Pinchecharlie
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2015
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 6
Since Iam new (first JAOM yesterday) but have been beekeeping a few years I've noticed that the brew stores honey prices are really high. The store prices are ok but if you do a little investigation on imported honey you will likely never buy it again. I sell my honey (because Iam small) mostly in decorative bottles and in gift sets. Anyway just because I can get upwards of 15 a lb I was thinking that mead was a bit expensive compared to selling quality honey and I thought the brew store here's prices where a rip off. So I called several large apiaries and asked about bulk prices and wanted to pass that info on here as many of you make a lot of mead and may be able to save money. The apiakry I buy my bees from sells honey in a five gallon food grade bucket for 2.25 lb. a five gallon jug is 60 lbs. they will sell a 50gl drum for 2.00lb . I know some of you must keep bees but when you see a giant apiary for the first time it's a whole other game and the honey is far better than wall mart or cost co honey some of which is a "honey product" from China. Not as good as a guy with a couple hundred hives but way better than most chain stores import honey. In Montana you need to register with the department of agriculture to have more than five hives so Iam sure you could call or e mail them for a list of large apiaries in your area or a nearby state if your close. I thought this might help if the cost or quality of honey sometimes discouraged you from making more mead. Another tip, many large apiaries are located on leased land. The land owner traditionally receives payment in honey. Anyway after years of recieving honey they often have so much they can't use it. Just yesterday I scored 120lbs of honey for free. The landowner said they just had so much they couldn't give it away . So it might be worth making some relationships in the beekeeping community if you haven't allready. Massive mead making experiment coming up for me as soon as my epuipment arrives! Hope this helps. Regards charlie
