FLORIDA: Honey production in 1998 was 22,540,000 pounds, up 40 percent from 1997. Florida ranked third in production behind California and North Dakota. There were 230,000 colonies in Florida in 1998. The average yield for the State was 98 pounds per colony.
    Producers received an average of 64 cents per pound for the honey, down from 73 cents per pound received the previous year. The value of the State production was $14.4 million, up from the 1997 crop value of $11.7 million.

FLORIDA: Number of Colonies, Honey Production, Value, and Stocks, 1990-98
Year	Colonies of bees 1/	Honey
		Yield per colony	Produc- tion	Price per pound	Value	Stocks Dec 152/
	1,000 colonies	Pounds	1,000 pounds	Cents	1,000 dollars	1,000 pounds
1990	220	95	20,900	48	10,032	1,881
1991	225	83	18,675	53	9,898	1,307
1992	220	104	22,880	53	12,126	2,517
1993	200	113	22,600	50	11,300	2,712
1994	230	84	19,320	47	9,080	2,898
1995	230	86	19,780	64	12,659	1,780
1996	240	105	25,200	86	21,672	2,268
1997	240	67	16,080	73	11,738	2,734
1998	230	98	22,540	64	14,426	4,508
1/ Operations with 5 or more colonies. 2/ Stocks in producers' hands.

UNITED STATES: Honey production in 1998 from producers with five or more colonies totaled 220 million pounds, up 12 percent from 1997. There were 2.63 million colonies producing honey in 1998, up slightly from 1997. Yield per colony averaged 83.7 pounds, up 9.0 pounds from the 74.7 pounds in 1997. Colonies which produced in more than one State were counted in each State and yields per colony may be understated. Colonies were not counted if honey was not
harvested. Producer honey stocks were 80.8 million pounds on December 15, 1998, up 14 percent from a year earlier.
    Prices for the 1998 crop averaged a 65.5 cents per pound, down 13 percent from 75.2 cents in 1997. Prices are based on retail sales by producers and sales to private processors and co-ops. At the U.S. level, prices for each color are derived by weighting quantities sold for each marketing channel. Co-op and private prices were lower for all color classes in 1998.

UNITED STATES: Number of Colonies, Honey Production, Value and Stocks, 1990-98
Year	Colonies of bees1/	Honey
		Yield per colony	Produc- tion	Price per pound2/	Value	Stocks Dec 153/
	1,000 colonies	Pounds	1,000 pounds	Cents	1,000 dollars	1,000 pounds
1990	3,210	61.6	197,791	53.7	107,747	31,060
1991	3,181	68.9	219,171	55.6	121,859	36,231
1992	3,030	72.8	220,584	55.0	121,321	38,933
19934/	2,875	80.2	230,575	53.9	124,280	49,046
19944/	2,783	78.4	218,187	52.8	115,203	59,877
19954/	2,655	79.5	211,073	68.5	144,585	42,313
19964/	2,581	77.3	199,511	88.8	177,166	47,206
1997 4/	2,631	74.7	196,536	75.2	147,795	70,696
1998 5/	2,633	83.7	220,311	65.5	144,304	80,808
1/ Operations with 5 or more colonies. 2/ Weighted by reported sales. 3/ Stocks in producers' hands. 4/ Revised. 5/ Preliminary.

UNITED STATES: Honey Prices by Color Class and Buyer, 1997 and 1998
Color class	Co-op and Private		Retail		All
	19971/	1998	19971/	1998	19971/	1998
	Cents per pound
Water white, extra white, and white	74 .3	64 .7	117 .9	113 .4	75 .7	65 .7
Extra light amber	72 .7	61 .2	123 .8	104 .8	76 .4	64 .2
Light amber, amber, and dark amber	68 .1	60 .2	127 .1	119 .9	72 .8	66 .0
All other honey, area specialties	66 .0	64 .5	201 .0	168 .4	79 .8	83 .2
All honey	72 .2	62 .9	125 .7	114 .7	75 .2	65 .5
1/ Includes honey produced in 1997 that was sold in 1998.

