What is the difference between buying a honey packing business and buying an apiary?

Listings often use the word honey for two quite different businesses. One keeps bees and harvests the crop. The other buys honey from several producers, blends or bottles it and sells it on under a brand. Both can describe themselves as a honey business, but you would own different things and carry different risks. Decide which one you want before you start asking questions.

What a packer owns

Check a packer’s supply relationships and its brand. Ask who supplies the honey, whether there are written arrangements or only habit, and how much of the supply comes from a few beekeepers. Ask who owns the brand, the labels and the recipes for any blends. Look at the filling and storage equipment, and at the space where the work is done.

What an apiary owns

An apiary is a farm operation with living colonies. You will want to know how many colonies are included, where the yards are and whether the land is owned or used by agreement with a landowner. Equipment matters too, from boxes and frames to extracting gear. Our guide to buying a honey and apiary operation covers this case in more detail.

Where the two overlap

Some apiaries pack and sell their own honey, and some packers keep a few colonies. If a seller does both, treat it as two businesses and ask for the records of each. Find out which customers buy the seller’s own honey and which buy honey sourced elsewhere, because a buyer who wants only one side may need to leave the other.

• Which parts of the business come with the sale, and which stay with the owner?
• Who holds the customer accounts and the brand?
• Does the seller’s own crop supply the packing line, or does it depend on other producers?
• What would a day without the owner look like?

Questions that apply to both

Whichever you choose, read the financial statements closely and ask the seller to explain each customer relationship. The due diligence guide for honey and apiary operations lists what to request. Food handling rules for a packer, and rules for keeping bees, are matters for your lawyer and the regulators to answer.