I used to make mead when I used to keep bees. The wax cappings from the frames produce the best quality wax, but they have to be washed first, and the resultant honey-sweetened water was used for mead. The quality of the honey was top notch, but I was effectively using a 'free' by product that otherwise had little value as to if this wasn't washed off the cappings it would have been heated in the wax-extraction process (or even fed back to the bees) and have had a negligable resale value. As you'll boil the honey in the wort ro kill off any wild yeasts this wouldn't have mattered either. So if you know of any beekeepers see if they're prepared to sell you honey that is heated during the wax extraction process as it should cost you much less than the stuff that they bottle for the public. I've no idea as to costs, but twice the price of the equivalent amount of sugar would seem a reasonable place to start haggling. Maybe soem of the beekeepers on this site will comment.
With regards to mead - I made both spiced and unspiced - got excellent results with sherry strains of yeast to about 14 percent alcohol - very dry 'fino' type wine with aromatic topnotes, although a little 'thin' in the mouth when young, and took about three years to mature.
Of course I had visions of quaffing flagons of foaming mead, eating off trenchers, and throwing spent carcases over my shoulder for the packs of hunting dogs to eat, all whilst the warrior daughters of Wotan attended to my every whim!'
So I also brewed a mead 'beer' - short fermentation/top fermenting yeast and drunk 6 weeks after bottling. Can't remember what I added for nutrients (probably malt extract), but there were certainly no bittering agents. Was quite strong - about 7percent and not a great success (but got drunk nevertheless).
Final experimental batch was a pale malt/crystal malt/honey blend bittered with hyssop & wormwood, again top-fermented, and again because of the honey it brewed fairly/deceptively strong and 'dry'. Brewed conventionally - ie wort boiled until the protein break (so again honey heated and not used 'pure'). The crystal malt gave 'body' which would otherwise have been lacking for its strength, and the hyssop/wormwood bittering was interesting (but not unpleasant). Worth a go, but I'd only brew experimental 2gal batches rather than a more normal 5-8gal.
Oh, and I'm still waiting for the Rhine maidens!
SS