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Honey yield and price calculator

How many jars will you fill, and what is left once jars, labels and sugar are paid for? A simple estimate in pounds and dollars, with surveyed US figures as defaults: replace them with your own.

Harvest
hives
lb
US average 2025: 48.0 lb per colony (USDA NASS, operations with 5 or more colonies). Highest state: Mississippi, 89 lb; lowest: Oregon, 27 lb. A first-year colony often makes none.
Jar size
$/jar
Filled in with the national average retail price for the jar size (Bee Culture, June and July 2025). Change it to yours.
Costs
$/jar
Mississippi State University Extension budget: $1.25 per 1 lb bottle and label. Enter your own.
lb/hive
About 4 gal of 2:1 syrup in fall (Honey Bee Health Coalition).
$/lb
US city average, September 2026: $1.02 (BLS).
$
Mite treatments, foundation, fuel, market fees.

Estimate

  • 480lbof honey (218 kg)
  • 4801 lb queenline jars
  • $5,664in sales
  • $906.00in costs
  • $4,758left over, or $475.80 per hive

That is $11.80 per lb. Sold in bulk at the 2025 USDA average of $3.05 per lb, the same crop would bring $1,464.

How it is calculated

The formulas

harvest (lb) = colonies × lb per colony
jars = round down (harvest ÷ net weight of the jar)
sales = jars × price per jar
costs = jars × (jar + lid + label) + colonies × lb of sugar × sugar price + other costs
left over = sales − costs

What is left is not a profit: it leaves out your time, the wear on hives and extractor, replacement bees and club dues. It is what the season's honey pays once its consumables are covered. Net weights: a 12 oz bear holds 0.75 lb (340 g), a queenline jar 1 lb (454 g), a quart about 3 lb (1.36 kg), since honey weighs about 12 lb per US gallon.

Where the defaults come from

  • 48 lb per colony: USDA NASS average yield for 2025 (operations with five or more colonies). The national average price that year was $3.05 per lb for all honey, $7.15 per lb in the retail channel.
  • Jar prices: national averages from Bee Culture's regional honey price report (June and July 2025): $9.16 for a 12 oz plastic bear, $11.80 for 1 lb, $20.39 for 2 lb, $26.45 for a quart and $34.94 for 5 lb. Regional averages for 1 lb ran from $10.00 to $19.00. These are what jars sold for, not a recommendation.
  • $1.25 per jar and label: Mississippi State University Extension's honey production budget (Publication 4214), for 1 lb bottles. Bigger jars cost more: enter your supplier's price.
  • 30 lb of sugar per hive: about 4 gallons of 2:1 syrup, the Honey Bee Health Coalition's figure for a colony that needs fall feeding, at the BLS average of $1.02 per lb (September 2026). Colonies left with enough honey need none.

Before selling, check your state's rules on cottage food, honey house registration and labeling, covered in our guide to harvesting honey. Our guide to choosing honey explains how buyers read prices and labels.

Frequently asked questions

How much honey does one hive produce?

USDA NASS reported an average of 48.0 lb (21.8 kg) per colony in 2025 for operations with five or more colonies, down 7% on 2024. State averages ranged from 89 lb in Mississippi to 27 lb in Oregon. A first-year colony drawing comb from foundation often makes little or no surplus.

How much should I charge for a pound of honey?

Bee Culture's June and July 2025 survey of reporters across the country put the average retail price of a 1 lb jar at $11.80, with regional averages from $10.00 to $19.00. A 12 oz bear averaged $9.16 and a 2 lb jar $20.39. Price for your market, your floral source and your costs.

What is the wholesale price of honey?

USDA NASS gives an average of $3.05 per lb for the 2025 crop across all sales by producers with five or more colonies, $2.45 through co-ops and private buyers and $7.15 per lb at retail. Bee Culture reported bulk light honey in drums at about $3.08 per lb in mid 2025.

How many 1 lb jars from a 5-gallon bucket?

About 60. Honey weighs about 12 lb per US gallon, so a 5-gallon bucket holds roughly 60 lb (27 kg). That fills about 60 one-pound jars, 80 twelve-ounce bears, 30 two-pound jars or 20 quarts, minus what stays on the walls of the bucket.

How much does a quart of honey weigh?

About 3 lb (1.36 kg). A quart is a quarter of a US gallon, and a gallon of honey weighs about 12 lb. Labels state net weight, not volume, so weigh a filled quart and label the actual weight in both units, for example "Net Wt 48 oz (3 lb) 1.36 kg".

Is selling honey profitable for a small beekeeper?

It can cover costs, but margins are thin once you count jars, sugar, mite treatments and replacement bees. Mississippi State University's budget assumes 85 lb per hive and replaces 40% of colonies a year. This calculator shows what is left after consumables; it does not count your time or equipment.

Sources

  1. Honey: released March 13, 2026 (2025 production), USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
  2. Average price: sugar, white, all sizes, US city average (APU0000715211), US Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED
  3. Economic Considerations of Honey Production (Publication 4214), Mississippi State University Extension
  4. Beekeeping: honey harvest methods, costs and breakeven calculations (AGEC-272), Oklahoma State University Extension
  5. Honey Bee Nutrition and Supplemental Feeding Guide (2024), Honey Bee Health Coalition
  6. September 2025 Regional Honey Price Report, Bee Culture

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