How long is capped honey good for?

bwallace23350 · May 17, 2016, 03:34:16 PM

Lets say the worst happens and my bees die over the winter but they have honey still in the frames capped would it be ok to eat it?

Michael Bush · May 17, 2016, 03:50:44 PM

It has a lot to do with humidity. If the humidity is high it can ferment. If it's moldy, I would rather give it to the bees...

bwallace23350 · May 17, 2016, 03:58:15 PM

OH well I am in South Alabama. It is always humid here.

Michael Bush · May 17, 2016, 04:11:36 PM

You can try it. If it smells good it's probably not fermented. If it is fermented, feed it back to the bees or throw it out.

PhilK · May 17, 2016, 10:24:34 PM

MB my understanding was that capped honey has a moisture content low enough to not ferment and the caps will prevent it from absorbing moisture and fermenting..?

little john · May 18, 2016, 04:39:08 AM

Quote from: PhilK on May 17, 2016, 10:24:34 PM
MB my understanding was that capped honey has a moisture content low enough to not ferment and the caps will prevent it from absorbing moisture and fermenting..?

Of course.

Q. Why do bees store far more honey than they need for the coming winter ?

A. Because if one year the weather is really bad and they can't get out to forage, then they can fall-back on the stores that were collected the previous year. That is certainly the case with the native AMM of Britain and Ireland which are frequently exposed to the unproductive summers which these islands are famous for.

So, capped honey should be good for at least a year, maybe two - but the honey will darken over time as the level of HMF increases as a result of warm storage.

LJ

Michael Bush · May 18, 2016, 10:01:29 AM

>MB my understanding was that capped honey has a moisture content low enough to not ferment and the caps will prevent it from absorbing moisture and fermenting..?

Water can pass through the caps, albeit at a slow rate, but it still does. In "Honey in the Comb" Carl Killion did a lot of research on this using a dehumidifier to reduce the water content in capped comb honey. So if it's out in humid air all winter, it may pick up moisture. Plus in places where humidity is high, the bees sometimes cap honey that is still too high in moisture even when they capped it.

little john · May 18, 2016, 03:21:02 PM

I don't take a honey crop from any of my hives, so they get to keep what they collect. Nearly every hive in my home apiary currently has 2 or 3 frames of honey from last year. Some have honey from the year before, and it's perfectly ok. Humidity doesn't get much higher than around these parts - which is a fenland area, 6 inches above sea-level with actively pumped land drainage, winter water-table typically around 18 inches. Humidity for much of today was >94% due to more-or-less continuous light rain.

LJ