# State laws, honey sales?



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Here in Michigan you must has a state inspected honey house to sell your honey except to people who come knock at your door (more on that latter.).

The honey house must have yearly tested water, hot and cold running, a three bowl stainless steel sink, covered lights, washable walls and ceiling, a sealed floor, only food grade approved plumbing for the transfer of honey and a approved septi system to name the bigger requirements.

Most family kitchens will not ever pass the inspection because of the range and fridge allow gaps where germs and bugs can hide.

So if your a small beekeeper with ten or less colonies of bees it is a great expence to be able to go to the local farm market to sell a few jars of honey each year. That is why I am now working on getting this law removed or changed. Ya I even caught flack at Thursdays nights club meeting over this from the bigger operators like us. They spent the money to get in compliance, They pay the $70.00 for the inspection each year.

I keep getting told by my elected officals the reason behind the law is due to the federal goverments mandate after 9-11 all food has to be processed in a licence fucility. Shoot the feds can't even keep the food they are supposed to inspect safe. 

The stupid part of the law and the reason I am trying to wake the idots in Lansing up is.

*(1. My honey is safe to sell at my door but isn't safe to sell at a farmers market or places like that. DUMB*.

(2. Some one in a neighbouring state can cross the border into Michigan and sell honey and not have a Michigan licenced fucility. It is interstate commerence and can not be interfeared with by a state goverment.

(3. Honey comes to Michigan from China, is bottled and sold in not just farmers markets but food stores and it doesn't even have to pass a state food inspection.

So if it is a federal mandate why have I only seen such a law in Michigan?

Does any other state in the USA have such a law?

 Al


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## Michael Bush (Oct 26, 2008)

As I understand the law in Nebraska (and I'm not a lawyer) you can sell from your door, or at a farmer's market but not at a craft show (how is that different?) or have someone resell it if you don't have a licensed facility.

With all the food recalls, I feel much safer buying something from somone I know down the street and can find, because I know where their house is, than buying something from a multinational corporation that is UDSA inspected and has multimillion dollar recalls now and then...


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

I think Michigan's problem is in the word "processing". In N.C., your honey isn't processed until you add heat, it is a raw, natural farm product. It is no more processed than corn that has been shucked and put in plastic bags. You can sell all you want to the consumer "as is". You must label it with weight, the words "pure honey", and your contact info, if you sell it to be resold.

Al, I would try fighting the "processed" designation and see how that goes.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

Al 

they think they are helping the people in the state when they do these asinine things .. but they only prove how much of a idiot they can be ..
and they think that when they run again ,, they can tell people ""I fought to pass this bill ,, so you will be protected from the big bad beekeepers ""

tom


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Well the way I look at it and how I think I am going to go about it is what they are doing to the industry and econmey of Michigan the worst in the nation as of Fridays report.

With the state that honey bees are in, declineing. The cost of replaceing any colonies that die, why should any one in the state keep honey bees at all except a colony or two for their own use.

For example we have ten out yards. We provide to the area where those colonies are 12.66 sq. miles of free pollination to the people who grow their own fruits and veggies, thats a total of 120.66 sq. miles.
If we are required to spend (which we have) money to have a special honey house licenced fucility and we have another loss like last year why spend to replace the losses. Just reduce our yards to a couple, only providing pollination for 25 sq. miles. Make everyone at some point in time have to pay pollination fees just so they can grow their own fruits and veggies.

With their being less and less feral bees around where is the pollination going to come from if small time beekeepers can not easily rid them selves of extra honey?

What is the state doing to encourage people to keep bees? Where is the incentive?

I could grow berries and make jellys and jams and not have to spend the money to build a special fucility. Just keep a few bees in my back yard to pollinate my berries.

Michigan consideres processing to start with removing the frames with comb from the hive. Much like taking the milk from a cow. 
Other wise we would have just did cut comb honey and laughed at the idiots in Lansing.

Keep in mind we have our honey house. but there are thousands of small time bee keepers with ten or less colonies who are at a disadvantage here.
It is going to take the joint effort of all the clubs to get the rule changed.

I was told Friday that a bill had passed the lower house on the last session that would place a limit of 2500 pounds and not require a licenceed honey house. That at least is a small step in the right direction. We have to get it reinterduced and push it thru both houses.

 Al


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## Durandal (Aug 19, 2007)

Man, what a mess.

More laws and more laws. To the point of suffocation.

Here in Ohio its a bit easier, though I am happy that we are not required to have inspected apiaries since the county cut the inspectors job. We are meeting with the county commissioners later this month to see if we can agree to something. The one commissioner sees the need and thinks the county should pay for the position since it supports more than just beekeepers. The other two thinks the beekeepers should pay for the whole thing.

When I send in my State Registry Form, it'll be sans payment with a letter explaining why. If neither the County or State can ensure that the beekeeper next to me is disease free then I need to spend more time and money myself making sure my bees are healthy. Someone needs to get cut out of the loop. 

That said, I bottle my honey and have a tag on it stating where it was bottled. That is all that is needed for honey. Because I do not heat or process the honey, it is in a natural state so I can do the bottling pretty much anywhere. I do not need a separate FDA approved kitchen or facility that I would need if I were doing canning, baking, drying herbs, or anything related to the cottage food industry here in Ohio.

In the end the County doesn't really care or have the time or money to monitor. The City of Cincinnati does and cracks down if you do not have a bottling label of some sort or another.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Michigan has been doing very well with out hive inspections and those inspectors coming around with spores on their tools and infecting every one in the county. Seems that beekeepers in this state have/are doing a good job at self policeing the hives.

The honey house bill how ever has hit the small bee keeper hard. It leaves them little room to dispose of surplus honey with out spending thousands of dollars. Thousands of dollars hard to recover when you only have a small amount of hives.

Just price a 3 bowl stainless steel sink. Then where could you place it with out doing a new addition to the house or a seprate building that meets the standards.

Processing honey here in Michigan includes extraction honey from the comb in any way shape or form. It also includes cuting cakes of cut comb from a frame. Appears one could sell a frame of honey with out worry. But just who would buy something like that.

If you were to buy honey from me in a 60 pound pail and bottled it for sale at a farmers market you are breaking the law. You processed it by putting it in jars.

 Al


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## Durandal (Aug 19, 2007)

That's simply insane. 

Right now we are trying to get the ball rolling on State HB 052 to designate an Emergency Honey Bee Task Force.

We have had an explosion of new beekeepers and I am all for more support in the portion of agriculture. Up to this point honey bees have been monitored by the Pest Control division of the Ohio Department of Ag.

Craziness...

I wish you luck.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Here in Oregon we have to have a State Inspected/Registered Honey house/Kitchen in order to sell at Fairs, Farmers Markets and Craft shows...we CAN sell from our homes and places of employment.
A couple of our Assoc. members extract their honey in their Church kitchens (since the church kitchens are licensed)


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