Honey keeps almost forever if it's sealed, so packaging is about how people use it and how it looks on a shelf. A glass jar shows the color, feels like a gift, and can be warmed gently when raw honey crystallizes. A plastic bear is light, unbreakable and cheaper to ship, the everyday kitchen honey. An upside-down squeeze bottle with a valve cap pours without drips. Bakeries and cafés buy by weight, in 5 gallon pails. Whatever the container, honey is bottled at the moisture it came out of the hive with, sealed tight because it pulls water from the air, and labeled with its name, net weight and your name and place. In the example below, an Oʻahu beekeeper prices four options: 11 to 71 cents per 12 ounces. Below are the options, the label, the example, and a free cost calculator.
The short version
- Seal honey tight: it absorbs moisture from the air.
- Markets and gift shops: a glass jar, which can be warmed if the honey crystallizes.
- Everyday and shipping: a plastic bear.
- No drips: an upside-down squeeze bottle with a valve cap.
- Bakeries and cafés: 5 gallon pails, about 60 pounds, sold by weight.
- Label the name, net weight, and your name and place; a lot code traces each bottling.
- Count the container in the cost; a glass jar costs more than the bottling labor.
- TaroStack keeps each bottling's lot, and which lot went to which shop. More below.
The options
| Option | Can be warmed | Breaks | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glass hex jar with lid | Yes, gently | Yes | Markets, gift shops |
| Plastic honey bear | Not with heat | No | Kitchens, shipping |
| Upside-down squeeze bottle | Not with heat | No | Table use, no drips |
| 5 gallon pail | In a warming cabinet | No | Bakeries, cafés |
The label and the lot
A jar of honey carries the name, honey, or a more specific one like wildflower honey, the net weight in ounces and grams, and the name and place of the business; honey is a single ingredient, so it needs no ingredient list, and your state may exempt small beekeepers from licensing. A lot code on each jar traces it to the bottling and the hives it came from. How the label works is in food labeling requirements for small business, and starting out in how to start a honey business.
An example: four options for a beekeeper
Mauka Hives, the made-up beekeeper on Oʻahu I use in these examples, bottles raw wildflower honey, about 460 12 oz jars a week, for its market and island shops, with pails for two bakeries:
| Option | Parts | Per 12 oz | 460 a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glass hex jar with lid | Jar 65¢, label | $0.71 | $328.44 |
| Plastic honey bear | Bear 38¢, label | $0.43 | $200.01 |
| Upside-down squeeze bottle | Bottle 52¢, label | $0.58 | $265.05 |
| 5 gallon pail, per 12 oz | Pail $9, label, per 12 oz | $0.11 | $52.56 |
Market and gift shop honey goes in glass, which sells at $14; shops that sell to locals get bears at their price; the bakeries buy pails at $5.50 a pound. The glass jar is 71 cents of a $9 shop jar, so it's priced in, not absorbed. What each bottling costs is in honey business profit margin, and bottling through a packer in honey co-packers.
Get the calculator
Download the honey packaging calculator. Two sheets: components, each part of each option with its pack price, units, how many a jar uses and waste; and compare, each option's cost per 12 ounces and per week at your volume, with notes. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Each harvest is bottled into jars, bears and pails for different customers, and honey bought from neighbors gets mixed in. A cost sheet doesn't say which hives' honey is in which shop's jars.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each bottling's lot, and which lot went to which shop.
Each bottling a batch. Bottling is a batch that records the honey lots it used, including honey bought from neighboring beekeepers, gets its own lot, and lot labels print for the jars.
Containers in the recipe. The jar, bear or pail and its label are items in each product's recipe, so every bottling uses them up at the price you paid.
Where it went. Each shop's order records the lots it got, so one recall report shows every customer a bottling reached.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which honey is in a jar | Written on the bucket | Lots recorded on the bottling |
| Jars left | Counted when you run out | Used by every bottling |
| Which shops got a bottling | Invoices | One recall report |
Lots, batches, recipes and true cost are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.