Honey Price Calculator
Find your real cost per pound and per jar of honey from hive count, harvest, bees, feed, treatments, equipment, labor, and packaging, then a price that earns your margin.
Free · no account · works on mobile · embeddable
Best for sideline and hobby beekeepers selling honey at farm stands, markets, and online. Updated .
Your apiary
Annual costs
Packaging and price
Cost and price per jar
Cost per jar = (bees + feed + treatments + equipment + labor + extraction supplies + jars × (jar + label)) ÷ jars, where jars = lb × 16 ÷ jar oz. Target price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). A planning estimate; it does not cover sales tax, cottage food rules, or honey labeling requirements in your state.
About the honey price calculator
Most small beekeepers price honey by looking at the jar next to theirs at the market. That works until the year you replace two colonies, buy an extractor, and count the hours. This calculator builds the full annual cost of producing your honey, bees and replacements, feed, mite treatment, equipment spread over its life, labor, and extraction supplies, adds jars and labels, and divides by the jars you will fill. It returns cost per pound, cost per jar, a target price at the margin you want, and profit at the price you actually plan to charge.
It is for sideline and hobby beekeepers who sell honey and want to know whether the price on the label covers the bees behind it.
How cost per jar is calculated
Total pounds are hives × harvest per hive, and jars are pounds × 16 ÷ jar ounces, because honey is sold by net weight and a 16 oz jar holds one pound. Production costs are annual: colonies and replacement bees, feed, mite treatment and medication, equipment amortized over its useful life (and insurance if you carry it), labor hours at your rate, and extraction supplies. Packaging is jars × (jar + label). Cost per jar is the total divided by jars; cost per pound is the total divided by pounds.
The harvest figure is the number that swings everything. USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service reported a national average of 48 lb per colony in 2025 for operations with five or more colonies. A first-year colony building comb, or any yard in a poor flow, can produce far less, so replace the starting point with your own records as soon as you have them.
From cost to price
The target price divides cost per jar by one minus your target margin, so the margin is a share of the selling price. The calculator also shows the target and planned prices per pound equivalent so you can compare jar sizes and wholesale offers on the same footing.
Oklahoma State Extension's honey breakeven fact sheet works the same problem for a small yard and lands well above commodity prices once equipment and labor are counted, which is why the 2025 national average price of $3.05 per pound reported by NASS, an all-channel average dominated by bulk sales, is not a target for a retail jar. Local raw honey at farm stands and markets sells far above it; your cost-based price is the floor.
Worked example: a five-hive yard
Five hives at 48 lb each produce 240 lb, or 240 jars of 16 oz. Annual costs are $200 for bees and replacements, $60 feed, $75 mite treatment, $300 of amortized equipment, 40 hours of labor at $18 ($720), and $50 of extraction supplies: $1,405 of production cost. Jars at $1.10 plus $0.25 labels add $324, for a total of $1,729. That is $7.20 per pound and $7.20 per jar. A 40% target margin gives a $12.01 target price per jar ($12.01 per lb). At a planned $14.00 per jar ($14.00 per lb), profit is $6.80 per jar, a 48.5% margin, about $1,631 a year if every jar sells.
Sources
- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Honey (March 2026 release). United States yield per colony averaged 48.0 lb in 2025 (down from 51.7 lb in 2024) and the average price was $3.05 per lb. Accessed Sep 4, 2026.
- Oklahoma State University Extension, Beekeeping: honey harvest methods, costs and breakeven calculations. Budgets extractor, uncapping knife, strainer, and bottling equipment with straight-line depreciation, insurance at about $300 a year, and a variable cost of $3.93 per 8 oz bottle in its example. Accessed Sep 4, 2026.
This calculator gives planning estimates from the numbers you enter. It is not accounting, tax, veterinary, or legal advice. Replace the defaults with your own farm records whenever you have them.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for a pound of honey?
At least your full cost per pound divided by one minus the margin you need, then compared with local raw honey prices. Once bees, treatments, equipment, and labor are counted, many small producers report costs between $6 and $10 per pound and price a 16 oz jar at $12 to $18 at farm stands; treat those as starting points and run your own numbers.
How much honey does a hive produce in a year?
USDA NASS reported a national average of 48 lb per colony in 2025 across operations with five or more colonies. Established colonies in a good flow can double that; first-year colonies and drought years can produce nothing to harvest. Use your own average across several seasons.
Should I include my labor in the honey price?
Yes, if you want the yard to be a business rather than a hobby that sells its surplus. Inspections, treatments, harvest, extraction, bottling, and selling are real hours. Leaving them out is the main reason hobby honey is priced below what a sideliner can match.
Why is my cost per jar so high?
Usually a low harvest or high colony losses. Cost per jar falls fast as pounds per hive rise because most costs are per hive, not per pound. Replacing colonies every spring also adds up: an annual replacement allowance belongs in the bees line even in good years.
Does this calculator handle different jar sizes?
Yes. Change the jar size in ounces and the jar count, packaging cost, cost per jar, and target price update, while cost per pound stays the same. Run it once per size to build a price list.
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