# Five Gallon Buckets



## johnnybigfish (Nov 12, 2007)

Hey SS91!
I saw some 5 gal pails in walmart down here. I also saw them in Home depot( or lowes)..I cant remember what I was gonna use them for but after adding the cost of the lids, I backed off.
your friend,
john


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## SweetBettyBees (Jun 19, 2006)

ss91,
these can be gotten for free at many grocery store bakeries - they've been used to ship icing and so will have the scent - but I hear the plastic does not relinquish the smell to honey. Delis will also have these buckets - dill pickles come in them - I hear that smell doesn't impart, either, but I don't know if I trust that one... Most of the bee supply places sell them for about 5.00 a piece w/ lids, and sometime you can get them at hardware stores. And, BTW, if you do get the ones from the grocery store or deli, the labels come off easily with a hairdryer.
May you need many buckets!


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## Swobee (May 18, 2007)

Whatever you do, avoid black buckets. Generally speaking, the black plastic containers do not have FDA approval. They'd be better used filled with water as passive solar heat storage 'batteries' in your greenhouse.


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## Zane (Mar 28, 2008)

*Buckets*

I've gotten many many buckets w/ good lids in various sizes @ 1 Walmart store in the city for free. Some charge a little. My grocer doesn't use enough icing in a year to gather much from him!
You could try homebrew and winemaking places. Lowes and home depot sell buckets also.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Get white buckets with white lids. My beestore here won't take any honey from buckets and lids that are not white. The pickle buckets work great and do not impart the pickle smell to the honey. They will still smell like pickles even after storing honey in them the first time! My donut shop has buckets for a buck, but they only 3 gallons which is great as honey weighs 12lbs per gallon. Try restaraunts and quick food places for the five gallons.


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## Laurence Hope (Aug 24, 2005)

ss91, I don't know how far you are from a city, but you may want to try a good pet/aquarium store who caters to reef keepers. The store uses buckets of sea salt mix to make, for store use and sale, sea water. If you can find one that uses buckets of Instant Ocean brand, they are wonderful. The top screws on to the bucket. This is all I use for my buckets.
Laurence


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

Before you plunk down $5.00 for a bucket at Lowes, note that there is no gasket in the lid and they are really flimsy. Better buckets can be had from the doughnut shops for next to nothing.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

ss91 said:


> Do they make special food grade buckets?


Yes! Make sure wherever you get a bucket that it's food grade.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

ss91 said:


> I am planning on extracting into five gallon buckets this year. Where is the best place to get these? Do they make special food grade buckets?


The same place you buy your jars and extracting equipment. Dadants or whomever.

You should be able to find a company in your area that sells used buckets. You may have to do some research and you may have to drive a ways. But they are out there. The guy that I buy buckets from sells new ones for $2.00 each. Yes, they are food grade.


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## BGhoney (Sep 26, 2007)

The big dairys around here have them for sale, for a buck apiece with lid. Well its a dairy store , milk
cheese that kinda stuff, Bakeries are great also.


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## Beeboy01 (May 20, 2008)

As long as the buckets are made out of white HDPE and are marked with a number 2 in the recycle triangle they are safe to use. I ordered some 1 gallon pails from Mann Lake and realized that they were the exact same as the ones being sold by Lowes in the paint department. Even the 6 gallon pails I use to brew mead in are the same as the buckets that the chlorine tabs for my pool come in. I wouldn't use any pail that chemicials have been stored in for honey or brewing but both pails were made by the same factory, go figure. I haven't tried bakeries or doughnut stores yet, just keep reusing the 3 or four pails I already have then bottle the honey into smaller containers. I don't know about using pickle buckets, I've heard of mead makers who have tried them and ended up with pickle flavored mead. It's not worth it to me to try to save a few dollars and ruin some honey.


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## Zane (Mar 28, 2008)

Not tryingto repeat myself but I just picked up 25 1-5 gallon buckets(3 different sizes) w/ nice o ring type lids for free @ Walmart Bakery. They carry frosting in them so they are food grade white plastic buckets. I plan on making feeders w/ the smaller ones and I can store honey in the big ones. I also have a 5 gallon batch of hard apple cider brewing in one of the buckets I got a few weeks ago. They have a million different uses around the house. I carry my picked strawberries and other garden fare on a couple. It works for a good compost scrap bucket in the kitchen since the lid seals up tight. Its a useful way for me to recycle too.


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## Beeboy01 (May 20, 2008)

That's quite a haul for buckets, I'll try Wal-Mart and the local grocery stores next time I need some more bulk containers or even buckets for fishing. I've been out raiding the curbside recycle bins in the upper class neighborhoods for wine bottles to bottle mead in. Don't know how legal it is but in two weeks I've picked up over 45 useable wine bottles. Hey if they are free they are for me


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## Zane (Mar 28, 2008)

Beeboy, good idea, never thought of that one! I picked up a few empty cases @ a blues festival the other weekend. Just asked the guy running the table and he saved me the bottles. I have alot of bottles for mead now just waiting to get me some honey!!! I thought I had some from a local guy but it didnt pan out so I may have to wait until my own honey next year!
Regarding the Walmart buckets, I've tried a few different stores and can only rely on one so you may have to shop around. I go in around 10-11pm when things are real slow and the worker is bored. I talk bees and she is awestruck w/ the idea. Works good so far!!!
Good Luck


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## Romahawk (Jul 11, 2005)

A good source of bottles for your mead is the maintenance man at your local Catholic church. Depending on the size of the congregation they end up with a bunch of empty alter wine bottles each week that just go into the trash as recyclables. I have gotten the maintenance man to save me lots of cases for an occasional bottle of mead.


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## tedstruk (Jul 18, 2008)

*Any good potable water container will do.*

Any potable water container is FDA approved for use in all food service applications. don't know about black ones...but I heard something about them not being sterile.


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## Swobee (May 18, 2007)

Beeboy, a little dumpster diving never hurt anyone! It's still recycling, just a little different kind!


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

Our local Wal-Mart throws away the buckets ASAP, and they refuse to wash them out. If I can get there in time, I can usually only get one or two buckets as they await some other employee to carry them to the dumpster. Since they are not washed out, they are free, and often do not have lids.

And the ladies in the bakery don't take kindly to someone getting something for nothing.

I struck a deal with a small deli owner who holds the buckets for me, and some of them are old pickle buckets which I don't use for honey I gave her a dozen 16-ounce squeeze bottles of honey for the employees and now I'm known as "the honey guy." These buckets are free as she said she would normally just throw them out.

Other grocery stores that have bakeries are my next best source, sometimes having to pay 50 cents to a buck each, but they are washed and they'll hold them for me.

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## ss91 (Jul 12, 2006)

Thanks for all the info. The local honey packer I found put sales 55 gallon drums for $10 so I went that route.


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