Are you interested in starting a honey production farm from scratch? If YES, then here is a sample honey production farm business plan template for beginners. Honey production is sweet business; literally and figuratively speaking. This is because honey has social, economic and ecological benefits including but not limited to the following-:
- Honey bees act as pollinators and therefore help to increase the production of plants and trees which are useful in protecting the environment.
- Honey is a balanced food. It contains minerals, enzymes, water and all substances necessary for life sustenance.
- Honey contains an anti-oxidant known as ‘pinocembrin’ which helps to improve brain function.
- Honey is a natural anti-biotic and is useful for treating skin infections and clearing scars from wounds.
- Honey and beeswax is used to create a lot of industrial products and cosmetics.
- Honey is seen as a healthier alternative to sugar.
- Eating honey regularly can help to boost the immune system and prevent cancer.
- It helps to detoxify the blood and improve circulation.
- Honey helps with weight loss. Drinking a mixture of warm water, lemon and honey helps to cleanse the body and flush out toxins and unwanted fat.
- Honey can help to relieve indigestion and neutralize gas.
I could go on and on about many proven benefits of honey and what makes honey such a hot selling item in the market today. Honey production is one of the easiest businesses you can do. The beautiful thing about it is that it doesn’t feel like work. It’s so interesting that it would feel like a hobby that you are making money from.
However, it is important to sound a note of caution at this point. If you suffer from honey allergies, this may not be the best business for you except you are going to engage the services of someone who would run and manage the business for you.
Also, if you are going to start your bee farm from home, maybe in your garden or somewhere close, you should ensure that no member of your family suffers from such allergies and that everyone would be willing to participate in running the bee farm. You should also protect yourself and your family from bee stings because it is often said that bee stings can be fatal. Let’s talk about how bees produce their honey to give you an insight of what the business is about.
How Bees Aid in Honey Production
Bees have different classes within the colony. The ones that are responsible for production of honey are known as the worker bees, they are the sexually immature female bees. They perch on fruit trees, flowers and plants and they suck out nectar from these plants which they carry back to the bee hive. Back at the hive, the nectar is broken down naturally and converted to simple sugars then it is stored in honey combs which are further converted to honey by the bees.
That’s the natural way bees make their honey but if you want to start a honey production business, you might not get much honey this way so you have to create your own bee farm or buy honey from bee farmers for packaging. Both methods are good but producing your own honey is cheaper and would guarantee the source of your honey.
Starting a Honey Production Business – Sample Business Plan Template
To start your own beehive, you would need to purchase bee boxes; hive bodies for breeding and honey supers for storing honey. It would also have a bottom board, a lid and an outer cover as well as frames to serve as honey combs. Then, you should choose a suitable location to set up your bee farm. The best place to use is close to water supply and facing east and make sure that there are trees and flowers surrounding the area.
Next, you should get your bees. You can order bees online; a 3 pound package would contain about 10,000 bees which is sufficient for you to start with. You can also buy from local bee keepers. The three bees you need are:
- Queen Bees
- Worker Bees
- Drone Bees
The queen bee is responsible for laying eggs and producing all the other bees. She can lay up to 1,000 eggs at a time. The worker bees on the other hand do all the production work and live for only six weeks while the drone bees are responsible for getting the queen bee pregnant; interesting right?
How to Harvesting Honey from the Beehive
Harvesting honey should be done with utmost care. As a beginner, it is more advisable to engage the services of experienced people to do it for you so that you can learn and handle it yourself next time. To start with, you have to be clad in a safety armor to protect yourself from bee stings. You can easily find such protective gear online or in stores.
Next, you should use a smoker to puff smoke around the hive entrance, the smoking should be done from behind. This would send the bees lower into the hive then you can now remove the inner cover of the hive. Next, you would have to remove any bees from the frame using a bee brush or bee escapes and then set the frame in an empty super box. To extract the honey, put the honey-laden frame in a honey extractor or which would spin the frames and force the honey down the bottom after straining and removing the wax.
How to Package the Honey for Sale
How you decide to package your honey is totally up to you. However, you should settle for an attractive packaging and ensure that the honey is free from all impurities if you decide to settle for transparent packaging. You should also think of hiring a graphic designer to come up with an attractive labeling to make your product more attractive.
How to Market your Honey
You can use personal selling strategies to market your honey. Of course, the demand for pure, organic honey is very high so you won’t have a hard time selling your honey. You can supply your product to supermarkets and shop keepers. Another way to sell is by engaging the services of marketers to sell it on your behalf.