This is probably a VERY crazy question - but here goes...

[Mari-in-IN]

I've been incorporating a dollop of "raw" honey in my morning "drink" which our farmer friend Daniel gave us.  There is a family owned business that has hives on his land and they give him 5-10lbs of honey every year - which he has shared with us.

I want to continue to use "raw" honey but do I need to be concerned in regards to where I purchase it?  There are a lot of signs out at the road of various people that sell honey...  I guess the reason I am asking this question is due to the fact I raise chickens and sell eggs...  Before I had my own I went to various farms to purchase eggs and there were certain ones I would NEVER go back to again!  I won't go into the lovely details...

I anxiously await any replies...
TIA,
~Mari

[feather]

Honey is pretty safe.
If you add one tablespoon to your diet each day for one year, without changing your diet, or exercise, you'll gain 6.6 lbs. Other than that, honey is safe. That's how I look at it.

[here to stay]

The only honey issues I have ever heard about is when bees forage largely on toxic flowers like rhododendrons and azaleas. But reading about that, I live in an area of bountiful wild rhodi and azaleas and have never seen a local report of a problem.

[Deleted]

Mari-in-IN, if you ever have an opportunity and I hope you do, be sure to try some Tupelo honey.

[indypartridge]

On the page for the Indiana Beekeepers
www.indianabeekeeper.com/

there are two sublinks which may be useful:
1) Under the 'Services' pull-down, there's a link for local honey.
2) Under the 'Local Clubs', there's a list of nearly 30 local beekeeping clubs. You can contact one near you and they would be happy to connect you with a nearby beekeeper who would gladly sell you honey. (Let me know if they don't and I'll get after them!)

This doesn't guarantee anything, but generally, if a beekeeper cares enough to be involved in beekeeping clubs and/or the state organization, then they probably are careful about their bees and honey.

[Use Less]

I've run across raw honey that wasn't removed from the wax properly somehow, and did in fact spoil in the jar. I think that is unusual. It was quite apparent from a very odd off-taste.

[shellymay]

Mari-in-IN,  I believe I understood your question to be Sanitary/cleanliness/harvest issues to look for, GOOD question and although I don't buy honey straight off a farm I do know that there is a extracting thingy done to get honey out of combs and yes I would feel better knowing that the facility is CLEAN and maybe bio secure? I wouldn't want chicken dander in my honey    I would go visit a few places, and tell them you would like to purchase local and a clean facility is very important to you, surely if they have one (clean) they will invite you right in to see it....If not they will come up with some reason why not, I dunno?? 
 

[Mari-in-IN]

Jan 19, 2017 15:29:41 GMT shellymay said:

Mari-in-IN ,  I believe I understood your question to be Sanitary/cleanliness/harvest issues to look for, GOOD question and although I don't buy honey straight off a farm I do know that there is a extracting thingy done to get honey out of combs and yes I would feel better knowing that the facility is CLEAN and maybe bio secure? I wouldn't want chicken dander in my honey    I would go visit a few places, and tell them you would like to purchase local and a clean facility is very important to you, surely if they have one (clean) they will invite you right in to see it....If not they will come up with some reason why not, I dunno?? 
 

Yes, that exactly.  Guess I should have worded my post a bit more to that effect!
Two things that always seem to come to mind is - 
1.  Went to a farm to purchase eggs (before I had chickens).  I got there before she washed them off.  Of course if I had known she was washing them - I wouldn't have been there in the first place!  Those were the FILTHIEST eggs I have EVER seen.  Still turns my stomach thinking about it...  OH, and when DH came home one evening and told me how the homeowner at one of their jobs was walking from the coop to his house with filthy eggs in a bucket of water!
2.  Our friend Daniel will purchase apple cider off just anyone.  I noticed the last time he purchased some it had been put in a container that had already been used.  I think it was water - but still...

[Use Less]

Mari, as to eggs, I prefer farm eggs that haven't been washed, since the fluid that helps the hen ease them out is an added protectant to the contents! I would not want to buy eggs that were dirty or had chicken poop on them, though. That would suggest to me that the eggs aren't gathered regularly enough, or that the henhouse is a plain ol' mess.

[paquebot]

Use Less ,you had honey with too much water in it and it fermented. The bees evaporate excess water off and usually won't cap a cell until it's down to where it will store for a thousand years. The beekeeper probably extracted some frames which weren't fully capped yet.

I eat at least a teaspoon of honey every day with either tea or cocoa. Wife does the same with coffee. A quart lasts us just over a month. Last major purchase was 5 gallons. Got lots of different honeys from my seed offers on HT. When I see a bargain on pure honey, I grab it no matter if we need it or not. Latest was an organic line of dark honey with price of $8.95 per pint. On sale for $4 as closeout. Five left and I bought 4. The dark color was from buckwheat and few people like that taste anymore. I grew up eating buckwheat honey so I know what it should taste like. Will admit that that honey had a different taste since not all blends work out. I had 4 or 5 quarts of local honey which was solid. Liquefied that and blended it with the dark organic line and it's perfect.

When buying local honey, one can find a big variance in what is called wild honey. Stores here carry a line which is from maybe 20 miles from where I grew up with real wild honey and 60 miles west of here. It has the same taste as what we'd find from a tree. Wife is from 30 miles east of here and her grandfather had bees. When I bought the 5 gallons, it was from that area. It's great but nothing at all like I knew. She tasted it and said that it was the same as her grandfather's. Recently bought a jar from an orchard NE of here and it's the same taste as what my wife knew. Difference is from 10,000 years ago. I'm from the driftless area of SW Wisconsin where the wild flora is vastly different than where the glaciers were.

Martin