diff --git a/graphitesend/graphitesend.py b/graphitesend/graphitesend.py
index e0ea23d..a0ec882 100644
--- a/graphitesend/graphitesend.py
+++ b/graphitesend/graphitesend.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import pickle
 import socket
 import struct
+import sys
 import time
 import random
 
@@ -286,6 +287,9 @@ def _send(self, message):
         """
         Given a message send it to the graphite server.
         """
+        # Python 3 support
+        if sys.version_info >= (3, 0) and type(message) == bytes:
+            message = str(message, 'utf-8')
 
         self.socket.sendall(message.encode("ascii"))