Food grade bucket ?

[Hoot Owl Lane Bees]

A friend can get me all the food grade buckets I want for FREE. The catch is they had pickles in them. Can I rinse them with Clorox so I can use them for HONEY?
Thank You
Jim

[jrbbees]

Nothing get out the pickel smell.
It even stays in glass.

[beesohappy]

I'm with jrbbees.

I had some of those buckets just for water and even 3 years later if they warmed up even a little you could still smell the pickles. I tried putting baking soda in one of the glass pickle jars and even that didn't work and I even flipped it over thinking the smell was in the lid. Usually the people in the bakery department at your nicer grocery stores will let you have their old frosting buckets if you clean them. That's what I use along with a honey gate.

[Birdman]

I know free is better, but are local Menards has them for 3.97each. Best price I have found on them.

[Wisnewbee]

The question about the Menard's bucket is whether it's food grade or not. I'm betting not.

Wisnewbee

[honeyman46408]

I stay away from buckets that have had pickels in them BUT I have friends that use them all the time and after a few seasons of honey the smell is gone but the lids will still smell.

[Huntertn]

I had some pickle buckets in the past too and never could get the smell out of them. For used food grade buckets I get them from a local doughnut place. They have various sizes.

[KPeacock]

lowes sells food grade buckets. I forget what the price is, probably around 5 bucks. I"m not talking about the blue colored buckets. the food grade buckets are white with the blue Lowe's logo on them.

The local walmart saves the frosting buckets and sells them for a dollar each, but i have heard of them being given away for free.

The local walmart competitior varies in their policy based on who is working. They usually just throw them away, so i have been given a few, but one of the workers is convinced that they are not allowed to give them away, so it's hit or miss on whether i get any there or not.

I have never had a good experience with anything that has previously contained pickles.

[taydeko]

I went to the deli in my local grocery store and got frosting buckets for nothing. They were throwing them away.

[Hoot Owl Lane Bees]

Thank You ALL for the comments. I guess I will be passing up on these buckets and checking with some other suppliers.
Jim

[Birdman]

deleted

[Birdman]

The question about the Menard's bucket is whether it's food grade or not. I'm betting not.

Wisnewbee

The Menard bucket's have food safe printed on them.

[hilreal]

I can't believe anyone would actually buy buckets. Any place that decorates cakes has tons of them that they toss out. I can get all I want from WalMArt, Meijer, Kroger, etc. I usually ask them to save them for me and then give the hourly employee a bear of honey and they are tickled!

[thatguy324]

i heard a rumor that if you put clay in the buckets it gets rid of the pickle smell

[throrope]

Our local oriental restaurant happily provided sauce and soy buckets. With a little effort, a small scale keeper can find all they need within a season and they last forever.

[tommyt]

Check the recycling symbol on the bottom of the bucket. The quickest and most reliable way to check for food safety is by consulting the recycling number. This number will be between 1 and 7 and will be stamped inside a triangle of arrows. As a general rule, the numbers that are safe for use with food are 1, 2, 4, and 5.

The best type of plastic for use in long-term food storage is high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which is indicated by the "2" symbol. HDPE is one of the most stable and inert forms of plastic, and all plastic buckets sold specifically for food storage will be made from this material.
Other types of plastic acceptable for food storage include PETE, LDPE, and polypropylene (PP). These plastics are represented by the numbers 1, 4, and 5 respectively.
An exception to this rule is bio-plastics, which are categorized under the catch-all symbol "7." Bio-plastics are plastic-like materials that are synthesized from plant-based sources such as corn. These materials are nonreactive and can be used to store food, but note that not all plastics marked as "7" are bio-plastics.

[Ryan Williamson]

My sister claims that if you wash pickle jars with baking soda it will remove the pickle smell. I am not sure if it would work on plastic but it is worth a try...... I think the baking soda neutralizes the acid residue from the pickles and thus removes the smell.

[Bee Whisperer]

I understand that they make good weights if you fill them with water to hold down your hive in a wind storm. At least . . . I read that somewhere.

[Charlie B]

I understand that they make good weights if you fill them with water to hold down your hive in a wind storm. At least . . . I read that somewhere.