Today I harvested three frames of honey from a box that had all capped honey frames and has had for several weeks. I needed to harvest these frames for a teaching movie my bee club is making on harvesting honey and I was demonstrating crush and strain.
I bottled the honey and thought it seemed really thin. I got out my refractometer and it read 20.2. That certainly isn't 18.6. Yet all the cells - every single one of them on all three frames--were fully capped.
So why would the bees cap honey that wasn't thick enough yet? I assume this will ferment or mold because it isn't 18.6.
Is there anything I should do? Should I not harvest the rest of the box?
Linda T in Atlanta, worried about the honey
We noticed that the honey they capped earlier in the year was a lot thinner too...but have no refractometer. What's up with this?
Don't bottle the honey that you have crushed yet. Leave it out to dry some more. I put a bucket in my attic for a couple of days one year to thicken up.
I heard an old time bee keeper say that it could be "cured" by placing the honey in an open container with a small fan blowing over the surface.
Steve
There are ways to evaporate some of the excess moisture. Fanning in a low humidity environment.
De-humidifier.
This thin honey normally runs hand in hand with a wet season. My Mentor just quit extracting all together and was running his De-humidifier 24/7
Just evaporate the extra moisture some way to an 18 +/-.
If you don't make mead. Or cannot trade it off to some one who does.
I have 4 gallons of sour honey and don't make mead.
Best I can help. :)doak
Well, I've set it on top of the dehumidifier, running. Would it help to put the covered bucket outside in the sun tomorrow or would that heat it too much?
I wonder why the bees cap honey that isn't ready - I never take frames that aren't 100% capped - so this makes no sense to me, although the weather as per doak may be the answer. We have had some rainy stretches.
And does this mean that the other 7 frames in this super are probably also filled with less than quality honey?
Linda T in Atlanta, distressed over my lack of honey this year
We got very little Tulip poplar flow this year. All my honey is very clear and thinner. It was all capped, though. I had my hives at a location that has 1000+ acres covered in blackberries. I attributed the clear, thinner honey to the abundance of blackberries and the lack of tulip poplar.
Hmmmm...now you guys have me wondering if I need to uncap all the jars and run a fan over them for a day to two!!
The thing is that honey that is more than 19% moisture is bound to ferment. I'm not a mead maker, but maybe this would be great for mead.
I opened all the bottles I had filled and poured it back into the bucket to put it on the dehumidifier. I'm so very sad about this - I am getting absolutely NO honey this year, if the rest of the frames in my one harvestable box will also be thin honey, as I suspect will be the case.
This harvest measured about 20.1 or 20.2 moisture content.
LT