storing Quarts of honey

[Carol]

Is honey best stored in a very warm place or at room temperature?

[iddee]

Room temp.

[BeeMaster2]

Iddee,
I thought is stores better in the 90s. Less chance of it crystalizing. If it is at or below 18% in a sealed jar, what happens to it at these temperatures?
Jim

[iddee]

You may be right, but it will still crystallize. Room temp is free and if it crystallizes, it is just as easy to liquify as if it was kept warm with costly heat and crystallized.

[Jim134]

Room temperature is about 68 degrees to 72 degrees.This is not free in New England in January. :shock:


                  BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)   

[BeeMaster2]

You may be right, but it will still crystallize. Room temp is free and if it crystallizes, it is just as easy to liquify as if it was kept warm with costly heat and crystallized.

I have been keeping it in my garage where it stays in the 90 during the summer and storing it up high in a top cabinet, over a stove where it is hotter, when in the house. At the same time, I have had honey stored on the floor in the house and the honey on top did not crystallize but the honey on the floor did.
During the winter, I have had the summer honey that was in the garage crystallize when the honey in the house doesn't. I have yet to have my spring honey crystallize even when it is in the garage all winter. It is gallberry, palmetto and black gum honey.
Jim

[Wolfer]

My old house had the cabinets with no soffit. I kept some honey on top. I never had honey cristalize up high but if left long enough on the kitchen counter it would.

Personally I feel it needs to be above 70 or below 40

[Diogenes]

I still have a 2-quart jar in my basement from 1980. It was a red honey that I didn't know until recently was from Japanese knot-weed. I was amazed by the harvest of red honey that year and saved it. Jar has 1/4 inch of crystals on the bottom. I'm not in any hurry to use it.

8-)

[Joe D]

This year most of my spring honey has 1/2 to 3/4"of crystals already.  It was stored in a metal building, it is hot there, like everywhere down here.  I have another building with a unpainted metal roof I have set the jars with crystals on that roof for a few hours and they are not crystalized anymore.  Never had any to crystalize that quick before.

I don't have a lot of hives, so not a lot of honey to sell or try to keep from crystalizing.  As of today I have 13 pints left and I can eat that much.  That is the best place to store it anyway, in your tummy.  HA

Joe

[CBT]

An old freezer or fridge un plugged with a small light bulb turned on inside keeps your bulk or cases just right.

[Vance G]

Store cool and decrystalize when you need the honey or want to sell it.  I put quarts sugared solid in the bottom rack of the dish washer a couple cycles and they are reliquified.  I also have a warming box/old upright freezer with a 100 watt light bulb and a powerstrip from the pet shop that I run at 104 which religuifies the contents in about three days with no harm to the honey.

[10framer]

Store cool and decrystalize when you need the honey or want to sell it.  I put quarts sugared solid in the bottom rack of the dish washer a couple cycles and they are reliquified.  I also have a warming box/old upright freezer with a 100 watt light bulb and a powerstrip from the pet shop that I run at 104 which religuifies the contents in about three days with no harm to the honey.

the pet strip is a good idea.

[markles]

We don't get the freezing weather that some places do but we do get temps below freezing. I liquify my hardened honey by putting the bottles on the dashboard of my car in the sun for a couple of hours- works like a charm. Most of us have got solar wax melters, I wonder what temps can be got in cold weather.

[BeeMaster2]

We don't get the freezing weather that some places do but we do get temps below freezing. I liquefy my hardened honey by putting the bottles on the dashboard of my car in the sun for a couple of hours- works like a charm. Most of us have got solar wax melters, I wonder what temps can be got in cold weather.

If it is still melting wax it is way too high. You really do not want to go much above 104 degrees. Wax melts at 150-165, depending where you ask. This will kill all of the antibiotic bacteria in your honey.
Jim