Raw Honey

[Kala]

You chew it like gum! And then you spit off the wax, wash it off and make it into lip balm

Hmmmm...interesting. Never would of thought of that.

 

[MsPony]

I disliked honey for years until I tried the local (within 10 miles!!) honey farm. They have a variety, but my fav is sage. I take that + bee pollen every day for allergies. I buy it by the pound LOL.

 

[so lucky]

One of our local ministers is a beekeeper. He sells his honey from his driveway. Has a little rack of different sized jars, priced, and a box to put the money in. You can go just about anytime to get it. It is sooo good! I used to buy raw milk like that, too. A local dairy had a tank where we could fill our own jug, and put the money in a jar in the window sill. Ah, the good old days!

 

[Ohioann]

Honey from local beekeepers( East central Ohio) is selling for $40.00 a gallon. Honey does not have to be old to crystallize. If you are buying from a local beekeeper ask if/how and for how long they feed their bees. It is common to feed bees a simple sugar syrup when you put new bees in a hive or if building up a hive for the winter. These are not times when the bees are producing the excess honey that beeks harvest. Some beekeepers feed corn syrup all the time to help the bees make honey for harvesting without expending as much flight time and energy. Also bees will fly up to 2 miles from the hive when collecting nectar and pollen so in reality almost all honey is from mixed sources. To get a specific honey (ie; sourwood)you have to locate your hives in the center of a concentration of the target plant, then put the honey supers (the place the bees deposit honey for harvest) on and off the hives at specific times to insure that the majority of the nectar came from the target plant. This is labor intensive so specific flavors of honey will probably be more expensive. Also ask if the 'local' honey is produced in the beeks hives or if they buy honey from other sources to meet demand. If purchased by the 55 gallon barrel from other honey producers it is probably good honey but is probably not local and you or the beek may not know what/if the bees were fed or not. Some people define raw honey as honey straight from the hive with no filtering. Filtering honey will remove bits of wax, bee body parts and other non liquid things that can be found in the hive. Some producers heat honey slightly to make it flow easier while others heat it to higher temps as part of the processing. The best way to buy honey is decide what you want and know the beek and ask questions.

Ok so I found a local source for raw honey. Wild Sage. I plan to get some next week. She is selling in 4gallon buckets 2.10 per pound depending on weight at aprox 96.00 per bucket. Now she emphasized that it was crystallized. I can deal with that but does it mean the honey is old??

What about filtering? Should I ask how many times?

g

 

[rhoda_bruce]

My husband and I keep bees. This is a suggestion.....A few years ago we wanted to get an extractor and we got to thinking how beekeeping is an old man hobby and sadly, old men get sick and die, so what happens to their equipment? Well we decided to advertise in our local want adds paper that we were looking to buy used beekeeping supplies.
The phone started ringing. One old man in particular had an extractor and lots of frames and hive bodies, covers, bottoms and tools. We got all his stuff for 400 bucks. We saved lots of $$$$. He was so nice. He said that if he was healthy and young, he would never dream of stopping and commented that if he had a wife willing to help him, he could get lots of work done better.
Another man thought he would call and interest me in his equipment.....he did. But then he started avoiding me and chickened out. He was too attached to his equipment, I guess.
I am suggesting this because if any of you are really interested in getting started, you will soon find out that the stuff is really expensive.