HONEY: Number of Colonies, Production, Stocks, and Value, 1997-981/
	State	Number of colonies		Yield per colony		Production		Stocks Dec 152/		Average price per pound		Value of production
1997		1998	1997	1998	1997	1998	1997	1998	1997	1998	1997	1998
	1,000 colonies		Pounds		1,000 pounds				Cents		1,000 dollars
Alabama	14	16	66	71	924	1,136	92	159	81	72	748	818
Arizona	42	55	80	60	3,360	3,300	1,344	1,485	72	64	2,419	2,112
Arkansas	50	53	95	65	4,750	3,445	3,468	1,688	70	59	3,325	2,033
California	420	450	75	83	31,500	37,350	9,450	12,326	70	62	22,050	23,157
Colorado	35	27	55	72	1,925	1,944	982	1,594	82	70	1,579	1,361
Florida	240	230	67	98	16,080	22,540	2,734	4,508	73	64	11,738	14,426
Georgia	75	75	46	56	3,450	4,200	587	307	79	69	2,726	2,898
Hawaii	9	8	146	118	1,314	944	158	66	86	75	1,130	708
Idaho	120	120	64	50	7,680	6,000	2,304	2,220	72	65	5,530	3,900
Illinois	7	9	69	71	483	639	222	204	127	119	613	760
Indiana	8	9	71	92	568	828	352	489	113	85	642	704
Iowa	45	50	74	78	3,330	3,900	1,765	2,301	86	70	2,864	2,730
Kansas	17	16	71	46	1,207	736	688	390	81	87	978	640
Kentucky	3	3	60	50	180	150	54	51	148	140	266	210
Louisiana	44	41	115	111	5,060	4,551	759	865	70	59	3,542	2,685
Maine	8	10	19	26	152	260	9	117	70	69	106	179
Maryland	6	7	40	44	240	308	65	92	159	110	382	339
Michigan	85	80	70	85	5,950	6,800	3,273	3,672	77	66	4,582	4,488
Minnesota	145	140	73	79	10,585	11,060	2,011	2,765	74	65	7,833	7,189
Mississippi	19	18	73	86	1,387	1,548	777	898	73	58	1,013	898
Missouri	24	23	77	66	1,848	1,518	517	455	78	76	1,441	1,154
Montana	107	115	120	122	12,840	14,030	4,237	5,472	74	64	9,502	8,979
Nebraska	61	64	67	70	4,087	4,480	2,738	2,240	77	86	3,147	3,853
Nevada	14	10	61	46	854	460	171	175	114	165	974	759
New Jersey	10	11	49	49	490	539	201	167	104	76	510	410
New Mexico	15	14	60	55	900	770	396	470	87	76	783	585
New York	72	65	60	80	4,320	5,200	2,246	2,444	85	70	3,672	3,640
North Carolina	8	8	58	59	464	472	139	151	119	138	552	651
North Dakota	245	230	100	128	24,500	29,440	7,350	8,832	74	63	18,130	18,547
Ohio	22	18	80	78	1,760	1,404	827	702	85	83	1,496	1,165
Oklahoma	4	4	58	51	232	204	97	63	137	124	318	253
Oregon	50	50	53	45	2,650	2,250	1,537	1,620	79	90	2,094	2,025
Pennsylvania	22	23	48	66	1,056	1,518	528	698	100	80	1,056	1,214
South Dakota	240	225	65	95	15,600	21,375	8,736	10,901	74	64	11,544	13,680
Tennessee	7	7	62	64	434	448	148	121	147	132	638	591
Texas	94	91	106	77	9,964	7,007	3,188	1,612	75	62	7,473	4,344
Utah	32	30	52	58	1,664	1,740	699	557	75	65	1,248	1,131
Vermont	5	6	63	64	315	384	249	207	83	107	261	411
Virginia	8	8	53	37	424	296	157	86	145	133	615	394
Washington	60	58	52	51	3,120	2,958	1,498	1,361	76	64	2,371	1,893
West Virginia	8	6	70	55	560	330	280	155	111	114	622	376
Wisconsin	79	89	60	91	4,740	8,099	2,797	5,264	90	72	4,266	5,831
Wyoming	38	46	62	60	2,356	2,760	660	524	75	68	1,767	1,877
Other States3/	14	15	81	66	1,134	990	206	334	145	121	1,644	1,198
United States4/	2,631	2,633	74.7	83.7	196,536	220,311	70,696	80,808	75.21	65.5	147,795	144,304
1/ 1997 data revised. 2/ Does not include stocks under loan. 3/ CT, DE, MA, NH, RI , and SC not published separately to avoid disclosing data for individual operations. 4/ U.S. price weighted by survey expanded sales.