Trading maple syrup for honey

[red dorakeen]

How much honey would be a fair trade for a quart of maple syrup?

[maple flats]

Whatever makes both parties happy.

[bmbmkr]

We sell our honey and maple for the same price, $17 quart, $9 pints. We had more honey than maple this year 15 gallons of honey, 11 gallons of Syrup. Hopefully next year they both double or triple!

[red dorakeen]

Whatever makes both parties happy.

I just didn't want to make an "insulting offer".

[red dorakeen]

Thanks bmbmkr, I was hoping to make an offer to a honey producer along those lines.

[Wanabe1972]

I've been trading for honey with a guy from work for years. We trade even up honey for syrup and whipped honey for maple cream.

[red dorakeen]

Thanks Wanabe1972, seems fair to me.

[bmbmkr]

We've had bees for 9 years now, this will be our second year Mapling. Maple is a lot more work, and I even make my own hives and this year made 250 frames- I'm selling some of those. The start up costs are more with maple once you get past the hobby stage. My reference for work also has to do with our terrain, we are in southern Appalachian Ohio. Our farm runs from 560' to a little over 900' ASL Last year I ran 1700' of 3/4 Mainline, some of it 30' in the air across the hollers on the lower end of our farm. I only used 1000' of it with 3/16 I got so much sap per tap I was overwhelmed on my little 6'x18" drop flue rig. Yesterday I dropped 800' of the 1000' mainline I put up last year, so I can wind it up and move it down the hill connect it to the 700' I didn't use last year so I can pick up another hundred trees. We had a little over 100 taps on on the mainline last year (mostly sugars, a few reds and freemans), adding another hundred, and adding 75-100 bags this year. We are also adding a Deer Run 125 RO. In a couple years, I plan to expand the evaporator, and RO, and start on the 1200 trees on my Dad's farm right up the road. The neighbors own about a 200 yard stretch of remote timber between Dad's place and ours, (They won't sell it, we've tried) if i can convince them to let me run the mainline across their place and run high vac, I may not have to haul that, but pump it all the way down here- 800 trees (sugars) worth anyway, and maybe lease what's in that patch of their woods! We also have a couple hundred HUGE silver maples, Jury is still out on whether we will tap those in the future.

We have bees, have maple, and next year may venture into sorghum- definitely a market for sweets around here!

[red dorakeen]

You definitely have a much bigger operation going than I'll ever have. I'm retired and syrup is just a hobby, but I can produce more than I use and give away so bartering some seems reasonable.

Best of luck with your continued expansion. It is a lot of work.

Since retiring I do a lot of things that seem like work, but they're just hobbies.