View Full Version : Wal-Marts 5 Gallon Plastic Buckets
betrbekepn
10-17-2006, 04:12 PM
Are Wal-Marts 5 gallon plastic buckets safe to put honey in?
iddee
10-17-2006, 04:54 PM
Krispy-Kreme, Dunkin' donuts, ETC. are better. They are free or nearly free.
I would much rather have the ones having been used for food then ones sitting empty on wal-mart shelves for who knows how long.
As far as being food grade. I don't know, but would be surprised if they are.
crazy diamond
10-17-2006, 05:02 PM
I get my buckets from WAL-MART, the bakery, the ones cake icing comes in. Can't beat 'em.
sc-bee
10-17-2006, 07:08 PM
Any large bakery, food store, grocer etc. that has a bakery usually has cake icing buckets. Some snap and have o-rings. Usually free or for a very small fee.
power napper
10-17-2006, 07:16 PM
Even Dairy Queens have them!
BjornBee
10-17-2006, 07:27 PM
I pay 1 dollar a piece for Dunkin donut buckets. They have 60 pound and 40 pound sizes. (also a little 10 pound buckets but they are very few.) I have customers that want the 40 pounders for obvious reasons.
I don't mind the dollar fee. I have an exclusive contract with them. They call when they have an amount worth driving to the store for. And they clean the things real good. No sticky residue to deal with.
Hobie
10-18-2006, 09:39 AM
I can get 1 gallon buckets from the local pizza place (feta cheese containers). Sometimes a small bucket is handy.
kenpkr
10-18-2006, 10:27 AM
I recently acquired a few frosting buckets from the Walmart bakery. Besides honey storage, what can these be used for? I was thinking of altering them so that I might use them for swarm bait boxes. Anyone have ideas or success with this use.
Hobie
10-18-2006, 10:54 AM
I find them handy for carrying tools, tossing comb into during a cut-out, scraping debris into when cleaning off burr comb, and for something to trip over.
wayacoyote
10-18-2006, 06:38 PM
Joe Waggle has had success with using them for swarm traps. I use one to store my smoker fuel and keep it dry and handy. Then there's the crush and strainers. Get a honey gate and use a bucket as a settling/ bottling tank. Lots of uses.
waya
power napper
10-18-2006, 08:23 PM
Today I finished building two of Joes swarm buckets, they look good. We made a strainer out of five gallon buckets and like waya we keep out smoker fuel in five gallon buckets.
Now i am trying to figure out how to make a good bee vac with five gallon buckets.
Hobie
10-19-2006, 03:11 PM
Figure it out quickly, would ya? ;) I'll need a bee vac next spring.
iddee
10-19-2006, 03:42 PM
Spacemoose on this forum has a good vac made from a 5 gal. bucket. I have a great one made like a super. He will probably give you the plans if you ask. I know I will.
gingerbee
10-20-2006, 12:27 PM
Iddee,
As for doing what you say you will, please don't 'pretend what you don't intend.' You had asked me to call, and when I did, you never returned my calls.
Why?
iddee
10-20-2006, 12:33 PM
Because I didn't get your calls.
Please, try again. I don't know where the wires got crossed, but I certainly wasn't aware of it.
Ardilla
10-20-2006, 12:38 PM
Here is a 5-gallon bucket beevac.
http://www.sunshinehoney.com/honey/pages/beevac/beevac.htm
Not exactly plans, but fairly easy to figure out.
odfrank
10-20-2006, 05:28 PM
There are pics of my bucket bee vac in the yahoo Organicbeekeepers group. The vac is mounted on the lid and can be moved from bucket to bucket.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Organicbeekeepers/
Grant
10-20-2006, 06:40 PM
I made one just like Ardilla's, only I used a rechargable vacuum. Few of my swarms are near an outlet. My vac also comes with an attachment that fits my cigarette lighter in the car.
It does not have a lot of power, few bees die, and it needs to be recharged after every use (like over night).
Grant
Jackson, MO