I harvested my first honey 2 weeks ago. (60 frames of honey they didn't eat over the winter) I bottled it in quart canning jars. Today I noticed all the honey had to the consistancy of butter and turned a light tan color. What did I do wrong?
you mean it is granulated? you did nothing wrong. honey can do that. if it is very finely granulated, be happy. people spend lots of money buying starter to make their honey do that. that's the way it is eaten in much of the world :-)
Sounds like it crystallized. That happens - some types of honey crystallize faster than others.
Some people prefer it, as it is spreadable. If you don't, lightly heating it will reliquefy it.
All the honey we harvest here crystallizes within two months.
if you heat it, don't nuke it. put the jar in a pan of warm water.
Quote from: knob21 on May 30, 2009, 11:51:49 AM
I harvested my first honey 2 weeks ago. (60 frames of honey they didn't eat over the winter) I bottled it in quart canning jars. Today I noticed all the honey had to the consistancy of butter and turned a light tan color. What did I do wrong?
What the other are saying may be correct. How did you harvest it? How did you filter it? Just some information as to what was done to it.
What Kathy said. You didn't do anything to it at all. It happens to most honey sooner or later and as you said its last years honey.
I like it that way as much as when its liquid.
If you ever go to fairs where people sell honey the creamed (granulated) sells for more.
I'd let it granulate and charge extra. :)
Some folks that don't know or are not familiar with honey, think something is wrong with it when it begins to granulate. Sometimes the public has to be educated ;).
Quote from: kathyp on May 30, 2009, 12:04:43 PM
if you heat it, don't nuke it. put the jar in a pan of warm water.
You've got me curious... why not nuke it on the lowest power setting?
Nuke-ing it often gets it too hot before you know it. You know how you nuke a dinner and it is hoy on outside and cold in middle. Do it again and it is scalding on outside and warm in middle.
When it gets too hot you change the flavor and/or change all the good properties of raw honey. Pollen etc. Then basically you will have what they see in the grocer. Liquid Sugar in a jar :evil:!
I just re read you first post. This was you first harvest and you got 60 frames? And that was supposedly what was left after the winter?? That's a lot of honey from what one would suppose to be one colony. That's a lot of honey anyways, I got nearly a pint per frame from the 6" supers.
I must be the one doing something wrong. :D
From your "consistancy of butter" comment I had figured that you had harvested like I did and simply melted the wax comb off and then left the wax stirred into the honey instead of removing it after it floats to the top.
another question. if you were feeding in fall and spring, are you sure that you have honey and not syrup? yup....60 frames if pretty impressive so early...at least i would be here!
I started with three hives. All the reading I did suggested you leave don't touch the honey in the hives your first year. Each hive was filled with honey including 2 medium supers apiece. Only fed each hive 1 gallon of sugar syrup in the fall. Harvested just over 2 weeks ago with a radial extractor and a fine filter then placed in 32oz. jars. i heated 1 granulated jar in boiling water yesterday and it went right back to honey, but is granulating in a two week period unusual. I'd like to sell honey in the future at an unattended roadside stand but this would seem problematic if the honey granulates so fast.
I am guessing its from the fact that it went thru the winter and has been around a while. Just change the label to creamed honey. LOL
Some sources granulate quicker than others. Do you know the source? Did you run it through any filtering ( nylon etc). Some folks don't strain at all. This will sometimes speed up granulation.
Two weeks is a little fast.
If the honey was left from overwintering it may have already began to granulate in the comb. Extracting then speeded up the process.
There are some honeys that will sugar rather rapidly and others will stay clear for a long time. Any foreign particles left in the honey, bee parts, wax bits, pollen, etc, will also hasten the crystalization process.
Creamed or Whipped honey is honey that is spun (think paint mixer drill attachment) several times during its crystalization process. Good whipped honey has the consistancy of butter and is as easy to use as PBJ and Jelly.
Along these lines; if you separate the liquid honey from the granulated - will the liquid honey continue to granulate once they are separated?
Quote from: Bee Happy on June 01, 2009, 11:50:16 PM
Along these lines; if you separate the liquid honey from the granulated - will the liquid honey continue to granulate once they are separated?
All honey will granulate over time, once liquidized it will slowly begin the granulate all over again. Depending on how fast you use honey it may be all used up before it has time to granulate again. I've kept granulated honey on the shelf for years at a time and only liquidized it when I needed to open a new jar. Just place in warm pan of water and it will return to a fluid state, you may have to change the water a few times.
Of course you can always Pasturize it but heating it to a high heat but that also kills the benefits of raw honey and can caramalize it..