It’s sad and each year is a new problem. Hopefully this year my bees will make it. Research research research. In the end though sometime that hasn’t been enough.
i have a story for you, my father is beekeeper. find me on X app (7moodzx899)
Why the bees didn't make?
@@dogblackprincehoneyI don’t know, I went out one day and all of
them were just gone. I’d like to think they are somewhere they think is better and are happy.
@@HLTrizzay They can leave if they have a lot of ticks or frames are to old and dark or something else.
Change the spot of the hive 3 foot away. There are bad energy spots and the bees don't like them and leave.
That man is well equipped for this business and fast at rectifying business mistakes and miscalculations a great business man.
Im currently making myself a bee business ive got 4 hives next year shooting for 15 with the supplies currently for like 10
Love the movie The Beekeeper 🙂
There’s no right time the right time happens when you make a leap of faith
Very inspiring
The Beekeeper!!! Watch it 9/10
Thanks for the awesome reco! 😉
@ 3:22 The person in the black shirt has good taste in music.
Can you please post a link to the Va study on bees and PTSD
I really needed this video now, thank you.
Glad the video came at the right time for you. 🙌
Holy smokes I had no idea about Government Surplus? I am a Veteran looking to start a farm business and just about fell out of my chair! LETS GO USA!
This is INSANE.
share the link fellow vet?
Yeah, that surprised me too! I would love to get my hands on a truck and a trailer for my scuba business...
I would like to get a link as well. Can't find it myself
I’m getting ready to retire from the service /21 years. I’m starting a farm, I seriously want that link too!!!
I’ve bee in my car once hidden in my door panel and the buzzing sound annoys the hell out of me 😂😂😂
The buzz is worse than a sting:)
This is one of the best videos by far love this entrepreneur
He is a liar nothing he says is based on facts wether it be the finances or how his business functions
Great chanel and content 🎉🎉🎉
This guy is amazing Thanks UpFlip!
Happy to bring in more guests like Jim! 🙌
@@UpFlip what is the name of the government program that he bought his equipment through?
I enjoyed watching this wonderful movie and welcome you to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Thank you to the photography team and my beekeeping friends. It is truly worth admiring and sharing
Thank you for your advice
I'm Mahmoud Bilal from Sudan but now I live in Saudi Arabia and I would like to contact with you
More like "Women-unfriendly Tyranny of Saudi Arabia". You guys got stuck in the medieval times.
Sweet video!
Thanks for watching and supporting our channel! ☺️
"Corks from Portugal!!" Yeah!!
Corks from Portugal are top-notch!
thank you for this great video, your guest was great
Thank you so much for the love! Our guest was indeed fantastic-huge shoutout to him for sharing his insights and experiences! 🙌
men this guy knows what he is doing. Thanks Upflip!
Government handouts. Professional bullshitter. Wow he milks his ptds
@@calebdebele1223 he's a welfare queen hiding behind military service
Thank you for your service. We see you and we appreciate you.
Follow your dreams
Y’all don’t listen he said he has contracts with grocery stores for his product. The one store he said he went from 60 to 160 stores, blah blah blah blah blah blah these contracts pay in a lot of cases upfront and you can say he’s making the money if he has a contract You can’t look at how many hives he has and how much he’s making a year right now he may be anticipating having more hives. You know he’s giving you figures right now with the amount of product he’s making right now, but that doesn’t mean he’s not gonna upscale quit bashing people.
A contract means that he had the ability to fill the order,,, if not he won't last longe
So hes got to go spend $150,000 more to make the $250,000. He bot himself a job.
He is buying large quantum’s of honey and selling as his own and is taking advantage of being a veteran
To get into big grocery stores was it your premium product or lower price? When you state 40% margin are you stating net proceeds? Are you surrounded by agricultural land and if so, does their pest control negatively affect your bees? I am surrounded by working land; a big dairy to the west, corn, sugar beets, mint and wheat. Does their programs of agricultural land use make bee keeping harder or easier?
Appreciate the questions! To answer the first one, getting into big grocery stores usually depends on a combination of factors like the quality of your product, pricing strategy, and sometimes relationships with buyers.
@@UpFlip For me I worked for the grocery company so I have business contacts when my production is high enough.
Hes probably buying honey from other beeks. Quality control is hard to monitor & I suspect at some point the Govt will step in bc many Beeks feed their bees sugar so the honey they produce is Franken honey. Oversight is def needed in this industry.
Kudos to you guys, very informative interview
Thanks for watching and supporting our channel! ☺️
i loved this video!!!
Its one of our favorites ;)
Where do you buy the package of bees plus the queen for $150.00?
i enjoyed this episode and watched all of it.
creating merchandise such as t-shirts and candy made from honey. Additionally, offering pre-made iced honey tea could significantly boost profits. Documenting the entire process through a CZcams channel could also help build credibility and attract a following.
When your side business makes what you get paid for the 9 to 5 job that's the time to go full-time self employed.
For sure! But also make sure you have a solid strategy, a financial cushion, and a clear vision for growth to make it work. 💪
@@rw9866 line up for handouts. Pretend you have ptds.
@@UpFlip 100% agree
Beekeeping is a farming and farming depeds on weather.
yo upflip!
just an observation…
when showing us the honey removal equipment, your man was sweating buckets in there!
if you aint showing us it in action, let the bloke show us then let him out in the fresh air 😂
bless his salt content
get that man some electrolytes 😂😂😂
We'll make sure they've got their electrolytes on standby next time! 😅
@@TheRealMcJack photo op. He has employees.
Great therapy idea. 🙂
Working with bees can be surprisingly therapeutic. 🐝
@@UpFlip And a bit painful too:) if somebody doesn't like stings.
