In a lot of states, a beekeeper selling raw honey from their own bees needs no food license at all, or only a light registration, because honey is a raw agricultural commodity that doesn't need refrigeration. The rules tighten when the honey stops being plain honey: flavored or infused honey, creamed honey with cinnamon, hot honey, honey bought from other beekeepers and blended, or bottling in volume for stores. Every jar still needs a label: the name, net weight, and your name and place, and the word honey only on pure honey. Then the business layers, a name and sales tax where it applies. Texas, the example's state, changed its law on September 1, 2025: a honey production operation, a beekeeper selling honey or honeycomb from its own bees, raw and not blended, is not a food service establishment, local health departments can't regulate its honey production, and bottling its own honey counts as packaging a raw agricultural commodity. In the example below, a Hill Country beekeeper sorts its jars. Below are the layers, Texas's rules, the example, and a free checklist.
The short version
- Raw honey from your own bees needs little or no food licensing in a lot of states.
- Flavored, infused or blended honey, and bought-in honey, bring more rules.
- Every jar: the name, net weight, your name and place; "honey" only on pure honey.
- Texas since September 1, 2025: a beekeeper's own raw, unblended honey isn't a food service establishment.
- Texas: local health departments can't regulate honey production at a honey production operation.
- Texas: honey mixed with anything lists its ingredients, with honey in the same type size.
- Moving bees or hives across a state line takes a permit.
- TaroStack keeps each bottling's lot and which shops got it. More below.
The layers
| Layer | Who issues it | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | State | An LLC filing, or an assumed name |
| Sales tax | State revenue department | Whether honey sales are taxable |
| Food license | State or local health or agriculture department | Often not needed for your own raw honey; needed for flavored honey in a lot of states |
| Label | State and FDA, 21 CFR part 101 | Name, net weight, name and place; honey claims |
| Apiary registration and bee movement | State apiary inspector | Registration where required; permits to move bees |
How to bottle and label is in how to package honey for sale. Every state differs; this is general information, not legal advice.
Texas's rules
| Rule | Texas law |
|---|---|
| Honey production operation | A beekeeper selling honey or honeycomb it produces, pure, raw and not blended (Health and Safety Code 437.001) |
| Not a food service establishment | So no food permit for that honey (437.0197) |
| No local regulation | A local government or health department may not regulate its honey production (437.0198) |
| Raw agricultural commodity | Extracting and bottling its own honey is harvesting and packaging, not manufacturing (437.01991) |
| "Honey" on the label | Only on a product that is all pure honey; a bee, hive or comb picture likewise (Agriculture Code 131.081, 131.082) |
| Honey mixtures | An ingredient list, with "honey" in the same type size as the rest (131.084) |
| Moving bees | A permit to ship bees or equipment into or out of Texas, expiring August 31 (131.041) |
The honey sections are in chapter 437 of the Health and Safety Code, and the labeling in chapter 131 of the Agriculture Code. Texas's cottage food rules, for the things that aren't plain honey, are in Texas cottage food law.
An example: a Hill Country beekeeper
Pedernales Apiary, a made-up beekeeper near Johnson City, Texas, I use in these examples, keeps 60 hives and sells raw wildflower honey, comb honey and a cinnamon creamed honey at markets and to three shops:
| Product | What it needs | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Raw wildflower honey, 12 oz and 1 lb jars | A honey production operation: no food permit | Labeled: name, net weight, name and address |
| Comb honey | The same: its own honeycomb, raw | Labeled |
| Cinnamon creamed honey | Not pure honey: an ingredient list, "Ingredients: honey, cinnamon", and outside the honey exemption | To check: cottage food or a licensed kitchen |
| A neighbor's honey, bought to fill a shop order | Not its own honey, so not covered as a honey production operation | Dropped: the shop waits for the next harvest |
| Moving hives to a farm in Oklahoma | A permit from the chief apiary inspector | Not needed this year |
The cinnamon honey is the jar that takes it outside the exemption, and its label drops the bee picture the other jars carry, since 131.082 keeps bee pictures to pure honey. How the business adds up is in how to start a honey business.
Get the checklist
Download the license to sell honey checklist. One sheet: each layer, who issues it, what it is, whether you need it, the cost, the date done and the renewal date; the status and the total cost fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Sixty hives, three harvests, and jars going to markets and shops: if a shop calls about a jar, a checklist doesn't say which harvest it came from.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each bottling's lot, and which lot went to which shop.
Each harvest a lot. Each extraction is a lot with its date, and each bottling is a batch that records the honey lots it used and gets its own lot, with lot labels for the jars.
Containers in the recipe. The jar 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 harvest 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.