A quick search suggests that the average American uses about 1.3 pounds of honey per year. If I’m 40 years old, and guess that I might live to be 80, that’s only 52 pounds of honey, which I could easily buy in bulk. Honey doesn’t expire, and even assuming the price doesn’t skyrocket from bee die-offs, inflation alone will make the price go up over time.
Does it make sense to buy all the rest of the honey I’ll ever need for the rest of my life, right now?
Once Honey 2.0 comes out in 20 years, your stock in Honey 1.0 will be worthless :(
Just crush up Viagra in it and sell it as sex honey.
Beekeeper here. I won’t comment on whether or not you should. But since I know a little about storing honey, here are some things to consider:
If you do this, you need to make sure it’s sealed in airtight containers.
Part of what gives honey its antimicrobial properties (and long shelf life) is its low moisture content. But it’s hygroscopic and will pull moisture directly from the air if exposed. After it pulls enough moisture, it can ferment, grow bacteria, or otherwise not be fit for normal consumption.
Also, honey can crystallize over time. This doesn’t mean it’s bad, but in order to re-liquify it, you’ll need to heat it. So consider your storage container size and material carefully.
That said, 52 lbs is less than a 5 gallon bucket full (at roughly 12 lbs / gallon), so it shouldn’t take an incredible amount of space if you choose to do it. Or, in smaller portions, a quart mason jar will hold about 3 lbs. So 2 cases (12 jars each) would exceed your quantity requirements, and be more manageable than a 60lb bucket.
Also if you can buy it in bulk at wholesale prices, it will be cheaper. Retail can be anywhere from $5-$20 per pound (depending on what/where) whereas the last I checked, wholesale prices were more like $1.50 - $3.50 per pound, depending on quantity.
Hope that helps.
Does anyone else REALLY want this crazy honey buyer to get his honey from this knowledgeable beekeeper? It’s a Lemmy matchmaking story!
Unfortunately, I’ve really scaled back my number of hives and now only get enough honey to keep my immediate family supplied.
But I appreciate the sentiment.
But surely you know another beekeeper who is on Lemmy? There must be 1s of you!
i would not consider buying this much honey, personally, but i really appreciate your comment. it is so informative.
thank you! (sincere)
You da MBP
most beeluable player?
Hello! I have considered getting into bee keeping as a retirement thing but I don’t know a good resource to start learning.
Are there any good online communities you can recommend, forums, etc?
When I was first starting out, I spent a lot of time at the BeeSource forums. I haven’t been there in a while, so I don’t know how it currently is, but I found it a good resource initially. FWIW, I always found the beekeeping-related subreddits to be pretty hit and miss.
There are tons of books available, possibly from your local library, but some are better than others. Wicwas press has a lot of good books, but I think they skew more towards advanced beginner and later, rather than the basic beginner.
But most importantly, there’s a saying that “all beekeeping is local”. While the basics are generally the same everywhere, the specifics vary depending on location. Not only things like temperature, humidity, and rainfall, but also what kinds of plants bloom, when and how often.
So regardless of any reading or other research you do, one of the best things you can do to learn is join a local beekeeping club. There will surely be members that have been there for a while, and you can learn from them what really works in your area.
Also, if you’re in the US, check with your local Ag Extension office. They may have resources or info to help you get started. Possibly even classes.
Thank you so much!
I hadn’t really considered how much of the knowledge is local. That makes sense though, in a duh why didn’t I already think of that kind of way.
I’m not ready to get started yet but I like reading about potential future hobbies or things I just find generally interesting, such as bee keeping, so the general knowledge will be fine for now.
Having had a 50lb bucket of honey I can tell you that honey use goes up dramatically because you say to yourself “well I have so much I can just use it for this, and that, and a little more on my toast…” and then friends come around asking for a little here and a little there. Unless you can be super disciplined in a way that I cannot, 50 pounds will not last more that a couple years.
All the honey I’ve ever bought has crystallized before I could get through the small bottle. Yeah, you can heat it, it’s a pain to have to deal with when I just want to use it. I’d rather buy what I need fresh.
Haven’t seen this mentioned yet so:
The honey may not expire, but the container you store it in could. I’d be very concerned about plastic disintegrating and/or leeching into the honey. Glass would be better for that, but it’s also really heavy compared to plastic, so you’d need more, smaller containers instead of one giant tub.
The bee die-offs, that one typically hears about, has nothing to do with honey bees. Honey bees don’t show any signs of going extinct. Its may of the other bee species, which are dying off. And that is bad because of the species liking different specific plants, which often rely on this bee species to be pollinated.
As a kid we had a neighbor that ran a bee-brothel and had hives all over the region. Since his hives would just sit on un-used corners of farmland, he would offer some honey annually as ‘rent’. (He was also generous with his boat so a couple waterskiing trips were also on the table).
We (2 parents, 4 kids) would get a 5 gallon can of honey every other year or so.
That has been over 45 years now and my father is still working through that supply. We put it in sealed mason jars and it has remained good all this time.
Honey can expire if not stored right.
I clearly use more than the average amount of honey then. Most of it to make mead.
You’re likely better off investing the same amount of money.
Buying it all now is betting that inflation will be higher than your investment return over the next 40 years. That’s not a good bet unless the world literally collapses.
So it’s a good bet, got it.
What do you think investing less than $200 is going to earn you?
What do you think buying $200 worth of honey will save you?
It’ll get me at least a few years of happiness, and perhaps make my ensuing case of diabetes mellitus more appropriately named than that of most peoples’.
I think a collapse is quite likely
Do you actually eat 1.3 pounds a year tho? If so, then it does.
Do you really want to carry your lifetime supply of honey around with you every time you move apartment?
What other foodstuffs are you going to buy your lifetime supply of? Dried goods? Tins? You could get yourself a winnebago and fill it with all your lifetime’s worth of food or something, which would make lugging it all around with you forever easier. Just hope nobody nicks it.
Sure, buy the 50 lbs of honey now. Convert it to mead. Profit.
Honey can technically expire. If it crystalizes, some portions of it can become more diluted, leading to a low enough osmotic pressure for bacteria and fungi to exist. If you do buy in bulk, check your local universities. One in my area does honeybee research and sells bulk honey from their bee lab at cheaper prices than any of the private beekeepers. I use it to make mead.
Yeah, then turn it into mead
Then you’d be a lot warmer and a lot happier!