Awesome content, very very informative
Very cool!
Freinds bee keeping business failed because of local market saturation and bigger business. My Bro couldn't compete
Saturation and competition from bigger businesses can be tough. Sorry to hear about what happened!
Great video. Great guy and company too.
Thanks for watching and supporting our channel! ☺️
“Italians” “Calm and gentle”
How the hell did that wind up in the same sentence?
Good one 😅
How are ppl spending $20-40 for 1 lb for honey in NC when I can buy local raw honey for $11-17 for 3lbs in GA?
Is it really raw or just corn syrop?
@@dogblackprincehoney it’s raw honey
@@qldavis3005 11 dollars for 3 pounds raw honey?
People are not spending $20-40 per pound, guaranteed. Unless hes selling to the Govt lol
Raw honey is good for health, one can't buy cheap raw honey. If it's cheap it's probably catering honey.
No Honey…No Money….love this!!!!
Definitely catchy! 🙌
Now THAT is what i call bootstrapping. This guy is a real G!
When you start from scratch and build your way up, that's next-level hustling. 🔥
@UpFlip hiding behind your military service. He doesn't have ptds. He's a con man that the tax payers paid for it.
@@zaxlee01 he's a professional bs
did they put a link of how to buy the honey ?
This guy rocks.
HUMBLE BEE
$20 a pound? Ask yourself when you last paid $20 for a pound of honey ..... in a $1 jar!
ALWAYS a leap of faith.
Taking on anything new, whether it's starting a business, pursuing a passion, or even beekeeping, is always a leap of faith. 🔥
Молодець!
It the buzzing sound that smooth your mental mind. Just likr water fall and rain drop smooth you into sleep mode.
Listening to these natural sounds can be a game-changer for relaxation and sleep! 🙏
Bro is the real beekeeper 😂
A legend 🙌
He is a real liar coming from a Florida commercial beekeeper
I am interested in the government surplus equipment, any links?
I'm curious on what's defining a "premium product" in this case. Is it the packaging? Doesn't look like he's transporting the bees to the mountains to get sourwood.
Most honeys are just glucose fructose syrup mixed with some real honey. Real organic honey is 100 percent pure and has all it's micro and phytonutrients in tact.
Unless the beeks he buys from are feeding their bees sugar which is common
there is no such thing as a registered organic honey coming from a Florida commercial beekeeper all imported honey is inspected by border patrol. Though some honey syrup gets through and all is honey is tested for floral sources and must be 100 honey
No, real 'organic honey' is honey that is 'organic'.
That requires certification proving that your bees are bot exposed to specific chemicals.
'Pure honey' is straight honey, nothing else. Usually best to purchase from beekeeper. But, not all beekeepers are honest!
I was interested in this business till he said I get stung daily 😂
If it sounds to good to be true it most likely is.
Great smart hardworking man. Good luck
Absolutely, he's a real inspiration! 🙌
62 Hives x $1000 per year per Hive, where are the other $188.000 come from ?
Perhaps queens/nucs $150 a pop.
He buys the honey he sells.
He buys the honey he sells.
Math isnt mathin
What is the name of the program he get the equipments through as a veteran?
Please research it. Everything is on Google.
All of these grants and such should truly be more clear and presented to the public !
When is the first time he became the bee 🐝 keeper
He started in 2020! ☺️
But yet he says hes been doing it 6 yrs. Math isnt mathin
Nothing can stop a man who's passionate about his craft
That kind of drive and determination is unstoppable. 🔥
I this I find my peace in life
Here's to finding and nurturing that inner peace every day! 🥂
When I return to America I will do this and find my life
America kind of sucks now. Idk where you are but you can beekeep pretty much anywhere.
Why does America suck?@@digiart7732
@@digiart7732 idk, been pretty awesome for me.
Don't come.
Its not good here right now
250k/year with 61 hives? 😂 I own 130 hives (7 years of experience) and barely make 80-90k/year in a good year. So stop lying to others because maybe there are some readers who want to start bussiness like this.
Every video they have looks like they are selling 10x more profits than reality .
So many peoples lives have been destroyed bc of videos like this . May more than benefited anyway . Thanks for your professional perspective. I pray your good intentions help your income and business grow . Thanks for helping all those you help regularly bc of what you do daily my good man.
🙏
How does one find this government surplus system?
It s not that easy. I have 500 hive in Greece and my per income, it is mutch simpler!
Lots of love from India
Thank you so much! Sending lots of love right back to you from here! 🙌
Any work for a freelance graphic designer / Printer?
Have you been searching in any particular niche or industry?
He needs easy honey harvest, flo hive
i always wanted to do that
Go for it! Dreams are worth chasing! ✨
One needs to learn before getting bees. It's a very complicated subject.
Hotel business please love from India and more also trucking business entrepreneur video please love from India sir
Yes guest house or bed n breakfast
Thanks for the suggestion! It's right up our list! 🙌
They make the honey and we make the money
Maybe I’m not understanding correctly.. if harvest is twice a year, how much maintenance/ work is required throughout the year? Sounds like a super busy few weeks out of the year and then chill/ get contracts while bees do their thing? 😅
A lot of work.
Yah he only has to work 3wks out of the year, piece of cake 😂
Worm farming does the same for me, that and finding the Lord
Worm farming and faith-sounds like a powerful combo! 🙏
Do worms have a queen like bees?
It's a pity because it would have been interesting to know what type of marketing they did (and with what budget) to successfully establish contact with supermarket chains.
He was already high up in the Corp world, Im sure he had contacts. He never says 'profit', & he probably buys the honey he resells.