Pricing 5gallon pails of honey

[MarsColonist]

Ive looked through the Honey Locator in regards to varietal honeys, and Im looking for the best prices on 5 gallons of any particular honey from places that will ship.

Outside of Miller's (CA) and Dutch Gold (PA), are there any others that have exceptionally good prices when buying bulk?

 

[Fletch78]

Where are you located?

 

[MarsColonist]

Live Music Capital of the World (Austin, TX)

 

[MeadWitch]

Keeping Austin Weird for many years?

 

[Centexbear]

wonder if AHS would order that for ya? You should ask em.

 

[MarsColonist]

no disrespect, but honey is pricey there

 

[MarsColonist]

Keeping Austin Weird for many years?

Ive been here about 15 yrs

 

[Grancru]

$109.20 for 5 gals (60 lbs) of wildflower honey here in Michigan.

 

[MarsColonist]

$109.20 for 5 gals (60 lbs) of wildflower honey here in Michigan.

I assume that is local pickup.... local wildflower honey for me is ~$40/gal (no shipping costs, but I have to pay sales tax)

I can get 5gal OB honey from Miller for $162 delivered, and from Dutch Gold $154 delivered. I just picked up a gal of Tupelo for $67 delivered. Im just looking to pick up a few different varietal types, in at least a gallon size, so I can do some 3gal batches; budget only goes so far....

Ive been doing some more reading, and I dont know if I need to do initial fermentation with the varietal type.... I read someones idea that I just need to backsweeten with the more expensive honey. I havent found any anecdotal evidence that fermenting wildflower and them backsweeten with the more expensive honey produces similar results to fermenting varietal honey, so, more research is necessary.

 

[GTG]

My local guy in Phoenix has alfalfa at $140.00 for 5 gallons. I

'm visiting the KC, MO area right now and one guy on CL has (wildflower I suppose) honey at $200.00 per 5 gal. Not such a good deal.

 

[MarsColonist]

one guy on CL has (wildflower I suppose) honey at $200.00 per 5 gal. Not such a good deal.

I would suspect that raw honey might be worth a premium? Look at Bee Folks.. their stuff is quite pricey ($240 / 5 gal + $50 shipping; $58/gal = $4.83/lb), but it is raw and has no High Fructose Corn. They also have a very large variety.

You get what you pay for, I suppose.

 

[JVD_X]

If you go to a farmers market - roadside stands and such - you will find farms that sell their honey direct. I would look there... the best part is the freshness.

 

[GTG]

Honey should be raw, unheated and should never have any high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in it ever. If it does have HFCS, then it's not honey in my opinion. Freshness play a key role too. A friend of mine has 5 gallons of wildflower honey in his garage that's been there for about 3 years. It may reach 130 in some garages here in Phoenix. I always try to steer him away from wanting to use it.

 

[GTG]

I find it interesting that Bee Folks charges the same for wildflower as they do tupelo honey. Interesting.

GTG

 

[MarsColonist]

So it turns out that Miller's and Dutch Gold heat their honey (at least they did 3 yrs ago) Miller's heats to 120-130°F and Dutch Gold to 160°F for DE filtration, so neither have raw honey. From this link, looks like honey prices in 2007 were half of what they are now (Bee Folks was $120/5gal.. now twice that). Colony Collapse trashed the prices...

 

[KenSchramm]

Find your local beekeeping club, and head for a meeting with 2 or 3 x 750ml of mead and a sheath of plastic cocktail glasses.

Good things will happen.